Islands of The Forth - Natural History

Natural History

The Firth is an important area for nature conservation and has a range of habitats including extensive mudflats, shingle shorelines and saltmarsh. The last named, which is well developed on Alloa Inch, is typically dominated by Saltmarsh Rush, Sea Club-rush, Sea Aster and Common Saltmarsh-grass. The inner Firth is important for nationally and internationally important numbers of wintering wildfowl and wading birds and hosts populations of Shelduck, Knot, Redshank, Great Crested Grebe, Teal and Goldeneye. The outer islands support significant numbers of nesting seabirds. The Bass Rock has more than 150,000 nesting Northern Gannets and is the largest single rock gannetry in the world. When viewed from the mainland much of the rock looks white due to the sheer number of birds (and their droppings, which give off 152 tonnes of ammonia per year). The scientific names for this Gannet, Sula bassana and Morus bassanus, are derived from the rock. The bird was traditionally known locally as the Solan Goose, and its eggs and meat were considered delicacies. It is estimated that in 1850 almost 2000 birds were harvested from the rock. Other bird species on the rock include Guillemot, Razorbill, Cormorant, Puffin, Eider Duck and numerous gulls.

Craigleith lies close to North Berwick's harbour and historically was used as a rabbit warren. The rabbits were bred for food but they were wiped out by myxomatosis in the 1950s. The Atlantic Puffin colony on Craigleith, once one of the largest in Britain with 28,000 pairs, became endangered from 1999 onwards, due to an invasion of the non-endemic plant tree mallow, which choked the puffins' burrows, preventing them from rearing their chicks, or "pufflings". A five year project, SOS Puffin, led by the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick, was launched early in 2007. Since then, hundreds of volunteers have been working hard to rid the island of the problem, ferried out by boat from the Seabird Centre during the winter months, when the puffins are at sea. There are signs that the puffins are starting to return to the island to breed. Findra, Inchmickery and Eyebroughy are RSPB reserves, the last named being noted for its Cormorants. Over 240 species of bird and 60 varieties of seaweed have been recorded on the Isle of May.