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Orkney's Birds

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Orkney's Birds the crucial winter months. winter crucial the taller vegetation throughout the day. Both of these of Both day. the throughout vegetation taller essential source of both food and shelter over shelter and food both of source essential owls are commonly seen hunting over areas of areas over hunting seen commonly are owls habitat for many species and can provide an provide can and species many for habitat and small birds throughout the year. Short-eared year. the throughout birds small and over the last fifty years but it is still an important an still is it but years fifty last the over the rough grassland margins hunting for voles for hunting margins grassland rough the the country, has undergone dramatic changes dramatic undergone has country, the sky dance display in the early spring and quartering and spring early the in display dance sky The farmland of Orkney, along with the rest of rest the with along Orkney, of farmland The areas and can be seen performing its spectacular its performing seen be can and areas magnificent bird breeds on the remote moorland remote the on breeds bird magnificent of duck including pintail and gadwall. and pintail including duck of of Orkney’s raptors is the hen harrier. This harrier. hen the is raptors Orkney’s of moorland; along with a remarkable twelve species twelve remarkable a with along moorland; curlew redshank The most conspicuous and arguably most beautiful most arguably and conspicuous most The of waders breed in the wetlands and on the on and wetlands the in breed waders of diversity of waders and wildfowl. Eleven species Eleven wildfowl. and waders of diversity black-tailed godwit. black-tailed feeding habitat for a remarkable number and number remarkable a for habitat feeding ringed plover, common sandpiper and the rare the and sandpiper common plover, ringed Orkney’s wetland areas provide nesting and nesting provide areas wetland Orkney’s occasionally garganey. occasionally oystercatcher, snipe, lapwing, dunlin, whimbrel, dunlin, lapwing, snipe, oystercatcher, densities than anywhere else in Britain. in else anywhere than densities eider, shelduck, pochard, tufted duck and very and duck tufted pochard, shelduck, eider, spring. Other wader species include redshank, include species wader Other spring. owl this species breeding here in higher higher in here breeding species this the ubiquitous mallard, teal, wigeon, shoveler, wigeon, teal, mallard, ubiquitous the short-eared and activity of the morning wader displays in the in displays wader morning the of activity and on an early spring Orcadian morning, Orcadian spring early an on red-breasted merganser. Other species include species Other merganser. red-breasted Shapinsay. Few spectacles compare to the noise the to compare spectacles Few Shapinsay. display call of the curlew can be heard be can curlew the of call display unusual are pintail, gadwall and the eye-catching the and gadwall pintail, are unusual West Mainland and Mill Dam RSPB Reserve, RSPB Dam Mill and Mainland West and short-eared owl. The evocative evocative The owl. short-eared and of duck breed in Orkney. Some of the more the of Some Orkney. in breed duck of places to see these are at The Loons RSPB Reserve, RSPB Loons The at are these see to places of prey such as the hen harrier, merlin harrier, hen the as such prey of population of greylag geese, at least twelve species twelve least at geese, greylag of population species of wader breed here regularly. The best The regularly. here breed wader of species striking red-throated diver and birds birds and diver red-throated striking mute swan, a few herons, and an increasing an and herons, few a swan, mute the shy and more elusive golden plover. Eleven plover. golden elusive more and shy the perfect breeding grounds for the the for grounds breeding perfect swans breed in Orkney. As well as the graceful the as well As Orkney. in breed swans the most numerous and recognisable curlew to curlew recognisable and numerous most the hills of Hoy and Rousay provide provide Rousay and Hoy of hills An incredible assortment of ducks, geese and geese ducks, of assortment incredible An Orkney is home to a vast range of waders from waders of range vast a to home is Orkney Birsay Moors on Mainland and the the and Mainland on Moors Birsay The moorlands of Orkney such as as such Orkney of moorlands The breeding and wintering seabirds. wintering and breeding small numbers on Hoy. on numbers small red-throated diver red-throated Atlantic Ocean provide ideal conditions for conditions ideal provide Ocean Atlantic around the islands and buzzards are present in present are buzzards and islands the around provided by the mixing of the North Sea and Sea North the of mixing the by