Fowlsheugh

Blog post: Thursday evening 16th May

Mark — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:39:00 GMT

A beautiful evening, with sunshine and no wind! Only two participants - come on out there you know you want to see Puffins, and we did - at least 6 on the cliffs. Lots of eggs in evidence as well - Guillemots covering up, but unfortunately a couple of predated eggs on the cliff top, and we watched a Herring Gull take and eat another egg

Mark

Blog post: First Puffin Walk of 2013 9th May

Mark — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:47:00 GMT

Despite the cold, 5 people came on my first Puffin walk of the season - two French Tourists plus an American exchange teacher and her two friends / supporters. All wanted to see Puffins above everything else. Despite the gloomy thoughts following the major wreck of Puffins in the past month, we had brilliant views of up to 20 birds doing things that neither I nor Vicky have seen before - including pulling up beakfuls of grass to line their nest burrows. Pairs were "billing", lots of action on the cliffs. Get down here and enjoy

Mark

Forum post: Re: Fowlesheugh trip last Saturday

WendyBartter — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:27:00 GMT

Just been reading up about Robin's Hood Bay EB - looks an interesting place - love little Auk pic!

Blog post: Open For Business & Pick Out A Puffin!

DianaS — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:54:00 GMT

I had my first trip of the year down to Fowlsheugh on Thursday, despite the absolutely howling wind it was nice to get back on the cliffs again and see the first of the seabirds heading back in to their nest sites.

We were down for the day with the RSPB Aberdeenshire Local Group, who were helping us get the reserve ready for the season, painting benches and signs, repairing the gateway at the reserve entrance and cutting the gorse back along the footpath. We also got a chance to meet up with the regular volunteers who will be helping with guided walks and generally being on site suring the season to chat to visitors about seabirds. If you want to come on a guided Pick Out A Puffin Walk this year, check the main Fowlsheugh page for the times and dates.

I also got my first look at the new bridge which has caused the wardens so many headaches over the winter. Looking at the space where the old bridge was and how much of the bank had been washed away it was pretty easy to see why this wasn't as easy a job as it had first looked. The new bridge is now safe to cross, the handrail and final touches should be done soon. As you can see from the photo, the boardwalk across the muddy section of the stream bank needs to be moved to line up with the new bridge so it's worth wearing a decent pair of boots if you're walking the reserve at the moment.

Bird-wise we did manage to catch sight of the odd Puffin, although we'll have to wait and see if the deaths at sea this winter have badly affected the breeding birds. The cliffs are definitely filling up with Kittiwake, Razorbill and Guillemot and several very handsome pairs of Fulmar on the cliff tops and Vicky saw around 10 Bottle-nose Dolphin passing south of the reserve at the end of last week.

Forum post: Reserve Open As Normal

DianaS — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:49:00 GMT

The new footbridge is now in place and the reserve is open as normal.

The new footbridge is slightly downstream from the old crossing so there is currently no boardwalk from the stream edge to the steps and that section of the path can be quite muddy, even in dry weather. .

Blog post: Reserve Open As Normal

DianaS — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:46:00 GMT

After a few days of very hard work, the bridge repairs at Fowlsheugh have been completed and the reserve is now open as normal.

The wardens have been putting in a lot of hard work, hampered by the weather, the ground conditions and the lack of power at the site to recharge drill batteries etc., It's taken slightly longer than we first thought so thanks for bearing with us while we made the stream crossing safe again. We'll hopefully post a full blog with some pictures of the repair work and the latest seabird news in the next few days.

Forum post: Re: Reserve Closed Until Further Notice - Bridge repair underway

DianaS — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:04:00 GMT

Hi Lyle,

I'm afraid Fowlsheugh is still closed. Laying the foundations for the new bridge has been more complicated than we expected and the recent terrible weather and high wind has meant we've just not been able to work out on the cliffs. We will post on the main site and on the blog as soon as the reserve is open.

