Three months before leaving!

I am still very excited with the news from February 18th that I'm selected for a Work Party on St. Kilda! But there are still three months to go before my departure. So, what have I been doing since?

The first thing I did when I heard the news was a tweet and a post on Facebook, with the link to my blog. Many people visited my blog since. I got a lot of -mainly positive- reactions to my plans as well as to my blog, but I also got some questions about St. Kilda to which I can't give an answer …. yet.

For example; one colleague asked me about St. Kilda's toilets! She made me promise to make a picture of a typical example.
Another was interested in the local whiskey brand. I'm not sure if St. Kildans brewed whiskey, but I promised him to find out. And now I sincerely hope they did!

February 19th I confirmed my participation by sending the acceptance form back to the committee.
I reserved a holiday from my work starting the end of May until 22nd of June and I booked  a flight to Stornoway on the 30th of May, so I have a few days on Harris before leaving.
I downloaded the public transport app of Scotland and found out that I can take a bus from Stornoway to Leverburgh, which will take me about three hours.

So now I'm going to find out what to do those few days on Harris before leaving for St. Kilda.
Any tips?

I am going!

I'm so excited! My application is accepted and I am allocated a place on the St Kilda Work Party departing on 4th of June!

Fowling

As you might expect from my post of january 28th; I love birds. St. Kildans also loved birds; but in a slightly different way.
There is only one reason why  people managed to survive on St. Kilda for more than 4000 years, and that is the great number of birds on the isles.

There were four species of birds that were especially important for the survival of St. Kilda's inhabitants: gannets, northern fulmar, puffins and guillemot. All species were eaten, as well as their eggs. Except the eggs of the northern fulmar, because fulmars only lay eggs once per season. Gannets and fulmars also provided grease that was used as fuel and feathers and down for mattresses.
The fulmar was the most important bird for the St. Kildans. This bird provided very energizing meat, grease, feathers and down, as well as oil for lamps and ointments. These products were not only used by the St. Kildans, but they were also exported to the mainland until the end of the nineteenth century when alternatives for these products were found.

Consequently, fowling was an important activity on St. Kilda. Only the men were fowlers. A boy on St. Kilda would start to learn to climb on walls and rocks by the age of three or four. When he would be 10 or 11, he would start to work with the men on the cliffs, and when he was about 16 years old, he would be a professional fowler.
Of course this was a very dangerous occupation, and there must have been many fatalities.

Birdcliffs

The Netherlands is a very good birding country. There are woods, moorlands, cities, parks and wetlands and they all have their own different bird species. Sometimes exotic species are being carried by wind to our West coast, which makes birding an interesting activity in the Netherlands.
But … the Dutch coast doesn't have high cliffs like in Scotland. And I just love these high cliffs with all those birds!

In 1999 I visited Handa island in Scotland for the first time, just for birdwatching. Never in my life did I see so many puffins, guillemot, razorbills, great skua, arctic skua and kittiwakes! I was overwhelmed by the huge number of birds, the noise and the smell. How did all these birds manage to find their way to their own nest to rear their young among all those other birds?
This trip was a turning point in my life; since then I am hooked on the fabulous birdcliffs of Scotland!

Speaking of birds; St. Kilda really breaks some records!
With nearly one million seabirds breeding, St. Kilda is the largest seabird colony of the British Isles, even the largest in North West Europe! Seventeen species of seabirds come to breed on the isles. With over 60,000 breeding pairs, it has the largest Gannet colony in the world. The northern fulmar colony with almost 67,000 apparently occupied nest sites is the largest of both Britain and Ireland. There are about 135,000 used puffin burrows which makes it the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the British Isles.

And there is more! All three petrel species breed on St. Kilda; the European storm-petrel, the Wilson's storm-petrel and Leach's storm-petrel. And the colony of Leach's storm-petrels is the largest in the EU.
Needless to say that St. Kilda is also an important area for the common guillemot, razorbills, Manx shearwater and great skua.
And last but not least, St. Kilda is a vital stopover for many birds that are migrating or blown away by the wind to find a resting place on the isles. Every year over a hundred species may pass by on the isles.

St. Kilda even got an endemic bird specie; the St. Kilda wren, which is slightly larger than the wren found on the mainland.

Amazing! Even the number of superlatives is groundbreaking!

Last day to apply

Today is the last chance to return your application form!
From next week on I keep an eye on my mailbox with hope and fear....

Only one left!

On 23 september 2013 Mr. Norman John Gilles died. He was one of the last people born on St. Kilda who was still alive; http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-norman-john-gillies-painting-and-decorating-department-manager-1-3122548

According to this article, Mr. Gilles' mother died in May 1930 after an appendicitis during pregnancy and pneumonia. This was probably the last straw to make the remaining St. Kildans realise their vulnerable situation on health care issues and they decided to leave.

Now, there is only one surviving native left: a Mrs. Rachel Johnson.

While waiting for news from the application committee...

In the meantime I will collect articles and literature about St. Kilda.

I have added two pages to my blog with a short history about St. Kilda in Dutch and in English.

From now on I will post interesting facts about St. Kilda to my blog on a regular basis.