Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

Old Prison
Our guide, Maggie Sheddan, from the Scottish Seabird
Centre in North Berwick escorted us through the rusting,
iron gate into the old prison fortifications at the lower level.
“Welcome to the Bass Rock,” she said, sounding like that
grizzly, unsmiling warden at the start of every prison film -
“Welcome to Shawshank”, “Welcome to Alcatraz.”
At the start of the gannet slopes, Maggie issued plastic riot
shields and instructed as to their use in fending off stabs from
gannets nesting next to the path (on the path). I looked up,
there was not a gannet-free inch of rock between me and the
summit. at turned out to be not quite true. Having run the
gannet gauntlet for a couple of hundred yards, we reached a
clear patch, just big enough for 20 individuals to put down
their rucksacks, eat lunch and take photos.
Border Disputes
This was the easiest bird photography I have done. Fishing
in a barrel would be difficult by comparison. Gannets
preening, billing, sky-pointing, taking off, landing, sleeping
- whatever you want - fill your lens. The colony is dense. It
follows the rules at all gannet colonies, each bird gets a nest
patch that keeps it just out of stab range of its neighbours,
but only just, for border disputes are common.
Take-off and landing are difficult. Take off requires a run
up, ideally down-slope and into the wind, but this may
require running over the heads of neighbours, at the cost
of more stabs. Landing is often just a controlled crash into
the throng - more stabs. Seabirds in decline? Not gannets,
not on Bass Rock. In recent years their numbers have risen
from a few thousand to 150,000.
When Sir David Attenborough visited a few years ago, he
was filmed sitting by an isolated bird with a wellestablished
nest close to the human area. The old bird and
its mate are still there, but now surrounded by hundreds of
others. Chris Packham said, and Sir David agreed: “This
has to be one of the wonders of the natural world.”
Monogamous and Loyal
So, why the gloom if they’re all doing so well? e plain
fact is that gannets are an exception. ey are powerful flyers,
swimmers and divers. ey can exploit a range of fish prey
species and can travel some distance from the colony to get
food. ey are long-lived, monogamous and loyal to their
nest sites. Eggs and chicks are not so vulnerable to predators,
such as gulls and rats, since one adult remains on guard while
the mate goes fishing. Gulls and rats are not equipped with
riot shields.
10 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017