0:00:02 > 0:00:05This film contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09Just off the west coast of Scotland in the Outer Hebrides
0:00:09 > 0:00:13is a little known cluster of islands called the Shiants.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18The name means haunted, or enchanted,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22and while the last people left over a century ago,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25every summer these deserted shores become the stage
0:00:25 > 0:00:27for an extraordinary show.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Great waves of seabirds return here from far out in the Atlantic,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37coming back to mate and breed.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45For many of us, the seabird is a noisy scavenger,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49gulls that plague our seafronts,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52but these annual visitors to the Shiants
0:00:52 > 0:00:55are altogether more mysterious and surprising.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I'm Adam Nicolson, a writer,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and for summer after summer,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07I've been able to witness this great spectacle,
0:01:07 > 0:01:11ever since my father first brought me here as boy 50 years ago.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15The more you get to know about these birds
0:01:15 > 0:01:17the more extraordinary they are.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Any idea that somehow we have a monopoly on ingenuity
0:01:22 > 0:01:26or resilience or persistence in the face of difficulty
0:01:26 > 0:01:28absolutely goes out of the window.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31But now, despite this resilience,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33there's a crisis.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39In Scotland alone 40% of our seabirds have already been lost.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42There is apparently no food for them to bring back to the chicks,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44let alone feed themselves.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48This year, for the first time, I'm going to immerse myself
0:01:48 > 0:01:50in the lives of the birds,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53to try and understand what's happening.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57It would be such a catastrophe if they weren't here.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00They're as much part of this place as the grass.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03I'll explore man's part in their decline.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06How our lives were once intertwined with theirs.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08How we used to depend on them for food.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12It was like a carnival.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14If you can imagine a carnival where people queued
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and got buckets of seabirds.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19I'll go to Iceland, a seabird stronghold,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24where puffin-hunting is still part of every day life.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27But where the crisis has hit even harder,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30with some colonies all but wiped out.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33In some cases we come to a colony which all the chicks died
0:02:33 > 0:02:39within framework of a few days. 130,000-some dead chicks everywhere.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45I need to know if this catastrophe will come to the Shiants.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Is there a wave of extinction sweeping the north Atlantic?
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Could we really be facing the last of our great seabird summers?
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Set in a stretch of sea called the Minch,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10the Shiants are actually three separate islands.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Their cliffs and rock-strewn slopes
0:03:13 > 0:03:16make up one of the most important bird places of Europe.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23Over 150,000 puffins make their home here every summer.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29They're joined by a whole cast of other characters.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32The sleek, stylish razorbill,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and elegant chocolaty guillemot,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37who, together with the puffin,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41make up a family of deep-diving birds called Auks.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44They share this rocky home
0:03:44 > 0:03:46with the bigger and more aggressive shag,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48a close cousin of the cormorant.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53The fulmar, a relative of the albatross,
0:03:53 > 0:03:56cuts graceful circles in the air,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00and the kittiwake, named after its distinctive call,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02makes its nest clinging to the cliff face.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Together they all bring a pulsating life to the islands.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13I'm going to spend the summer with the birds
0:04:13 > 0:04:16and follow their fascinating story,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18while trying to understand
0:04:18 > 0:04:21the crisis that threatens to end this remarkable show.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30For thousands of years the birds have shared the Shiants
0:04:30 > 0:04:33with families of shepherds and farmers,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35who've left their mark on the landscape.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40But the last of them left over 100 years ago,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43when the pull of the modern world became too strong.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Today the one remaining house is used for visitors only,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and life here is unchanged.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53There's no electricity, no loo,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55and no running water.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10What I am doing, well, if you forgive plastic
0:05:10 > 0:05:12and modern saucepans...
0:05:12 > 0:05:17What I'm doing is exactly what people would have been doing here
0:05:17 > 0:05:19since the Bronze Age.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26And it's delicious, pure water,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28just seeping down through the hillside.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I did once come and there was a dead sheep lying in this,
0:05:34 > 0:05:35which wasn't so brilliant.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42This simple existence makes it easy to become embedded
0:05:42 > 0:05:44in the natural world of the Shiants.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52And for last 50 years I've been able to witness the life of the islands,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56all thanks to a decision made by my father, Nigel, also a writer.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03In 1937, when my dad was a student at Oxford
0:06:03 > 0:06:06and his mother saw an ad in the paper saying,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11"Islands for sale, early lambs, 1,200 quid."
0:06:11 > 0:06:14So he came up here for the day and fell in love with them,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and bought them there and then.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18He brought a visitors book,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20and this is the first visitors book.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23And it's very, very much like my dad,
0:06:23 > 0:06:29because everyone else writes screeds and screeds in these things,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32and he says "Nigel Nicolson,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34"a month alone with a dog."
0:06:34 > 0:06:36And that's it.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45For me, coming here year after year
0:06:45 > 0:06:47has meant spending time on the islands
0:06:47 > 0:06:50both with and without the birds.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54I've been here late in the year when the birds aren't here,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57and that is really curious. It's like a cemetery.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00There is plenty of Scottish coastline,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03not unlike this, which has no birds.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06And I go there and I think,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10'It's a book with half the alphabet missing.'
0:07:10 > 0:07:14It's almost as if the whole meaning has dropped out,
0:07:14 > 0:07:15if the birds aren't there.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27It's early May,
0:07:27 > 0:07:29and after spending nearly eight months
0:07:29 > 0:07:31dispersed throughout the North Atlantic,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33the puffins and razorbills
0:07:33 > 0:07:35are making their first tentative appearance
0:07:35 > 0:07:38in the seas around the Shiants.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44They've been out there, you know, in the wild Atlantic,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47no landmarks in sight.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50It's pure open ocean, totally alone.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53But you can't lay an egg in the sea,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and so they've got to come back here.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57It's rock that brings them here.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01And so spring comes on, and the days lengthen
0:08:01 > 0:08:03then they're back here, finding their wife,
0:08:03 > 0:08:08with this desperate and fierce urgency to breed.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Although puffins and razorbills can live for 30 years or more,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16every summer they return to the same partner,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20and set about getting reacquainted.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21Kissing.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34It's all display. It's all,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36"Come on. Come on, sweetheart."