There may be the occasional Puffin checking out the cliffs but the ain numbers won't arrive until the end of April, we'll start running Pick Out A Puffin walks and boat trips from early May

Forum post:

Ed Grace — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:48:00 GMT

Blog post: Reserve Closed Until Further Notice

DianaS — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:46:00 GMT

After the recent storms and high winds there has been quite a significant amount of damage to the steps and one of the footbridges at Fowlsheugh. We're decided to close the reserve until we can repair the damage and make the path safe for visitors again.

Replacing the footbridge will be quite a major job so the reserve may be closed for a few weeks. It will be open again well in advance of the seabird season so no one will miss out on seeing the reserve at its best. If you were planning on visiting in the next few weeks then please check the website for the latest news and pay attention to any signs on the reserve warning of the closure.

Path at Fowlsheugh before the storms.

Blog post: WINTER IS COMING (also some waxwings)

andrewp — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:17:00 GMT

Nice to get out and about in autumn. Bit of a magical mystery tour for us workers yesterday, which involved my being dropped off at Fowlsheugh to do some maintenance work to prepare for winter.

Yup, like in that famous TV series, WINTER IS COMING. So I wrapped up tight and prepared to face the direwolves. I mean elements.

I had heard that Fowlsheugh is a pretty impressive piece of coastline. But I hail from North Devon, which is basically one long cliff with a few towns tacked on the side, so it was going to take something special to impress me. The place was, in a word, idyllic. And winter nowhere in sight. It was one of those days that should have turned up some time in August, and I found myself shedding the layers, working outside, with no one else around but a few meadow pipits and a slightly lost looking fieldfare.

It was my first trip to the reserve, and slightly selfishly I was rather pleased to have the place to myself. It’s a bit odd going to a seabird colony when there aren’t any nesting seabirds around. Like going to a theatre when there isn’t a play on. Fowlsheugh is more than just a seabird colony though, and is worth a trip any time of year. There was a smattering of feral pigeons pretending to be rock doves, but the main birdy fun was to be had out at sea, with a few common scoter and good numbers of auks bobbing around on the sea. Most exciting of the auks, and a little bit surprising, was a small raft of eight puffins. They were close enough in to see their distinctive wintry bills through a very powerful telescope. Par for the course at this time of year, and it’s always a good day when there are puffins about.

It was so idyllic in fact, and I was working "so hard”, that I forgot to take any pictures. Oops.

The mystery tour stopped in at a few places around the coast, but our final stop was a quick one at Aberdeen cemetery (the one by the Dee) to check for waxwings (which are just another sign that WINTER IS COMING). I know there’s a lot of waxwing love going on at the minute, with flocks of up to 400 roaming around the country, but we’ve been a bit out of luck with them up here at Strathbeg. And it’s definitely not for want of trying. So you can forgive me for feeling a bit pessimistic about our chances of actually catching up with what I’ve been calling 'the fuzzy pink balls of disappointment'.

Half an hour in and the light was beginning to go and I was beginning to tire of the redwings. And then we just sort of stumbled into them. Easy as that. Vicky says it was skill but I don’t believe her. Here’s a picture I took of one of them to make up for the lack of nice cliff-edge landscape photos.

Forum post: great place for visit

Catherine Webster — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:23:00 GMT

Photo: Kittiwake adult and chick

emarl — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:56:00 GMT

Blog post: My last walk of the season

Mark — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:49:00 GMT

Despite the weather the walk went ahead with an American couple who had planned specifically to visit after reading about the cliffs in Lonely Planet! They had arrived from the States in the afternoon and driven up from Edinburgh.

They were not disappointed, The clouds lifted and although it was not sunny the residual mist made for a great spectacle. Lots of Gannets were passing north, lots of auks were on the sea, and a few guillemot and Razorbill chicks were still on the cliffs. One thing I noted was that an several of the ledges the guillemots were facing outwards - so instead of seeing brown backs the birds were showing their white fronts - seems as though these have no eggs or chicks and are ready to leave.

A "record" number of puffins were seen - at least 15 and probably more were out and about. All in all after an terrible wet day the evening went well and the visitors were blown away by the spectacle.

