A RARE species of duck may have a chance of surviving in the Highlands thanks to the installation of artificial floating islands on the small number of lochs where the common scoter breeds.
Rafts made from fish farm materials should act as safer island nesting places for the birds whose numbers are down to just 50 breeding pairs.
Their installation comes a month after one of the prime movers of the project, Derrick Warner of Scottish Natural Heritage, died suddenly. A long-time special constable, Warner was awarded two long- service medals by Police Scotland.
The attempt to save the common scoter brings together a partnership of organisations from industry and the conservation sector.
They hope the scoters will choose to nest on the floating islands and this will make their nests safer from the unwelcome attention of predators and the risk of being flooded.
Dr Alison MacLennan of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said: “Within the last 40 years, the population of the now inapprop- riately named common scoter has fallen from several hundred pairs, with a wide distribution over the north and west of Scotland, to around 50 pairs found in a few isolated lochs.
“We are in real danger of losing this lovely bird as a breeding species in Scotland and I am delighted that this partnership has come together to help provide them with a future.”
Research conducted by the partnership, which includes the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Scottish and Southern Energy, the Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Blue Energy, the Ness & Beauly Fisheries Trust and the RSPB, has pointed to a number of causes for this decline, many of which are linked to changing uses in the landscape.
The RSPB stated: “In addition, mammalian predators have been identified as having a significant detrimental effect on the survival of common scoter’s nesting attempts and success in hatching ducklings. “In an attempt to address this problem, in some of the Inverness-shire lochs, the partnership group joined forces with [businesses] Fusion Marine and Marine Harvest to produce floating islands that will provide the ducks with safer nest locations with a reduced risk of predation.
“Two of these islands have now been sited in common scoter breeding lochs as a trial to see if their use can boost the ducks’ success in rearing their young.”
Arthur Campbell of Marine Harvest said: “We are delighted to support this project, particularly since the rafts have been constructed using materials recycled from some of our marine fish farms.
“The ducks may have come across the black pipes in their previous use as the walkways around fish farm cages at sea but we are hoping that they will take a second look at them now that they are disguised as heather-clad islands.”
Alastair Stephen, a partner in the Inverness-shire project and Scottish and Southern Energy’s freshwater fisheries biologist, added: “Generation of power from the large hydro reservoirs in our glens is an important part of our contribution to the national grid, but we don’t wish to see our wildlife adversely impacted upon in the process. “The provision of floating islands as potential nest sites will, we hope, provide more secure nest sites in situations where the draw down of water for hydro generation can leave islands connected to the shoreline and accessible to mammalian predators.”
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