As we approach the end of the year and take time to reflect, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the future of Scotland’s natural environment – and your support has been vital in 2024.
We know people across Scotland value nature. This year, we asked you to share why nature matters to you and, in September, the Scottish Government announced a Natural Environment Bill. This crucial step will set legally binding targets and drive action to halt and reverse nature loss.
There is still plenty to fight for. The Orkney Native Wildlife Project is seeking your support to complete the critical work while, across Scotland and the UK, the Birds of Conservation Concern report revealed alarming declines, and urgent action is needed to address the crisis.
Even when faced with some dreich winter days, there are ways to engage with nature. Wrap up warm and be inspired by the night sky on page 3, and it’s not long until another Big Garden Birdwatch, so sign up and take part from 24 to 26 January. We also recently celebrated nature heroes at the Nature of Scotland Awards (p3).
Thank you for another year of support. In 2025, let’s continue to raise our voices for nature together.
Best wishes,
Anne McCall Director, RSPB Scotland
Follow Anne on @stranyannie
Action for nature
Species
Protecting Orkney’s native wildlife
In just a few years from the first sighting of Stoats in Orkney, this invasive non-native species has had a devastating effect on the native wildlife. But by working in partnership, and with support from landowners and the local communities, we are well on our way to completing the world’s largest island Stoat eradication project. Despite the pandemic pausing work at a crucial time – which allowed Stoat numbers to recover – we are closer than ever to safeguarding the future of Orkney’s special wildlife.
More than 6,000 Stoats have been removed from the islands, creating a safer environment for the native wildlife. This has helped Orkney’s wading birds, such as the Oystercatcher, where 83% of nests escaped predation thanks to our efforts, giving the next generation the best chance to survive. There were similar successes for Curlew, with over half of nests now reaching the hatching stage, up from just one in ten. The number of ground-nesting Hen Harriers has seen 160 young fledge, compared to just 60 before eradication work began.
Earlier this year the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, pledged an additional £4m; however, we still need to secure more funding
for the final few years of the project. Your support can ensure this critical work has the funding for a final push that would see every Stoat removed from Orkney by 2030, ensuring the islands’ spectacular wildlife can be protected for generations to come.
Discover more of the incredible wildlife the Orkney Native Wildlife Project is working to protect on page 5. Scan the code or visit rspb.org.uk/orkney-project to donate.
Cover: Hen Harrier by Mark Harder (Getty Images).
This page: Tom Marshall
Above: Orkney Native Wildlife Project fieldwork
Oystercatcher
Our places
Watching the night sky
We’ve been experiencing strong solar activity this year, resulting in some spectacular displays of the Northern Lights. Here are our top spots for sky-watching this season. Take care if visiting a nature reserve after dark as some terrain can be uneven, and bring a torch.
RSPB Scotland Loch Gruinart, Islay
Views over the sea loch on the northern coast of Islay are fantastic during the day, especially in winter when hundreds of geese provide a soundtrack to this working farm, but at night the skies come alive with magnificent colours.
RSPB Scotland Loch Garten, Cairngorms
The Cairngorms National Park is a brilliant place to stargaze, with numerous dark sky sites. The shores of Loch Garten can be a beautiful spot to watch the Northern Lights over the tops of the Caledonian pinewood or reflected in the dark water of the loch.
RSPB Forsinard, Flow Country
The Lookout Tower is a magical place to experience this natural phenomenon. This striking structure (see image below) sits in what otherwise seems a vast and empty landscape, and the open roof and high walls offer some shelter from the cool night air.
Our places
Celebrating partnerships
After a major milestone earlier this year, The Flow Country Partnership was celebrated as one of the inspiring winners at this year’s Nature of Scotland Awards, with headline sponsor NatureScot. The partnership took home the Nature and Climate Action Award, in recognition of the crucial collaboration and action to care for the amazing landscape of the Flow Country, recently named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
To discover more about all of this year’s incredible award winners, please visit rspb.org.uk/natureofscotland
Above: Northern Lights from Islay Below: Forsinard Flows
Species
Securing Scotland’s seabirds
The Biosecurity for Scotland team has been working hard since July 2023 to protect and spread awareness of our precious seabird islands, and the risks they face from mammalian predators. Here’s a wee round-up of some of their achievements so far:
38
islands involved
Getting children outdoors
seabird species have benefited
8 1
22 7 25
vessels accredited for Predator Free Certification (PFC)
The Alba Explorers is a family business based in the northeast of Scotland, providing outdoor learning for children, immersing them in their environment and rediscovering its value for physical and mental health.
