V 14 No.4 - The Scottish Ornithologists' Club

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198 A. Watson & R. Rae 58 14 (4) Watson, A . & O'Hare, P .J . 1979a. Spacing behaviour of Red Grouse at low density on Irish bog. Ornis Scand. 10, 252-261. Watson, A. & O'Hare, P .J. 1979b. Bird and mammal numbers on untreated and experimentally treated Irish bog. Oikos 33, 97-105. Dr Adam Watson, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Banchory, Kincardineshire AB3 4BY. Robert Rae, 13 Red Inch Circle, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire. (Revised ms. received 29 May 1987). Kittiwake alighting at nest. W.S. Paton
Scottish Birds (1987) 14: 199-204 199 The seabirds of Troup and Pennan Heads 1979-86 c.s. LLOYD AND S.G. NORTH The seabirds breeding on Troup and Pennan Heads have been counted completely on three occasions (1969, 1979, 1986). Their population changes were monitored between 1979 and 1985 by counts in sample areas of the Troup Head colony. This paper gives the results of the 1986 census and discusses population changes since 1969 in the light of available data. Introduction Troup and Pennan Heads lie about 20 kilometres west of Fraserburgh on the north Grampian coast of Scotland. Apart from More Head to the west, which has a big gull colony, they are the only stretches of high cliffs suitable for breeding sea birds on the south side of the Moray Firth. The two headlands have held large colonies of seabirds for at least two hundred years. The earliest reference to sea birds on Troup Head (known then as Gamrie Head) is in the Statistical Record for 1791-9 which describes a great rock, full of shelves and "possessed by thousands of birds called Kittiweakes (sic)" Rissa tridactyla. Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus and L. marinus bred in Banffshire for the first time only in 1968 (Thorn 1986), but Herring Gulls L. argentatus were nesting in an "enormous gullery" on Pennan Head in 1936 (Baxter & Rintoul 1953). Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis have bred at Troup since 1920, and Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis at Pennan since at least 1895. The auk colonies are also very old. Baxter and Rintoul (ioc. cit.) record Guillemots Uria aalge nesting at Troup and Pennan Heads in 1809, and both Razorbills AJca torda and Puffins Fratercula arctica bred on Troup Head in 1834-45. By 1850 Puffins were reported to have declined "owing to persecution" on Troup Head but nine years later Harvie- Brown and Buckley recorded "thousands" present (in Baxter & Rintoulloc. cit.). On Pennan Head, Puffins were first recorded breeding in 1850, and George Waterston noted a large colony there in 1945. Black Guillemots Cepphus grylIe bred up to the mid-nineteenth century on both Troup and Pennan Heads (Baxter & Rintoulloc. cit.). The sea birds on Troup and Pennan Heads were counted for the first time in 1969 when both colonies were covered by the national Operation Seafarer survey. Another complete count was made in 1979 (North 1979), and in the same year selected cliff faces on Troup Head and the adjacent Lion's Head were chosen for annual monitoring. Counts in these sample sections of the colony were carried out by SGN until 1983, and by John Edelsten in 1985. A third count of the entire stretch from Pennan Head to Troup Head was made by CSL in 1986 during survey work for the Seabird Group/NCC Seabird Colony Register. A rather more complete history of seabird population changes is available for Troup and Pennan Heads than exists for any other cliff seabird colony in Grampian. The data demonstrate the population trends detected by occasional total counts (1969, 1979, 1986), with extra information gained from monitoring of part of the colony (1979-83 and 1985).
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Page 3 and 4: Scottish Birds (1987) 14: 191-198 1
Page 5 and 6: 1987 Dotterel numbers in Scotland 1
Page 7 and 8: 1987 Dotterel numbers in Scotland 1
Page 9: 1987 Dotterel numbers in Scotland 1
Page 13 and 14: 1987 Sea birds of Troup and Pennan
Page 15 and 16: 1987 Sea birds of Troup and Pennan
Page 17 and 18: Scottish Birds (1987) 14: 205-208 2
Page 19 and 20: 1987 Ring Ouzels in SE Scotland 207
Page 21 and 22: 1987 Short Notes 209 Short Notes Go
Page 23 and 24: 1987 Short Notes 211 was within a f
Page 25 and 26: 1987 Short Notes 213 References Gra
Page 27 and 28: 1987 Short Notes 215 Kestrels copul
Page 29 and 30: 1987 Items of Scottish Interest 217
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Page 33 and 34: 1987 Scottish Bird Report 1986 221
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1987 Scottish Bird Report 1986 249
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November publication TheSKUAS by Ro
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Part 4 December 1987 Contents Dotte
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V 14 No.4 - The Scottish Ornithologists' Club

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