The first trip of the year to Troup Head today. Despite the (very!) blustery wind it was good to see that numbers of fulmar and gannet have already arrived back on the clliffs. While they won't start nesting for a while and the ledges are nowhere near as full as they will be in a few months time, it's nice to see the colony starting to build up. Hopefully we'll start to see the first guillemots heading back to their nesting ledges in a few weeks time, with the puffins starting to arrive at the end of April.
With the season not far from starting, we're looking for a couple of new volunteers to help spread the word about Troup Head. As you may know, we have a live camera link from the gannet cliffs to a screen at the Macduff Marine Aquarium and we need volunteers to help man the camera feed, talk to their visitors about where Troup is and how to get there and give them a bit of information about the gannets and other seabirds. You don't need to be a seabird expert at all, we can teach you any thiing you need to know and you'll have lots of information available as well as help from staff. You just need to be enthusiastic and happy to talk to lots of different people.
If you'd be interested in helping us out, ideally for a day a week through the summer holidays but as often as you would like to between April and August then give us a ring at Loch of Strathbeg 01346 532017, email strathbeg@rspb.org.uk or drop in to Loch of Strathbeg, or the Aquarium in person and we'll show you around.
If you'd like to help us look after Troup Head but volunteering is a bit much then please sign our RSPB Marine Pledge which will help us campaign to pretect Troup Head and all our seabird reserves around Scotland- all the details can be found here- RSPB Marine Pledge