They have trained over 2,500 pupils and 250 staff, and were highly commended in the Nature of Scotland Awards’ Business for Nature category in 2023. Alba Explorers co-founder, Jordan Lynch, says, “We use environmental education as the vehicle to drive social change because we’re also concerned about environmental decline in Scotland, and believe that both concerns can be answered together.”
biosecurity incident reports conservation biosecurity dog
talks/training webinars
Our places
Above (right): Alba Explorers Bushcraft Left: Howmore Hebway Sign
Explore the Outer Hebrides in 2025!
Planning a trip to the Outer Hebrides? Make sure you add the new Corncrake trail to your itinerary. Populations are in decline, and the Corncrake Calling project, supported by the Natural Lottery Heritage Fund, has been helping communities discover how they can help to protect them. From Ness to Barra, you can now find out more about this enigmatic bird.
Find out more: thealbaexplorers.com
How to help Campaigning for
nature
Nature needs laws, policies and funding to save it – that’s why we’ve been advocating and campaigning for over a century. This year, with your support and Scottish Environment LINK partners, we showed the Scottish Government that ‘Scotland Loves Nature’.
The Natural Environment Bill will pave the way for legally binding nature restoration targets. Nature needs us all – to find out how you can speak up for nature, follow us on social media. To sign up for campaign updates, scan the code or go to rspb.org.uk/campaigning
Spanning 200 miles and 10 islands, the trail follows the Hebridean Way through some amazing scenery and can provide fantastic encounters with wildlife. If you go in 2025, we would love to see your photos –please tag us @crexcrexnet on Instagram and X.
Photos: Jake Campbell (Good Move Studios); Colin
Hattersly, Shona
MacLellan
Visit Brodgar for a wealth of wildlife
This nature reserve is bustling with an array of incredible Orkney wildlife. Wading birds, bees and wildflowers thrive alongside the World Heritage Site Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle
canning the skies, you might spot Peregrine and Hen Harrier hunting here, and around the shore of Loch of Stenness, you can watch ducks and wading birds. In winter, flocks of Curlew, Lapwing and Golden Plover gather on the fields, while the elegant Slavonian Grebe swims across the water. Sometimes, you might even glimpse an Otter.
As spring arrives, wildflowers such as Red Clover, Selfheal and Yellow Rattle emerge and invite a colourful carpet full of buzzing bumblebees. The wildflower-rich grasslands are carefully managed by late summer cutting, in combination with grazing by cattle and sheep, to create feeding and nesting opportunities for breeding wading birds and bumblebees. We create as long a feeding season as possible for rare bees such as Great Yellow and Moss Carder Bumblebees by collecting seed to spread onsite, to ensure key flowers flourish for them.
There is a gentle circular walk around the site that typically takes an hour and offers enchanting views over the wildflower fields and neighbouring Loch of
Lee Shields is the Warden for RSPB Scotland Hoy and Mainland Orkney reserves. She started as a residential volunteer and has been with the RSPB for 27 years.
Seasonal highlights
At Brodgar you can bathe in a glorious soundscape as spring arrives. The breeding displays of Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe and Skylarks blends with buzzing bees and distant calls of waterbirds. Close your eyes for a moment to enjoy it. rspb.org.uk/Brodgar
Stenness. As we head into spring and nesting season, please keep dogs on a lead to avoid disturbing birds which nest on the ground. Look out for events in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland to discover more about the history and wildlife that makes this site so remarkable.
What’s your favourite species to see at Brodgar? I love to see Short-eared Owls drifting over the wildflowers at Brodgar. On a June evening, the late sunset catches their mottled feathers and highlights their graceful flight – magical!
