Important steps in the past week
This week the first minister came to parliament to signpost the route that we will be taking out of lockdown.
This has been made possible by the amazing efforts by so many people.
Not just those delivering the vaccination programme that has now seen more than a third of the adult population getting their jags, but each and every one of you who has followed the rules and guidelines and tholed the enormous restrictions that have had to be placed on our everyday lives as we have taken the steps necessary to get on top of the spread of this virus.
I know it has been hard. And I know that at times it can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel but this week has seen two very important milestones on the road to recovery and towards bringing a bit more normality back into the lives of some of the oldest and youngest members of our society.
The publication of guidelines for care providers will allow for up to two designated visitors per resident, meaning that from early March, routine indoor visiting of care home residents by relatives, friends and carers will be able to resume.
I know this will be a tremendous relief for many residents of care homes and their families.
At the other end of the age scale, nurseries have been able to open their doors again and pupils in primaries 1-3 are back in school. As are some students in the senior stages of secondary who need to access the school for specific practical aspects of a few courses.
These tentative steps are only possible because lockdown is working and because the vaccine rollout is progressing apace.
I know there is frustration in the business community, particularly the retail and hospitality sectors, but all these decisions are careful judgements, weighing up all the various factors. There is no doubt that increasing interaction increases risk.
That has become very clear indeed and the Scottish Government has taken the decision to prioritise increasing interactions for elderly residents in care homes and getting our children back to school.
The business community have not been ignored, however. Far from it. Since October the Scottish Government has allocated over £715 million to business support, including an additional £225m announced in December.
This includes up to £3000 every four weeks for hospitality, retail and leisure businesses through the Strategic Framework Business Fund.
There is also bespoke funding available for sectors like tourism, and groups like taxi drivers and the newly self-employed.
Businesses have received £276m through the Strategic Framework Business Fund, the hospitality, leisure and retail top up payments and the Taxi and Private Hire Driver Support Fund since November 2020.
£244m was paid by these three funds in January alone, including £4.7m to taxi and private hire drivers in the first 10 days of claims.
There are hard miles yet to go but the road ahead is clearing and the destination is in sight.
A migrating gull which likes to winter at Loch Leven NNR is believed to have flown an amazing 8000 miles or more in its life thus far.
While flightless humans are told they must not plan trips abroad this Easter, in Kinross there is a black-headed gull that appears to be a keen traveller.
Simon Ritchie, NatureScot’s Nature Reserve officer at Loch Leven NNR, was out with his binoculars looking at birds feeding round the loch shore when he saw a gull with a white numbered ring on its leg.
When he looked it up back at the rangers’ office, he was amazed to learn this 11-year-old bird had been tracked going back and forth from Norway to Kinross year after year.
“Whilst scanning the gull flocks on the loch for anything unusual, I spotted this black-headed gull with a white colour ring on it,” Simon explained.
“The ring read ‘J7PO’ which indicated that it was from an Norwegian colour ringing scheme.
“As there as so many helpful individuals on social media, I was directed to a Norwegian colourringing website.
“Within two minutes I had given details of my sightings and shown the life history of the bird.
“This bird was first ringed in Oslo in May 2011 as a first summer bird meaning that it hatched the previous year.
“It was then sighted in Oslo for a further three years until in November 2014, it decided that it wanted to travel 579 miles to spend winter at Loch Leven.
“It was spotted by previous nature reserve officer, Jeremy Squire. Then Jeremy saw it again in January 2015 and then it was spotted back in Oslo two months later in March.
“It then was then found again at Loch Leven by previous student placement Gus Routledge in August 2017.
“The bird presumably spent the winter in Scotland as it was then re-sighted in Oslo in April 2018.”
“The bird then disappeared from Oslo in June 2018 and wasn’t seen again until April 2019, again it probably wintered in Scotland but wasn’t found.
“Jeremy then spotted it again in August 2019, it went back to Oslo in spring and now I’ve seen it in 2021.”
Simon calculated that the gull has done at least four trips from Oslo to Loch Leven and back to spend the winter, clocking up at least 4600 miles.
“More than likely as well is that the winters where it wasn’t seen in Oslo, it could have easily travelled
The black headed gull J7PO made multiple trips between Kinross and Oslo. Pic by Gus Routledge to Scotland again.
“If it has wintered before and the bird knew the journey, then it would be more inclined to re-visit.
“So, realistically, this bird could have easily done over 8000 miles.
He added: “There will be so many amazing journeys undertaken by birds that aren’t colour-ringed, thankfully the ones that are ringed can give vital information on migration, breeding, longevity and more.
“We have spotted a few different species with colour rings here at Loch Leven. This includes mute swan, coot, goldeneye, greenshank, tufted duck, lesser scaup, goldfinch, white-tailed eagle and little egret.”
Simon said that anyone can get the information if they get a photo or look through a pair of binoculars to get the ring colour and code and go online to: https://www. cr-birding.org/