St Kilda islands surveyed for first time in decades

A team of seven bird surveyors has conducted studies on St Kilda this summer, including on the outlying islands of Boreray and Soay for the first time in 20 years.

The surveyors carried out the research on Hirta, as well as the two islands, on behalf of the National Trust for Scotland, which manages St Kilda, the UK's only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site. Boreray and Soay are particularly hard to study because of the great difficulty in landing on them from a boat, due to their rocky and dangerous shorelines.

Soay is one of the islets which make up the St Kilda archipelago (Olaf1950 / commons.wikimedia.org).

The north-west end of Soay is one of the least-visited spots in the British Isles, and the last scientific survey of any kind of the location was made by archaeologists in 2009. The results of the 2019 surveys are expected to be published later this year.

St Kilda is well-known for its breeding seabirds, including Northern Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, European Storm Petrels and the UK's largest colony of Puffins. Since April 2018, a female Snowy Owl has also taken up residence on Hirta. 

Given its position at the extreme north-west of the British Isles it's no surprise that – for a largely unwatched island – several mega rarities have been logged. During the last decade alone, finds have included Allen's Gallinule, Blackburnian Warbler, Eurasian Scops Owl, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Buff-bellied Pipit, Harlequin Duck and Solitary Sandpiper.

This female Snowy Owl has been on St Kilda since April 2018 (James West).