0:08:41 > 0:08:44As the puffins arrive for the summer breeding season,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48they change from their grey, winter appearance,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51to this flamboyant orange bill and eye make-up,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54advertising their health to their mate.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00These early signs of life on the Shiants are promising,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04particularly with so many reported declines elsewhere.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07And I didn't have to wait long to be reassured
0:09:07 > 0:09:09that the birds would return en masse.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33It's puffins! They're all puffins in that.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37It's a giant wheel of them.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47It's so astonishing, these birds that have been dispersed
0:09:47 > 0:09:51across literally millions of square miles of ocean
0:09:51 > 0:09:54are now gathering here again to make the next generation.
0:09:58 > 0:10:05They're just circulating like that, over and along the colony there.
0:10:11 > 0:10:12It's phenomenal.
0:10:17 > 0:10:18I find it very moving.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34One of the reasons the birds come to the Shiants in such numbers
0:10:34 > 0:10:37is that the islands provide a safe haven.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38There's no people here
0:10:38 > 0:10:41and no predators like foxes or stoats.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46But there is one extremely unwelcome resident,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51an invasive non-native that lives in every nook and cranny.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53The black rat.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57There was a wreck in 1740s, and the rats on the wreck,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02it was on the very outer most rock over there,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06and they swam ashore and have colonised every island since.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10It's now thought that the rat population here swells
0:11:10 > 0:11:13to as many as 10,000 every summer.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17The rats prey on the seabirds.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21They eat the eggs, they eat the chicks.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24It certainly means that there are fewer seabirds here
0:11:24 > 0:11:27than there would otherwise be if there weren't any rats.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31The argument is that seabirds across the whole of this ocean
0:11:31 > 0:11:35are in an increasingly desperate condition.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39And so, if we could do something for them here,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42if we can just relieve a local burden,
0:11:42 > 0:11:44then that can only be a good thing.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51The continued health of the Shiants colonies is considered vital
0:11:51 > 0:11:54to the future of Britain's seabirds by the RSPB.
0:11:54 > 0:11:55Hello, hello!
0:11:56 > 0:12:00And as part of their response to the wider crisis, they've committed to
0:12:00 > 0:12:02a major plan to eradicate the rats,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04costing nearly a million pounds.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Hi, nice to see you again, how are things?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12It's meant that this year the Shiants have never been busier,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16playing host to groups of bird lovers and donors to the project.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22The RSPB in Scotland is headed by Stuart Housden.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27I wondered, with birds on the Shiants apparently doing so well,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30what he thought the project could achieve.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Some man in Tarbert said to me the other day,
0:12:34 > 0:12:35"Haven't you got enough?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38"What are you on about? You've got plenty of birds now."
0:12:38 > 0:12:40What's the answer?
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Well, I think the answer is we want a colony that's exporting more,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47- and growing more, that's the point. - Exporting, yeah, exactly.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49As a kind of seed bank.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51I am with that 100%.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57It's an ambitious plan, not just to protect the birds already here,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00but to strengthen and grow the colonies,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03as a kind of insurance for what might lie ahead.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08The eradication itself has to wait until the winter
0:13:08 > 0:13:11when the rat population is at its lowest.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13And it's not going to be easy -
0:13:13 > 0:13:17if one pregnant rat is missed the whole project could fail.
0:13:19 > 0:13:25An RSPB team led by ecologist Davide Scridel has started to survey
0:13:25 > 0:13:27the islands for rat activity.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30How do you know that the rats are actually here?
0:13:30 > 0:13:31Is there any sign?
0:13:31 > 0:13:34We found presence of rats throughout the island,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36not just along the seabird colonies.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40When we, for example, survey on the boulder field,
0:13:40 > 0:13:44we will surround the area of interest with some chocolate wax,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48which is a well-known method of proving.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49And this is a rat nibble?
0:13:49 > 0:13:53- This is a rat being very...- Rat nibble.- Loving the chocolate,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57coming to nibble, you can see the clear incisors.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59So they're not far away?
0:14:00 > 0:14:02No, they are there.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07But rats are not an issue everywhere.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10In colonies where the seabirds are being hit hardest,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14the problem seems to be out at sea where they find their food.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17This is shown most clearly
0:14:17 > 0:14:22by the noisiest summer visitor to the Shiants - the kittiwake.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Unlike the auks, the puffins, guillemots and razorbills,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30which can dive as deep as 100 metres or more to catch fish,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33the kittiwake, seen here feeding,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35can only forage near the surface,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39making it more vulnerable to changes in the marine environment.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41The key thing about the kittiwake
0:14:41 > 0:14:44is that it's quite a specialist, you know.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49It doesn't go very far and it can't fish very deep.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53So, if there is a slight variation in the conditions,
0:14:53 > 0:14:59then it'll read straight away into kittiwake chick production.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04And so, they are, in a way, a barometer of how things are.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08The kittiwake colony here on the Shiants is as good as I remember,
0:15:08 > 0:15:13suggesting the seas around here are providing enough fish for the birds.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18But it's not like that everywhere in Scotland.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21To try and understand why, I'm leaving the islands to go
0:15:21 > 0:15:23and see for myself.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Less than a 150 miles north-east of the Shiants,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31at Marwick Head on Orkney,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34there are kittiwake colonies in steep decline.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40These cliffs have been part of an RSPB reserve since the 1970s.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46To find out what's happened here, I've come to see Phil Taylor,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50who's in charge of the RSPB seabird recovery programme for Scotland.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53Bloody hell, look at that.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57That is incredible down there.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02The cliffs here are undoubtedly spectacular
0:16:02 > 0:16:05and at first sight all seems well.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09What we're looking at here is still a lot of birds,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12but it's not what it once was.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15How many kittiwakes were there here? On this whole headland?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18On this whole headland there was about 5,500.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19And now how many are there?
