DURING the summer, I frequently go online to find out what has happened to the ospreys at Loch Garten or goshawks at an undisclosed nesting site. Then there are always the peregrines somewhere or even sea eagles.
At this time of year my favourite blog, if that is the right word, is the daily update from people on the island of North Rona.
Islands have always appealed to me ever since I was responsible for the management of the various National Nature Reserve islands off the west and north coast. North Rona is my favourite, not forgetting the nearby gannetry on Sula Sgeir, and then there are the Monach Isles and another favourite, St Kilda.
The Monach Isles and North Rona support huge rookeries of grey seals and I have been fortunate in being on both of them during the "invasion" of the grey seals in the autumn. Regular readers may recall that this fascination of mine for the islands has led to the names of many of our miniature dachshunds over the years such as Kilda, Monach, Corran, Sula, Rona, Soay and Sgeir.
The people on North Rona are from the Sea Mammal Research Units based at the University of St Andrews and they send out a daily diary of their activities and studies on the grey seals and they make very interesting reading. The daily lives of the seals are logged and individuals recognised by their markings with the aid of photography.
There are ups and downs such as seeing a great black backed gull pecking out the eye of a seal pup which, interestingly, managed to survive. On the up side is the sheer thrill of seeing pups born and the attentive cows looking after them, at least some of the time. The weather plays an important part, particularly in ordinary activities that we take for granted.
One of the mysteries is why this colony, unlike most of the others in the UK, is in serious decline. Attacks by larger gulls are, as one diary entry says, possibly one cause.
I like the details in the diaries such as on September 28 when 30 cows were there with more arriving every day. One can only wonder where these seals have spent the rest of the year as the vast majority are not on the island during the summer or for that matter the winter. Could the seals we see around the firths near Inverness possibly have gone that far to pup and mate?
One of the features of the grey seal colony on North Rona is just how far up the slopes the cows will heave themselves. The main pupping area is on the jutting out bit called the Fianuis peninsular, made famous by Fraser Darling's writings when he stayed on the island.
The lumbering out onto the peninsular is one thing but to go up the steep slope at one end is just amazing. There is a photo in one of the diaries of a cow right the way up and, as the observer says, it is the furthest up the slope he has ever seen a cow and its pup.
When I used to visit the island in the 1980s the Sea Mammal Research Unit was active on the island and, although it did stop for a few years, it was re-instated in 1993 and has run continuously ever since. One worrying note in the diary is that there are rumours that this might be the last year of their activities because of sheer cost. This would be a great loss especially as this colony is declining and we do not know why. If the unit could find out, it might throw more light on the future of the other colonies.
l The highlight of the week for me was a press release from the RSPB that was entitled "Rare duck has a good year in the Flows".
It was referring to one of the Highlands most elusive and rare breeding ducks, the common scoter. The release records that this year on the RSPB's Forsinard Reserve in the north and on adjoining estates there were 21 ducklings that had reached near adult size, so it was hoped they would fledge successfully. Considering that there are only 52 breeding females in the whole of Britain, with half of them in the Flow Country, this is good news.
Outside the Flow Country the news is not so good, with very few ducklings reported. I have only seen one common scoter with ducklings and that was many years ago on a long loch on the west of Inverness. That particular loch has always been reputed to support these breeding birds but there have been no reports in recent years.
Pondering this I thought of the usual predators such as fox, mink, even otter, but there is another I had not bargained for. Looking up the ever reliable Bruce Sandison's book Rivers and Lochs of Scotland, I noted the fish present. Whilst there are brown trout and huge ferox trout, there are also pike and perch. The pike will take ducklings and so this might be one of the many reasons for their decline.
I am off to Burghead this weekend to look at scoters. The sea there is a winter refuge for scoters including not only the common but also the velvet and one I have never seen before, the surf scoter. An added bonus will be a male eider duck, so watch this space.