Mark

Blog post: a quiet Sunday afternoon

Mark — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:38:00 GMT

Although 12 people had booked for Sunday 24th's afternoon guided walk at Fowlsheugh, only two actually turned up. BUT the rain had stopped, the sun came out and the "private tour" had good views of Puffins in and around their burrows by the cave. Guillemot, Razorbill and Kittewake chicks were in evidence, with fish being brought in. Although the feeling is that the season has not been very good and that a lot of the guillemots have been "sitting around doing nothing" some at least have got on with it!

My last walk is on Thursday evening, as I will be away in July

Maybe see some of you next year!

Mark

Photo: Razorbill

and2423 — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:58:00 GMT

RSPB Fowlsheugh

Photo: Razorbill

and2423 — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:56:00 GMT

RSPB Fowlsheugh

Blog post: Full colony counting at Fowlsheugh

Emma Cuthbertson — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:09:00 GMT

Todays blog post from residential volunteer Ben Crossman

The busy sea bird season is now fully under way with thousands of Guillemots, razorbills, Kittiwakes and fulmar hugging the cliffs. So with the sun shining we made the most of the late May weather in order to carry out a full colony count at Fowlsheugh.

Counting an entire colony of sea birds was not as daunting as I first thought. The trick is to divide the cliff in to as many small sections as possible and if in doubt recount that section until you get similar numbers as the previous count. With lots of people on hand to help, the counting did not take long and we were soon progressing along the cliff top. Unfortunately the winds picked up on the first day, and by early afternoon the count had to be abandoned, as it became too difficult to count accurately. Despite this, we were ahead of schedule, but still had the most difficult sections of cliff to count. On the second day, the main aim was to tackle the central section of the reserve, with a large unbroken section of cliff needing counting from a single viewpoint. Luckily there were plenty of cracks and fissures to break up the cliff face, making it possible to count small sections of cliff without loosing your place. Hence to say it was a long day, but by the end of it we had counted everything we could from the cliff top.

After two days of counting, we then had to count all the birds we could not see from the cliffs, by boat. So we set out from Stonehaven in the MV Lady Gale, castle charter boat, taking 15 minutes to reach the cliffs. The seas were calm and conditions were perfect for counting, with light winds and bright but overcast skies. Despite the calm conditions I was a little apprehensive, as this was the first time I had been out to sea on such as small boat and much of the talk before the trip had been on seasickness. I need not have worried, as despite a moderate swell near to the cliffs, I did not feel the least bit seasick. Rafts of Guillemots and Puffins greeted us as we made our way to the reserve, and the counting of birds on the cliff soon got underway. We were close enough to the cliff that it was easy to pick out individual birds however trying to keep binoculars steady on a rolling boat was a little more difficult. Thankfully, we did not have a very large section of cliff to count and it only took us an hour and a half to count everything. Then it was back to Molly’s for a well-deserved smoothie and a piece of cake.

Some of the many guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes that were counted last week!

Overall, we counted 44,700 Guillemots, 9439 Kittiwakes, 5195 razorbills, 160 Fulmar and 259 Herring gulls. Which compares’ to 50,556 Guillemots, 9454 Kittiwakes, 4632 Razorbills, 193 Fulmar and 214 Herring gulls were counted during the 2009 full colony count. We are currently double-checking some of the cliff sections which have big differences in bird numbers between 2009 and 2012 but it looks like we were accurate the first time round. So it looks like Razorbills are doing well, Kittiwakes are stable and everything else is declining, with a slightly worrying drop in Guillemot numbers.

Blog post: "Puffins in the Mist"

Mark — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:50:00 GMT

Flaming June!! thick, thick fog put off 3 of the participants to Thursday's walk, but three intrepid tourists elected to come along for a shortened visit to Fowlsheugh. The fog made seeing the birds difficult, but we even managed to see a couple of Puffins, "looming" out of the mist. The eerie scene was accented by the smells and sounds, and Fulmars riding the stiff sea breeze. But when will thye bad weather end?

I am off on holiday for a week, so Vicky is taking over on Sunday. Enjoy!

Mark

Photo: flying guillemot

Mark — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:58:00 GMT

Photo: Razorbill flight

Mark — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:48:00 GMT