0:16:19 > 0:16:20500.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23- A 90% decline.- A 90% decline, yep.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28A tenth of the birds that were here in 2000 or 1999
0:16:28 > 0:16:30are now breeding here.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32The birds here haven't been able
0:16:32 > 0:16:34to raise enough young to replace themselves.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38So we have got an ageing population all the way along these cliffs.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41So you start to see something that's hollow...
0:16:41 > 0:16:44I mean, it looks good but there is a sort of failure going on
0:16:44 > 0:16:46inside what you are seeing?
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Yeah, that's right.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50Just around the corner, Phil takes me to a spot
0:16:50 > 0:16:54where the evidence of decline is much more graphic.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01This is a photo taken back in the '80s of this exact same cliff.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04And you can see this entire centre section here,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07in the photo full of birds,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11an entire high rise flat of kittiwake nests.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13And in this area here...
0:17:13 > 0:17:16There are hardly any, that's incredible.
0:17:16 > 0:17:17What explains that?
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Why should there be a failure here?
0:17:19 > 0:17:23One thing about kittiwakes is that they are a great indicator
0:17:23 > 0:17:25of the health of the sea around.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29We've got a full cliff of seabirds and some healthy sea out there.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34And now in front of us we have quite a bare cliff,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37showing that actually what we're looking at out here,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39this big blue mass that we can't really see into,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41isn't in the condition it should be.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45You could not think about protecting that bit of cliff there
0:17:45 > 0:17:46and the birds that live on it,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48without also thinking about how
0:17:48 > 0:17:50we protect and recover that bit of sea there.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55The sea provides all the food for our seabirds.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58In the North Atlantic and North Sea,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00their staple diet is the sand eel,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04a tiny fish that grows to no more than six inches long
0:18:04 > 0:18:08but is intensely rich in oil and packed with nutrients.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12They spend most of the year buried in the sandy bottom
0:18:12 > 0:18:17emerging in May or June to spend the summer feeding on plankton,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20in the upper ocean layers, where the birds can get at them.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Sand eels have been exploited on an industrial scale,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31turned into pig food and fertilizer,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and even used to fuel a Danish power station.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Bob Furness, a leading ornithologist,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44sees the relationship between sand eels and seabirds
0:18:44 > 0:18:47as key to their future.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50It's absolutely clear that an excessive harvest of sand eels
0:18:50 > 0:18:53reduces the breeding success of the kittiwakes.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56So for Shetland, when the sand eel stock
0:18:56 > 0:18:58falls below a certain threshold
0:18:58 > 0:19:00the breeding success goes down dramatically.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04So the breeding success is nearly zero with low abundance.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07This is what led to the closure of the sand eel fishery
0:19:07 > 0:19:09off the east coast of Scotland.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14When the sand eel fishing stopped in the year 2000,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17to start with the bird numbers rose,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20but after that the declines continued.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Over on the Shiants and the rest of the west coast,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26the birds haven't suffered as much,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30suggesting local factors must be critical.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35The sea around the islands benefits from notoriously powerful tides
0:19:35 > 0:19:37forcing the water over rough seabeds,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39stirring up nutrients
0:19:39 > 0:19:42that feed the plankton the sand eels depend on.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44And this could be one of the reasons
0:19:44 > 0:19:47the Shiants birds continue to do well.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52It's mid-June now.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54The main seabird colonies on the Shiants
0:19:54 > 0:19:57are among these boulder fields and grassy slopes.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04I'm hoping that the birds will have laid their eggs
0:20:04 > 0:20:07and that some of the chicks might have started to hatch.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11There's nowhere on the Shiants that's thicker with birds than this.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16This is like the absolutely concentrated nub of it.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23It's not really zoned, they are all in with each other.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Puffin, shag, guillemot and razorbill are all together here.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It's a pretty hard and uncompromising place,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36but it does provide all kinds of different opportunities
0:20:36 > 0:20:38for the birds to nest and breed.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43The grassy slopes next to the boulders are perfect for puffins.
0:20:45 > 0:20:46They make their home in burrows,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and although there is some infidelity in the puffins' world,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54most return with the same mate to the same burrow every year.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58This view inside the burrow, filmed on the Shiants,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01shows the puffin making preparations for a single egg,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04usually laid in early May.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08I know that the male does more of the burrow building than
0:21:08 > 0:21:12the female and often they come here absolutely
0:21:12 > 0:21:17filthy from the dirty winter burrow that they are trying to sort out.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22They also nest in hollows and crevices between the rocks.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24There's a puffin in there.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Hello, puffin.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27A little sad face.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36There's an egg in there. I think that's a razorbill egg
0:21:36 > 0:21:39and there's a bird in there, there's a razorbill in there.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45The parents will incubate the egg for about 35 days,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49taking it in turns while the other goes foraging for fish.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51A very dirty razorbill egg there.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54Another one here.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59With me poking about, some of the birds may leave the egg,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01but they'll come back when I'm gone.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07This is just the one egg that this pair is banking on.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Everything this year on that one egg.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16Land birds lay a clutch of eggs each season over their short lives.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Seabirds like razorbills and puffins
0:22:19 > 0:22:24lay only one egg each year to ensure one strong chick.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27But they do that over a much longer lifespan,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29breeding for 20 years or more.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34A strategy to carry them through years when fish are scarce.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38There's a shag, spitting!
0:22:38 > 0:22:40It's kind of this great yell...
