Fowling (2)

In my post of February 10th, I told about the importance of birds for the people of St. Kilda, especially the fulmar, gannet, puffin and guillemot. Consequently, fowling was an important activity on St. Kilda.

Every bird specie was caught in a different way. Gannets, for example, leave a sentennial bird awake to warn the colony by danger. The fowlers would go to the cliffs by dawn in early spring. One man would climb up to kill the sentennial bird. If he failed, the sentennial bird would wake up the entire colony. After killing the sentennial bird the rest of the colony was taken from their nests and killed.

In May the fowlers would return to gather the eggs from the gannets from Boreray and Stac an Armin. And in August the young chicks of the gannets, the gugas, where gathered.

Young fulmars were harvested by mid August, when the fledglings would be at their fattest. The fowlers would take the birds from the cliffs, wring their necks and throw them into a boat. Harvesting young fulmars was a strenuous activity by which the women helped to carry the heavy loads to the village.
There was no egg collection from fulmars, because they only lay eggs once per season.

Puffins used to be the most numerous birds on St. Kilda; more than a million pair! The poor creatures were easily caught, by taking them out of their burrows by hand or with the help of a small dog. Puffins are very curious. They were sometimes caught by lowering a running noose over their heads. One caught puffin attracted the other birds to investigate what happened and made an easy catch.

Catching guillemot was done with a very special technique. The fowlers waited for the guillemot with a white sheet over their head, so they looked like a bird rock covered with guano. The guillemot would try to land on them and the fowler would be able to grasp them by hundreds.

Off course I feel sorry for the birds, and I am happy that they are no longer hunted, but I understand the need for the St. Kildans to do so. The number of birds and eggs harvested were enormous, but there is no evidence the populations of these birds declined because of it. There were so many of them! Seabirds can reach a very old age, so they have plenty of possibilities to reproduce. The fowling in those days never threatened any of the species to extinction. Today we are much more a threat to the birds than the St. Kildans ever were. The number of puffins is declining on St. Kilda and elsewhere because of a shortage of fish, probably a consequence of a warmer climate and overfishing.

Hopefully we still can turn the tide!

11 weeks to go

This week I received my "Passport to the Islands on the Edge of the World". The passport contains a lot of information about the St. Kilda accomodation and facilities, a kit list, the tasks and the potential risks for the volunteers.
The passport also includes the names of my colleagues in this particular Work Party.



There are five male and five female persons, from Australia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands (me) and the UK. I am looking forward to meet my fellow volunteers. Perfect strangers, who will work and live together for a fortnight on a very small island! We probably will get to know each other very well. Maybe this will turn out to be the most challenging part of the adventure.

This week I shipped the final paperwork to the well known adress in Inverness, and I booked a hostel for the first three nights in Stornoway.
I plan to go to Leverburgh on Monday 2nd of June, so I'll have one day to explore Leverburgh. On Tuesday we will meet each other, and, if weather permits, we will be sailing to St. Kilda, -or Hjort, as it is officially called- on the 4th of June.