Seabird Neighbours

Seabird Neighbours was an exciting project designed to ignite a passion for seabirds in the coastal communities of the West Cowal peninsula, Scotland. From gulls, gannets and guillemots to the goliath of all, the white-tailed eagle, seabirds are ever present in the lives of the people of the peninsula. Yet most children and adults do not know the names of seabirds, why they are there or that they need their help.

In the Summer of 2023, NCCT decided to fund this project with a donation of £8 700, raising awareness and donations on board our fleet.

Here are the results:

Three remote primary schools and their local communities on the Cowal Peninsula, Argyll, had the amazing opportunity to learn all about their seabird neighbours, during the Summer of 2023, thanks to the fantastic donation from Noble Caledonia Charitable Trust and their wildlife cruise passengers.

Local ecologist, Katharine Lowrie, and local artist, Inge Bos, supported by all the teachers and volunteers of the schools, brought seabirds to life through a jam-packed summer term of seabird-flavoured workshops.

The children very quickly learned the names of their local seabirds through ‘seabird pairs’ and seabird ‘top-trumps’. Birds like gannets, that we can see from our villages, shooting through the sky at over 60 miles per hour in their incredible dive for fish. We learned about migration, ‘flying’ through the playground and reenacting what the different species had to contend with on their flights. Species such as the ‘butterfly of the sea’ the arctic tern which flies the longest distance of any species on earth between its winter and summer homes.

The children soon recognised the birds’ weird and wonderful calls, found out about the birds’ special adaptions for life at sea, where they breed, how they feed their chicks and their importance in the marine food web. The children explored the main threats to seabirds including over-fishing, bycatch, climate change, plastic pollution, and invasive species. They then brainstormed ideas to help them from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), reducing plastic consumption, eating locally and seasonally, avoiding eating threatened fish species, buying second hand things, fixing and mending, cycling to school and making sure not to waste food.

The children’s learning was cemented through artwork, using homemade charcoal and collage to recreate their favourite birds, also through a school trip. Tighnabruaich Primary School travelled to the local island of Arran to Lamlash Bay MPA to find out how marine life is rapidly recovering in the MPA, as well as recolonising the sea beyond.

The project culminated in the Seabird Neighbours interpretation sign. The children’s artwork forms a border around it and their six favourite seabirds star in the centre. The sign will be located at three different points on the Cowal peninsula to ensure the project lives on.

One of the greatest legacies of the project was precipitated when Katharine delivered two community talks about the project and the seabirds of the area, covering identification, ecology, threats, and conservation. The audience became very moved by the threats to seabirds around the Cowal Peninsula, especially by the devastation to coastal waters by trawling fishing boats. This has precipitated the creation of the Kyles Coastal Community group to spearhead scientific research and conservation of the area.

For more facts and quotes about the project click here

Local Media:

Schools drop in on seabird 'neighbours' - Argyllshire Advertiser