0:22:40 > 0:22:42HE SQUAWKS
0:22:42 > 0:22:43..like that.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Shags are incredibly primitive, you know.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50They're 60-million-year-old birds,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52and flying dinosaurs, really.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55And this is like meeting a pterodactyl.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00It's just got everything. It's got this amazing green glamour sheen,
0:23:00 > 0:23:05this noise, you know, like a deep sort of voice of the earth voice.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11And those eyes! Absolute emerald brilliance in those eyes.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15And living in this kind of slum hell hole.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Oh, there are the babies!
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Ugly, ugly babies.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Look at them, dirty little things!
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Amazing creatures.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29Amazing.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42I do feel you're meeting life in the raw here,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45it's as raw as it gets.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50It's so naked and stinking.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55And sort of beautiful in an unbelievably hard
0:23:55 > 0:23:56and unforgiving way.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15This is as good as I've ever seen here.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18You know, this density of birds.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20I just love this, I love it.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Thousands of birds, they are like little moths,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29so all you hear is the wing flutter.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40It would be such a catastrophe if they weren't here.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43They're as much part of this place as the grass.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01For me, the puffins' appearance every year is deeply reassuring.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04It says that for now the natural world is working.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10But not long ago, for the inhabitants of the Shiants,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13this annual re-emergence of the birds
0:25:13 > 0:25:15meant something much more fundamental,
0:25:15 > 0:25:17more central to their lives -
0:25:17 > 0:25:20a welcome end to the hardship of winter.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43I often think of the way which people here must have looked forward
0:25:43 > 0:25:46to the moment when the seabirds arrived.
0:25:46 > 0:25:52Not only as spring coming but as deliciousness arriving,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54these two forms of life -
0:25:54 > 0:25:57completely imbedded Atlantic creatures
0:25:57 > 0:26:00that spend most of the year out in the ocean
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and people stuck here on this island
0:26:03 > 0:26:06meet for this magical three or four months in summer.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It wasn't just here on the Shiants
0:26:16 > 0:26:20that the seabirds were an essential part of life.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23The same was true for coastal and island communities
0:26:23 > 0:26:24all around Britain.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Particularly in St Kilda, over 40 miles west
0:26:29 > 0:26:34of the nearest Scottish coastline, isolated in the Atlantic.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Continuously inhabited since the Bronze Age,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42around 100 people lived here until they were evacuated in 1930.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46In terms of St Kilda, seabirds and their eggs
0:26:46 > 0:26:50were critical to their survival.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54They were harvested in huge numbers.
0:26:55 > 0:27:01But there's also really quite a high degree of self-regulation.
0:27:01 > 0:27:08The St Kildans were allocated shares in the bird cliffs,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12and indeed in the species that were taken.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17And you generally didn't take the breeding female or the male
0:27:17 > 0:27:19when they were feeding the birds,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22because otherwise you were going to starve the young.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27The harvest was organised in a very formal way.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30It was built up
0:27:30 > 0:27:32by acute observation,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35and the accumulation of knowledge over generations.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39I don't think one can emphasise that too much.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42But the breakdown of subsistence cultures
0:27:42 > 0:27:45means that there is no longer
0:27:45 > 0:27:50this intimate relationship with the natural world.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Today communities have ceased to depend on seabirds
0:27:53 > 0:27:56for their survival.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59But on the Hebridean islands of Lewis and Harris,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02there are those who still remember taking birds on the Shiants
0:28:02 > 0:28:03as part of everyday life.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10Now we used to go out there to get the puffins, you know.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Puffins were a very delicacy then.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16You could almost walk across to Mary Island
0:28:16 > 0:28:20with how thick they were, you know.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23We would have a belt round our waist here.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27Once we had the belt full of puffins,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29we'd put them in a bag,
0:28:29 > 0:28:31and then when we got home with them here,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36we plucked them and then they would be roasted in a pot.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38A pot roast.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40We used to eat the cormorants here.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43How often? Maybe twice a week.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Used to be cormorant soup at one time.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50But other birds we used to eat as well was guillemots,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54and every sea bird you could think of.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Donald Morrison, whose father was born on the Shiants in the 1890s,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01also remembers when eating seabirds was common place.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21The catching and eating of gannets, our largest seabird,
0:29:21 > 0:29:26is a tradition stretching back through the centuries.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30Bass Rock, just a mile off the east coast of Scotland,
0:29:30 > 0:29:36has the largest colony of northern gannets in the world,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39and a long history of their predation.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48I mean, it's completely raw life and death...
0:29:48 > 0:29:51'Maggie Sheddan has been bringing visitors here
0:29:51 > 0:29:53'for the last ten years.'
0:29:56 > 0:29:59I mean they were so desired.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03This was money, this was a prime crop to have.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06From about the 13th century, this was the industry.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08Across here in Kantra bay,
0:30:08 > 0:30:10this was very much were the birds were taken to,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13so the innkeepers there, they would have their boats,
0:30:13 > 0:30:15they would come out and collect the birds.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18They were then roasted, often wrapped in rhubarb leaves,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22and from there, the oil drained off as they were roasting.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25Now that was gathered cause it was thought to be medicinal.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27What would they use the gannet oil for?
0:30:27 > 0:30:30It was thickened and made into a salve,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33so I think it was a cure-all -
0:30:33 > 0:30:37rheumatism, gout, you name it, cuts, bruises.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42But if you think about it, it's incredibly rich in fish oil,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47because their source is generally very oily fish.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52- He came right down. - He did.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54Did they take eggs as well?
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Yes, eggs have been on Buckingham Palace dining table.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01So they really were... this was luxury food.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07For centuries people managed to harvest seabirds sustainably.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10But when they began to exploit them on industrial levels
0:31:10 > 0:31:12the effect was disastrous.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Here at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow,
0:31:18 > 0:31:20there's a potent reminder of a time
0:31:20 > 0:31:24when greed pushed our relationship with the birds too far,
0:31:24 > 0:31:25and drove to extinction
0:31:25 > 0:31:28a creature once found throughout the North Atlantic.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Oh, fantastic.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37The great auk.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41Look at him. He's huge, like a giant razorbill.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Imagine that stomping round the place.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48This is the very first time
0:31:48 > 0:31:50I've ever looked a great auk in the eye.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54It looks amazingly alive.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56You can just imagine it. Aach!
