Fortified isles now guarded by a seabird army
WHILE sitting in the cocktail bar of Edinburgh’s Harvey Nichols, as you do, with a Bloody Mary in my hand for breakfast, I scanned the skies of the Firth of Forth for birds.
The fourth floor view from the picture-window is panoramic and simply stunning, but the only birds I could see were the ubiquitous pigeons; the same scruffy bunch you get from Glossop to Gloucester. No offence to the city strand of the species ‘Columba livia’, but feral pigeons, also called city doves, city pigeons, or street pigeons, are derived from domestic pigeons that have returned to the wild.
The domestic pigeon was originally bred from the wild rock dove/ pigeon, which naturally inhabits sea-cliffs and mountains. Rock, domestic, and feral pigeons are all the same species and will readily interbreed.
Feral pigeons which find the ledges of buildings a substitute for sea cliffs have become adapted to urban life and are abundant in towns and cities throughout much of the world. They have also been referred to as ‘rats with wings’, most famously by Woody Allen in his 1980 film ‘Stardust Memories’.
As it happens, the feral pigeon is probably a little hard done to, and I’ll explain why next week.
Beyond the city, and away from the pigeons, there are tempting views of the Forth and the harbour areas at Leith, and more intriguingly the islands. One in particular which caught my eye, Inchmickery, sits close to the city. Military buildings dating from the first and second world wars dominate the skyline of Inchmickery, and with a little imagination the fortifications and the natural shape of the island resemble a Second World War battleship. It is sometimes claimed this was done deliberately in an attempt to trick enemy U-boats into trying to torpedo it.
All military personnel have long gone from Inchmickery, and indeed all of the other fortified islands including Inchgarvey and Inchcolm, and the seabirds have reclaimed the territory – thousands of them.
There are more than 20 islands in the group, including the famous Bass Rock, painted white from the dropping of gannets, and they all have Special Protected Area status.
During the breeding season the area regularly supports 90,000 individual seabirds, including razorbill (Alca torda), guillemot (Uria aalge), kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), herring gull (Larus argentatus), cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), puffin (Fratercula arctica), lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), gannet (Morus bassanus), Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), common tern (Sterna hirundo), roseate tern (Sterna dougallii) and sandwich tern (Sterna sandvicensis).
After a few more cocktails and my pocket significantly lighter, I resolved to visit Inchmickey on our next visit, and I reckon this photograph of puffins on the island may whet your appetite too.
The brown bear photo-caption winner was Patricia Manns with, ‘Hey Trunk, make my day!’