Isle of May seabird chick numbers up – But total populations decline

The cliffs of the Isle of May. Credit SNH

The island is renowned for its bird populations, its seals, its history and its carpets of flowers. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) encourages visitors from Easter to the end of September.

Shags and fulmars up - Guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes down
During the breeding season the chick survival rates of many of the seabirds nesting on the May increased and there were many more fish available for them to eat. Visitors this year were getting more of a traditional view of puffins with their beaks full of good sized fish. The total populations of each species, apart from shags and fulmars were, however, down, in common with seabird populations all along the east and west coasts. On the May the overall populations of shags were up 22% and fulmars were up 9%. Guillemots were down 6%, razorbills down 7% and kittiwakes down 31%.

Chick survival rates up
"The numbers of chicks surviving on the island, according to figures provided by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, during the last season are encouraging but the decrease in overall bird populations are a reminder that climate change is with us and is affecting some of our best loved birds on our doorstep.

Research
The Isle of May is also a hub for important international work on seabirds and mammals. The island saw bird researchers, sea mammal researchers and PhD students, including one student working on a project about tidal energy. The study was being done to assess the viability of the west coast of the Isle of May as a potential site for a tidal energy turbine.

Isle of May

Whilst tidal turbines are still being developed, tidal energy has a number of advantages over wind and solar energy, including predictability of tidal sources. Due to the important bird populations that visit the Isle of May the potential impacts of a tidal turbine may be significantly lower than for wind turbines.

Over the summer, the foraging behaviours of seabirds in the waters off the west coast of the Isle of May were recorded from a bird hide on the western cliffs whilst a scientific mooring measured the movements of the water currents in 3-dimensions.

Thousands of grey seals
The May now sees a lack of visitors until Easter and this enables the thousands of grey seals, the fourth largest breeding group in the UK, which make the island their home to raise pups before the boat service starts again.

SNH owns and looks after the Isle of May as a national nature reserve and it is also a European Special Area of Conservation for its seals and rocky reefs. The over 200,000 seabirds have made the island a European Special Protection Area for these birds.