0:31:56 > 0:32:00These were the birds that people called the penguin first
0:32:00 > 0:32:02and what we now know as penguins
0:32:02 > 0:32:04were only called penguins
0:32:04 > 0:32:09because when people went to the Southern Ocean, to Antarctica,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12they reminded them, the birds they saw there, of these.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16And flightless. You see its little wings
0:32:16 > 0:32:21are obviously no good for flying. They are just swimming wings.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23And this fantastic
0:32:23 > 0:32:26thick, matted, feathery chest.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30That's one of the reasons that they're gone,
0:32:30 > 0:32:31that people killed them,
0:32:31 > 0:32:33because of that huge mass of feathers.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36You wouldn't need many great auks for a pillow.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39There's no doubt that in the 19th century
0:32:39 > 0:32:42people went for these things in the most rapacious,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44greedy, thoughtless way.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48They literally herded them into their ships.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52They tied the sails from the sides of the boat onto the rock
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and then herded the great auks into the hold across the sails.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00Incapable of escape,
0:33:00 > 0:33:01couldn't fly away,
0:33:01 > 0:33:02just knocked on the head.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13The nail in the coffin as far as the great auk are concerned
0:33:13 > 0:33:18would appear to be feather companies having exhausted
0:33:18 > 0:33:25supplies of eiderdown, taking the great auk for feathers.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27And the harvests were phenomenal,
0:33:27 > 0:33:30it would seem, year upon year,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and it would appear that was the end of the great auk.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Its feathers were mainly used for bedding,
0:33:38 > 0:33:41but at the same time as the last great auk was killed
0:33:41 > 0:33:43in the middle of the 19th century,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46another market was growing that spread the net much wider.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53The millinery trade was becoming far more important.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57In other words, it was fashionable for females
0:33:57 > 0:34:00to wear feathers in their hats, one way or another.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10The numbers involved were staggering.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13More than five million birds were killed each year
0:34:13 > 0:34:16to satisfy the American trade alone,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18with a story from the end of the 19th century
0:34:18 > 0:34:20of one enterprising business
0:34:20 > 0:34:25killing 40,000 sea birds to meet the demands of a single hat-maker.
0:34:28 > 0:34:34This led to an absolutely massive slaughter of sea birds.
0:34:34 > 0:34:40The best known example, perhaps, is at Bempton in East Yorkshire,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43where the birds were shot,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45the wings were removed
0:34:45 > 0:34:48and the carcasses were simply thrown into the sea.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51And it was also shooting for sport,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54going out in boats and taking pot shots at the birds,
0:34:54 > 0:34:58so there is a revulsion that begins to emerge
0:34:58 > 0:35:02and this quite rightly, quite understandably,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04was seen as unacceptable
0:35:04 > 0:35:08and it led to the formation of the first, as it were,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12bird protection society, I think in Bridlington,
0:35:12 > 0:35:19which in turn led to the first of the sea bird preservation acts.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23The act was a turning point, the beginning of the end
0:35:23 > 0:35:26of thousands of years of harvesting sea birds.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30The moment when our relationship with the birds started to shift
0:35:30 > 0:35:32from consumption to conservation.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36But there is one place in the British Isles
0:35:36 > 0:35:38where the old relationship has endured.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47- NEWSREEL NARRATOR:- At midnight on this last day of summer,
0:35:47 > 0:35:4912 men of Ness will sail north for 40 miles
0:35:49 > 0:35:52to an isolated, cruel Atlantic Rock called Sulasgier.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59That lonely rock has attracted the Ness men for centuries past.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02They go there every year for a strange September harvest.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15This ancient tradition, first recorded here in the 16th century,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18is the taking for food of young gannets known as gugas.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36The oily flesh has always been prized by people here.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42It's preserved in salt and boiled before it's eaten
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and even today it's thought of as a delicacy.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04The hunters all come from a small, remote town called Ness
0:37:04 > 0:37:07on the northern tip of the Outer Hebrides.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14I wondered why this place and its people had kept the tradition alive.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18Donald Murray has written a book about the guga hunt.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20He grew up here in Ness
0:37:20 > 0:37:24and vividly remembers the atmosphere surrounding the hunters' return.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28It was almost the centrepiece of Ness. It was like a carnival,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30if you can imagine a carnival where the people queued
0:37:30 > 0:37:33and got buckets of sea birds.
0:37:33 > 0:37:34And there used to be a queue.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37I remember being part of that queue,
0:37:37 > 0:37:41waiting for the hallowed bird to arrive, you know?
0:37:41 > 0:37:44There was absolutely no doubt it was a thrill
0:37:44 > 0:37:48because in some ways it was a statement of your identity.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Did anyone feel, when you were young,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53that this wasn't the right thing to be doing?
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Nobody. I think there was a kind of uniformity of view.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59Nobody questioned the need for it.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02And, you know, at a time when I think so much of the identity
0:38:02 > 0:38:04of this place was under threat,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07you know, you were saying to the rest of the world,
0:38:07 > 0:38:09"We dare to be different here."
0:38:09 > 0:38:13What was the impact here of the growing movement in England
0:38:13 > 0:38:15to conserve these birds,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17people feeling that they were under pressure?
0:38:17 > 0:38:19We've seen the outsider coming in
0:38:19 > 0:38:21and telling us what to do for centuries.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24You know, language being banned.
0:38:24 > 0:38:25Someone like my grandfather
0:38:25 > 0:38:29having to wear a bolt of the wood around his neck
0:38:29 > 0:38:31for speaking Gaelic in the playground.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36So, in a way, the sea bird you hunt here is basically saying,
0:38:36 > 0:38:37"This far and no further.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42"We don't want you to take away this.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44"We must retain some part of our identity
0:38:44 > 0:38:46"because the rest is under threat."
