ecological surveys

Photo: Courtesy of Beth Hunt

With the summer season having drawn to a close, our Ecology Team have been reflecting on this year’s busy survey season, with a wide variety of ecological surveys carried out for our clients across the Western Isles.

Though based in Stornoway, our ecologists spent time down in the Uists, with one of our sites in North Uist undergoing surveys to cover a range of species throughout the summer, including breeding birds, corncrakes and bats. The Uists are known for their high density and diversity of breeding birds, and the site did not disappoint with good numbers of breeding waders – including lapwing, redshank, oystercatchers and ringed plover.

Angus Maclean, Ecological Consultant with a specialism in bats, said “It feels like such a privilege to get down to the Uists to survey during the summer months, it’s amazing to draw comparisons between the ecology on each of our beautiful islands”.

Across the Isle of Lewis, the Ecology Team surveyed the flora and fauna of the island through breeding bird and vantage point surveys, protected species surveys and Phase 1 habitat surveys for projects ranging from small-scale community harbour improvements to large-scale infrastructure projects.

Dr Ruth Jeavons, who leads the Ecology Team, said “One of the highlights of this year’s field season has been seeing the return of breeding great skua to some of our survey sites. They were hit hard by the bird flu outbreak in 2021, and we had a number of pairs re-established at previous breeding sites. It is one of the benefits of carrying out work on island – we get to see trends across the years that may otherwise be missed.”