provided sparrowhawks nest in the small areas of woodland of areas small the in nest sparrowhawks These features along with the rich food source food rich the with along features These may nest on the ground; a few pairs of pairs few a ground; the on nest may Noup Cliffs, Westray and Marwick Head, Mainland. Head, Marwick and Westray Cliffs, Noup in Orkney include the kestrel, which, unusually, which, kestrel, the include Orkney in nesting ledges on the sea cliffs at colonies like colonies at cliffs sea the on ledges nesting but in only in small numbers.Other birds of prey of birds numbers.Other small in only in but (mainly Devonian sandstone) provides perfect provides sandstone) Devonian (mainly the peregrine is present throughout the islands the throughout present is peregrine the areas for numerous species. The local geology local The species. numerous for areas impressive masters of the air. Their larger relative larger Their air. the of masters impressive area provides many different feeding and nesting and feeding different many provides area amount of luck is helpful in seeing these seeing in helpful is luck of amount The large variety of habitats in a relatively small relatively a in habitats of variety large The more remote areas of moorland and a certain a and moorland of areas remote more species of the European vole. Merlins inhabit the inhabit Merlins vole. European the of species shoveler ferry as it crosses the Pentland Firth. Pentland the crosses it as ferry population of the Orkney vole, a unique sub- unique a vole, Orkney the of population manner of seabirds that can be seen from the from seen be can that seabirds of manner species are strongly dependent upon the upon dependent strongly are species even before setting foot on the islands, with all with islands, the on foot setting before even hide at Burgar Hill overlooking Lowrie’s Water. Lowrie’s overlooking Hill Burgar at hide sheer abundance and diversity. This is evident is This diversity. and abundance sheer merlin female merlin male harrier hen views of these birds can be had from the RSPB the from had be can birds these of views Your first impression of Orkney’s bird life is its is life bird Orkney’s of impression first Your overhead on foraging trips out to sea. Good sea. to out trips foraging on overhead remote hill top lochans and can be heard flying heard be can and lochans top hill remote are known locally). They breed on many of the of many on breed They locally). known are red-throated divers (or rain geese as they as geese rain (or divers red-throated Orkney holds around 130 pairs of pairs 130 around holds Orkney Orkney Bird Observatory North Ronaldsay North Hill Papa Westray RSPB Reserve 4 Sanday Holm of Papay Noup Cliffs RSPB Reserve Castle o’ Burrian Westray 1 Orkney’s Stronsay Rousay Eday natural snipe Brough Costa Egilsay of Head Trumland Orkneyheritage’s Birsay RSPB Reserve Onziebust 6 RSPB Reserve Stronsay Orkney’s bird 3 Wyre reserve BirdsnaturalBirds Gairsay Marwick Birsay Moors heritage Head RSPB Reserve Shapinsay RSPB Reserve Cottascarth Auskerry RSPB Reserve Mill Dam The Loons RSPB Reserve RSPB Reserve Binscarth 7 Woodwick wood 8 Mainland Iain Ashman Brodgar RSPB Reserve Kirkwall Hobbister Copinsay RSPB Reserve RSPB Reserve Stromness Copinsay Graemsay 9 design and illustration: Scapa Flow Hoy RSPB RSPB Burray Reserve 5 Flotta black-tailed godwit Hoy South Ronaldsay Lyness photographs: 10 2 South Walls good places to see birds Swona razorbills bottom Please remember: To take care on the cliffs as they can be dangerous To avoid disturbing nesting birds To keep dogs under control at all times black guillemot To take your litter home with you Not to pick wild flowers Respect private property cover images: top find out more about our lapwing Europe and Scotland Making it work together rich and varied wildlife During the winter, the islands are home to large numbers of waders, wildfowl and other species. Scapa Flow 9 is an important wintering area for great- northern, red- and black-throated divers, Slavonian and red-necked grebes and long-tailed ducks. Great great skua arctic skua twite northern divers and Slavonian grebes are here in internationally important numbers. The rich waters of Orkney along with the perfect The great skua or bonxie was unknown in Orkney Of the finches, only chaffinches are present in any The islands are also home to several goose species nesting ledges provided by the underlying geology before the turn of the century. They now number numbers, usually in the woodland areas although for the relatively mild winter months. Several small make this the most numerous group of birds to breed over two thousand pairs (almost 25% of the UK greenfinches are on the increase and are now a populations of Greenland white-fronted geese occur here.
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