0:38:48 > 0:38:53This defiance led to the hunt being officially recognised in 1954
0:38:53 > 0:38:56and it is now licensed to take 2,000 gannets each year.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02Today, the harvesting of gugas by this group of men,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04although rooted in the past,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06is not just a ritual.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08There is still value in it
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and although it doesn't harm the gannet population,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13it is an anomaly in modern Britain.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18But there is a place where taking birds like this
0:39:18 > 0:39:21is still widespread -
0:39:21 > 0:39:23Iceland,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25the sea bird stronghold of the North Atlantic
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and home to over half the world's puffins.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32I've come here because I want to understand
0:39:32 > 0:39:36how the puffin hunting tradition continues as part of modern life.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40My destination is a tiny island called Grimsey,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42just on the Arctic Circle,
0:39:42 > 0:39:4425 miles off Iceland's north coast.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48How nice to see you.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55I've never before landed through a cloud of sea birds like that.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59There are millions and millions of Arctic terns here.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03Beautiful little things, just dancing over the whole airport.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05You can hear them just screeching.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09Lovely long swallow tails.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14In Scotland, Arctic terns are one of the worst hit species.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Over 70% of the birds are gone.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21They, like the kittiwakes, are surface feeders,
0:40:21 > 0:40:23so they just dabble around in the surface of the sea
0:40:23 > 0:40:25picking up sand eels and things like that,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28so this is lovely to see this here.
0:40:32 > 0:40:33Puffins!
0:40:33 > 0:40:36There are Puffins there at the airport.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Oh, look at that. A huge flock of them,
0:40:41 > 0:40:46You get out of a plane and literally within seconds
0:40:46 > 0:40:51you are surrounded by some of the great birds of the North Atlantic.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56People think of the north as sterile and hostile and so cold,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59but this is just burgeoning with life.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02We shouldn't be amazed by this.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05I mean, that's what feels weird about it.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07This is what the whole ocean should be like.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11It's incredibly exciting to see it.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15Even the kittiwake is booming.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18The great barometer of the ocean's health,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21these teeming clouds of birds
0:41:21 > 0:41:23show that here in the north of Iceland,
0:41:23 > 0:41:25the marine system is working.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Grimsey was first settled by the Vikings 1,000 years ago
0:41:31 > 0:41:34and, today, 77 inhabitants remain.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39The islanders are largely supported by the prolific cod
0:41:39 > 0:41:42fishery in the surrounding seas,
0:41:42 > 0:41:44but fish isn't all they catch.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48For Icelanders across the country,
0:41:48 > 0:41:51sea bird hunting remains a powerful tradition,
0:41:51 > 0:41:53nowhere more than on this island.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58Hello there.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02I'm here to meet Siggi Henningsson and his wife Harpa.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04- Hi.- Hello.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08- How are you? I'm Adam.- Harpa. - Very nice to meet you.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Yes, Harpa, so where is your husband?
0:42:11 > 0:42:13He is hunting some puffins.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16- Is he, actually, now? - Yeah, look outside the window.
0:42:16 > 0:42:17- What? He's out there?- Yeah.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Can you just literally walk out of the house and hunt puffins?
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Yes, you can. There they are.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Coming with a bag full of puffins.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28- Ah, no.- That's my son with the blue hat.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31- No.- He's coming over here with the bags.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35- Can I go out there?- Yeah.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40'I'm here to see puffin hunting first hand...
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Siggi, hi. I'm Adam.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45'..but the matter of fact reality of it comes as a bit of shock.'
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Oh, look. There, if you like,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55is the Icelandic tradition made flesh.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59- No-one does this, you know, in Scotland any more.- No. No.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02- It's stopped?- No-one. It's stopped, yes.
0:43:02 > 0:43:08And so, it used to be a tradition in Britain to catch them,
0:43:08 > 0:43:09but not now.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15'Siggi's been puffin hunting since he was 12 years old,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17'although he makes his living fishing for cod.'
0:43:17 > 0:43:19- How far down is it? - Just down there.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23It must be the only place in the world
0:43:23 > 0:43:27you can walk out of your house and catch a puffin just like this.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30'These cliffs are owned by the Icelandic government,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34'who restrict the puffin hunting to 45 days each summer.'
0:43:34 > 0:43:37- So you rent this bit of land here? - Yeah.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39- Does that give you the right to take these puffins?- Yeah.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41And nobody else can come here?
0:43:41 > 0:43:44- I always let my friends.- Friends?
0:43:44 > 0:43:49When people ask me if they can catch to eat, no problem.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56That's sweet.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59- OK. Can I come next to you here?- Just here.- Yeah.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03- OK, so you have to hide a little bit.- Yeah.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05But you are in orange.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Sometimes it's better to have something like this
0:44:08 > 0:44:12- because he is very curious what it is.- Yeah.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14The puffin thinks, "Oh, what is that little thing there?"
0:44:14 > 0:44:18- He wants to go closer and see.- OK.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31- You have to look at them when they are coming...- Yeah.
0:44:31 > 0:44:32..and pick one.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35- If you look at...- Too many. - ..five or six,
0:44:35 > 0:44:37- then you don't catch anything. - Right.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43Oh, wow!
0:44:43 > 0:44:45That's was yards out in the sky.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Wow!
0:44:47 > 0:44:49'I'm struck by Siggi's skill,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53'but I'm less sure how I feel about witnessing the killing of a puffin.'