Saving Coul Links
This unique, beautiful, windswept place on the East Sutherland coast is a haven for a wide range of wildlife. So it’s vital that we protect it from development
The rolling sand dunes of Coul Links are a haven for many plants and animals, some of which are very rare. They contain a complex mosaic of connected habitats, including damp dune slacks which flood during the winter, providing shelter for species such as Teal and Wigeon. Groups of wintering waders and wildfowl roost at high tide beside the dunes, and Greylag Geese and Curlew can be found feeding on the nearby fields. The flower-rich dunes are also home to butterflies, bees and other insects, including the globally endangered Fonseca’s Seed Fly, not known to live anywhere else beyond a small stretch of the East Sutherland coast.
Coul Links is so important, in fact, it is part of three legally protected nature sites: a nationally important Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), an internationally significant Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds, and a Ramsar site – which means it’s an internationally important wetland.
Coul Links is threatened
Despite this special place being so important, plans to build an 18-hole golf course threaten to damage it forever. The proposed development would require parts of the dunes to be changed and managed, losing important habitat which animals rely on. This could erode features that make Coul Links so important for wildlife and a unique place for people to enjoy.
Activity on the golf course is likely to disturb birds that use the site and surrounding area. Such a development could cause irreparable damage, which is why, alongside other environmental charities and members of the public, RSPB Scotland has been fighting these proposals for many years.
In 2020, following a Public Inquiry, the Scottish Government turned down a very similar application at Coul Links because of the potential lasting impact, citing “significant adverse effects” on protected habitats and species. Our campaign against these plans had been a huge, collective effort by the specially formed
Find out more For the latest updates on Coul Links, keep an eye on our social media pages and campaign update emails. To learn more, scan the code or go to rspb. org.uk/coul-links
Scan me
November 2019
Coul Links timeline
June 2018 Highland Council planning committee votes to approve the application
October 2017 Original planning application for a golf course on Coul Links submitted to Highland Council
August 2018 Ministers ‘call in’ application as it raises issues of national importance
July 2018 The Conservation Coalition and thousands of members of the public campaign for Scottish Government to ‘call in’ planning decision
Planning reporters’ findings recommend refusal to Scottish Ministers
February 2019
Public Inquiry on the application held
Conservation Coalition (RSPB Scotland, Buglife Scotland, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife Scotland and Scottish Wildlife Trust) and thousands of members of the public, including members of the RSPB and the local community. It was a moment of celebration. But the fight wasn’t over yet.
A new threat
Fresh plans for an 18-hole golf course at Coul Links were submitted in February 2023. After carefully considering this new application, RSPB Scotland objected strongly. This was because the plans had changed very little and, as before, we believe these proposals would damage precious habitat amid a climate and nature emergency.
This new application received hundreds of objections, including from the Scottish Government’s own nature advisors, NatureScot. Despite this, and a recommendation from the planning officers that it should be refused, the council committee voted to approve the application. Once again, thousands of nature lovers took action and called on the planning minister to save Coul Links. The Scottish Government then decided to ‘call in’ the decision, resulting in another Public Inquiry.
‘Nature is in crisis and we need to see special places for wildlife, such as Coul Links, protected from unacceptable development’
The inquiry hearings took place in November with the Conservation Coalition providing expert evidence on the wildlife found at Coul Links.
Planning reporters will consider the case and send a recommendation to Scottish Ministers, who will make the final decision. As of the time of writing, the outcome has not been announced.
Kenna Chisholm, Area Manager (North Highland and the Hebrides) from RSPB Scotland said: “Nature is in crisis and we need to see special places for wildlife, such as Coul Links, protected from unacceptable development. This is not the right place for a golf course, which would cause such damage to this unique site.”
February 2023 New planning application is submitted
February 2020 Scottish Ministers reject plans, citing “significant adverse effects”
May 2023 NatureScot objects to the new application
April 2023 RSPB Scotland objects to the new application
December 2023
Highland planning committee narrowly vote to approve plans
November 2023
Highland Council planning officers recommend refusal
November 2024 Coul Links public inquiry held
February 2024 Ministers ‘call in’ proposal
Below (left): Wigeon (right): Six-spot Burnet moth at Coul Links
