Saving Species - Episode 8

8/40. Howard Stableford is in the presenter seat for this programme and he presides over a particularly birdy programme. Saving Species is going large on British seabirds. Naturalist and broadcaster Michael Scott is joining biologists from the Centre of Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. The Isle of May is a small dumpy island, described by Michael "like a battle ship guarding the entrance to the Firth of Forth" and eclipsed in grandeur slightly by the nearby Bass Rock - "the rock" is the breeding site for Britain's largest seabird, the Gannet. The gannets will be plunge diving in the seas around the Isle of May, but it's the Puffins, the Guillemots and the Kittiwakes that Michael is going to see together with the rather dinosaurian shags. Over the recent three years Britain's seabirds have had a tough time surviving themselves let alone raising young. Their fortunes seem to be different depending where they breed and feed and it's this complex picture Michael will unpack on the Isle of May. Seabird ecologist Bob Swann is live into the programme from a seabird Colony near Sutor, much further north than the Isle of May - a colony he has monitored daily over the last 40 years. How are his seabirds doing this year? We hear from two research sites in Eastern Scotland. And we have our latest "Memories are Made of This" package, this time recollections from Cornwall about the past abundance of herring and seabirds on the Peninsular. And our newshound Kelvin Boot is with us armed with wildlife news from around the world. Presented by Howard Stableford Produced by Mary Colwell Series Editor: Julian Hector.