0:44:56 > 0:44:59Just one twist and he's done.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00Is he dead? He's still moving.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02- It's just the kick. - Afterwards, yeah.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07He's gone, yes.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10He's still flickering, a bit of life.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13- That's just the kicks. - It's just the nerves. Yes, I know.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18If we just leave him there for now.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20'I want to be OK with this.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23'Siggi's certainly retained a connectedness
0:45:23 > 0:45:25'to the birds that we've lost,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29'but it's much harder than I expected to watch a puffin die.'
0:45:30 > 0:45:33You know, a lot of people if they see someone doing this
0:45:33 > 0:45:35will think, "How could you?"
0:45:35 > 0:45:40Every bird is OK to catch them if you just do it right.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Don't be greedy.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Don't catch too much.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52If we saw some change of the puffin here,
0:45:52 > 0:45:57I think the men who are catching the puffin would stop.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00'Siggi and his fellow hunters are clearly aware of their possible
0:46:00 > 0:46:02'impact on the puffins,
0:46:02 > 0:46:04'but with looming declines elsewhere,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07'I struggle to get behind the killing of any sea birds.'
0:46:08 > 0:46:10When you take a bird and you kill a bird like that,
0:46:10 > 0:46:14do you feel any sense of it not being the right thing to do?
0:46:16 > 0:46:17No.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23I think it's just we catch them to eat,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26so I don't see any different.
0:46:26 > 0:46:27- It's just meat.- Yep. Yeah.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34It is still flickering its life.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43It's strange to see the last moments of life
0:46:43 > 0:46:45going out of a creature like that.
0:46:47 > 0:46:48Yeah.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55- Shall we go and...- Prepare them? - ..take off?
0:46:55 > 0:46:57- Yeah.- Yeah, lovely, let's do that.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00'There's certainly nothing antique or nostalgic
0:47:00 > 0:47:02about Siggi's harvest.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09From his bright orange outfit and now this quad bike,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12there's an everyday modernity that I wasn't expecting.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17Instead of making a mess in the house,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Siggi prefers to butcher the puffins
0:47:20 > 0:47:22in his fish processing shed by the harbour.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26And I naively think I can lend a hand.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32There they are.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37You take it like this
0:47:37 > 0:47:40and you can feel his neck.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45- Take it like this. - Ai-ai-ai.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48Like this.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52And there you have the breast of a puffin.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56- Just the meat and the breast.- You do that as neatly as catching it.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59I mean, everything about you, Siggi,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02it's done with such economy and precision.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04I'm going to leave you to it
0:48:04 > 0:48:06cos I will make a horrible mess of it.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12'The dexterity with which Siggi deals with the birds is impressive,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16'but I still cannot get past my lifetime's love of the puffin.'
0:48:18 > 0:48:20When I look at that, I think,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23"Wow. You pay quite a high price for this meat."
0:48:23 > 0:48:27You know, that is what we are getting,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29but this is the price in here and it's quite high.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Have you ever had people here who have had come to tell you
0:48:39 > 0:48:44- that doing this is a bad thing? - Yeah, we have, maybe twice.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50One woman asked me how can I kill this bird.
0:48:52 > 0:48:53Was she upset?
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Yes, she thought we were monsters.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Did you imagine that or did she say that?
0:48:59 > 0:49:02She said, "You're a monster."
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Really?
0:49:07 > 0:49:10'Back at the house I am looking forward to some traditional
0:49:10 > 0:49:11'Icelandic cuisine.'
0:49:13 > 0:49:14What is the method, Harpa?
0:49:15 > 0:49:17What is your method?
0:49:17 > 0:49:19There is no method.
0:49:19 > 0:49:20No method. It's method free.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26- It's a nice bed.- Mm-hm. - Then you put sauce in.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31Hunt's Honey Mustard BBQ Sauce. Improved recipe.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34- This is not an old Grimsey recipe? - No.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38It comes from, let me have a look. Let's just have a quick look.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Comes from Omaha. Sorry. Omaha.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45- Do you want all of this in there? - Eh, yeah.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49- It takes skill to do this.- Yeah. - It's years of tradition in action.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52So, OK, what do we do? Just lay them out here?
0:49:52 > 0:49:54This is quite strange for me, you know?
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Because I have loved puffins from afar all my life
0:49:59 > 0:50:02and so to see so many of them laid out here
0:50:02 > 0:50:05like this, in this foil,
0:50:05 > 0:50:07is slightly troubling for me.
0:50:07 > 0:50:08I have to admit that.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14Is it too hot to handle?
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Oi! Careful! Woo!
0:50:19 > 0:50:21I've got that. I've got it.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23My mouth is watering.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25'However conflicted my feelings,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29'it's abundantly clear that there's no issue for Harpa and Siggi.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33'It's me that brings a hands-off conservationist culture
0:50:33 > 0:50:36'that has no place here.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38'But even knowing the birds are plentiful
0:50:38 > 0:50:41'doesn't make this process any easier for me.'
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Come on. Don't be stupid, Adam.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Don't be sentimental.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47It's meat.
0:50:55 > 0:50:56Here we go.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Very good. Very saucy.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09- It tastes very much of the sauce. - Yeah.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Delicious.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16It's like a game bird. It's like a wild duck.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20'Siggi, of course, more than anyone
0:51:20 > 0:51:23'wants the birds to be here next year.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25'Wherever people have hunted sea birds,
0:51:25 > 0:51:27'this has nearly always been the case.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33'His taking of puffins might be part of modern day-to-day life,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37'but is actually rooted in an ancient subsistence relationship.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40'I love the idea of this way of being,
0:51:40 > 0:51:46'but in truth, in my world the puffin's been so romanticised,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49'the possibility of a relationship like Siggi's has long gone.'
0:51:53 > 0:51:54Back on the Shiants,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56the sharp end of our relationship with the birds
0:51:56 > 0:51:59is all about conservation,
0:51:59 > 0:52:01although in an echo of Siggi's,
0:52:01 > 0:52:03it still involves a form of hunting.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08These men are part of a network of volunteers
0:52:08 > 0:52:10who monitor bird numbers and movements
0:52:10 > 0:52:12for the British Trust for Ornithology.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Jim Lennon and his team come here every year
0:52:18 > 0:52:22to ring and recapture as many of the Shiants sea birds as they can.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27- It's absolutely stuffed with birds here, isn't it?- Yes.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29'It's now July and, all being well,
0:52:29 > 0:52:30'the chicks will be hatched
0:52:30 > 0:52:34'and the parents should be bringing in fish for their young.'
0:52:34 > 0:52:37You can see that bird up there carrying a lot of sand eels.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39Oh, look at that!
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Isn't that lovely? That's the first lot I've seen this year.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47One, two, three, four, five,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49six, seven, eight, nine,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52- ten sand eels.- Yeah.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Fantastic.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57'The team will be on the Shiants for two weeks,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01'and in that time they'll ring around 2,000 birds of all species.'
0:53:12 > 0:53:15- Jim, is this a guillemot?- Yes.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17Oh, look at you.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22Quivering. Still got some of the inside of the egg here.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Imagine being born into that. Christ.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28That's a sweet thing. Would that be a week old?
0:53:28 > 0:53:30- Three weeks.- Three weeks.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32How long before that one heads out to sea?
0:53:32 > 0:53:35- Another week or so.- Right. - I think it'll be gone before us.
0:53:35 > 0:53:36Yeah, OK.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38So how old is that one little one?
0:53:38 > 0:53:40A week, ten days, I suppose.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43- Half the age, then? - At least, yeah.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47- And this growth is entirely fuelled by sand eels.- Sand eels, yeah.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Look at that chick.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52'The shag chicks are the first to hatch,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56'but need up to two months in the nest before they can fly.'
0:53:56 > 0:53:59This is being in touch with the alien.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Crikey! Hello, hello.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07It's all right. No, we're friends, we're friends.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09I'm not going to eat you.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12There are people alive ten miles from here
0:54:12 > 0:54:16who would have done exactly what you've done to eat this.
0:54:16 > 0:54:22- The whole idea of eating them is abhorrent.- Abhorrent, yes.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25'Dave's hunting technique is not unlike Siggi's,
0:54:25 > 0:54:27'even if the intention here is very different.'
0:54:30 > 0:54:33- It's like fishing. - Yep, it's like fishing.
0:54:35 > 0:54:36Bridled guillemot.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39That's a lovely, lovely guillemot.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41It does a get a bit tangled on the wing.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46I've never been so close up to a guillemot as that.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Isn't that beautiful?
0:54:48 > 0:54:50What a thing.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53That looks incredibly easy.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55If you were here catching your dinner,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57you could get any number you like, couldn't you?
0:54:57 > 0:55:02You really could and if you're reliant on it as a food source
0:55:02 > 0:55:04and made the effort, there's no reason you couldn't get
0:55:04 > 0:55:06several hundred in a day.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Yep, there you go.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12That was niftily done, though.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Look, a lovely razorbill.
0:55:18 > 0:55:19OK. Lovely.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24I always think their heads look very sort of 1930s Germanic.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26A Nazi? Is that what you're trying to say?
0:55:26 > 0:55:30Well, that kid of art style, not necessarily the politics.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34They're sleek, aren't they? I think they look like gangsters.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36Are you sure you don't want to put it in here?
0:55:36 > 0:55:38No, I'm all right. The bird's quite comfortable.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40Ring ending 995.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43'The ring provides information on the age
0:55:43 > 0:55:47'and movements of the bird according to when and where it's re-caught.'
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Just above the ankle, so to speak.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52- Between the knee and the ankle. - Right.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56'This data helps build up a picture of how the colonies are doing
0:55:56 > 0:55:59'and is invaluable in monitoring the current crisis.'
0:55:59 > 0:56:02The number we mark and recapture, you can begin to calculate,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04"Is the adult population stable and surviving?"
0:56:04 > 0:56:06The last two or three years,
0:56:06 > 0:56:08the birds that are here are breeding quite well
0:56:08 > 0:56:10and there seems to be good fish supplies.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13So they can accommodate not breeding very well for a year or two
0:56:13 > 0:56:15and the population will be fine on the whole?
0:56:15 > 0:56:18- Yes, but if it's five years, they've got a problem.- Right. OK.
0:56:20 > 0:56:21And off.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26We have come a long way from the traditional sea bird harvest,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30via careless slaughter and even extinction,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33to arrive at today's conservation movement
0:56:33 > 0:56:35with all its sensitivities.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43But there is an irony here.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46We are doing all we can for the birds on land,
0:56:46 > 0:56:50but I wonder if the greatest problem is elsewhere,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52that it's the ocean our birds depend on
0:56:52 > 0:56:54that we need to turn our attention to now.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00In the second programme, I look more deeply at the sea bird collapse
0:57:00 > 0:57:04and discover the global forces behind the crisis.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09In the mid 1990s, that boundary moved westwards
0:57:09 > 0:57:11and that allowed more sub-tropical water
0:57:11 > 0:57:12to flood this area west of the UK.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17I join puffin hunters in the south of Iceland,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20where some colonies are all but gone...
0:57:20 > 0:57:23We have never seen as few puffins as this summer.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28..and tap into their knowledge from a lifetime with the birds.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31We are still optimistic that they will come back.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38I see first-hand evidence of how the marine food chain is shifting.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42These are the rivals that the sea birds have got to compete with.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49Meanwhile, on the Shiants, conservation gathers momentum...
0:57:49 > 0:57:50A tag.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52..as GPS tracking technology arrives.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03And a remarkable new visitor is enticed to the islands.
0:58:03 > 0:58:05Hey, look at that!
0:58:05 > 0:58:08What an exquisite thing. Look at that.
0:58:11 > 0:58:12And on Bass Rock,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15I confront the idea of a sea bird summer
0:58:15 > 0:58:18dominated by a single species.