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  • 6/5/2025
Landward episode 10 2025
Transcript
00:00This time we're meeting a few doing their bit for Scotland's wildlife. Welcome to Landwirt.
00:08Hello from the Trotternish Peninsula on the northern tip of Skye. Now this is a traditional
00:34crofting area where the land is used for crops and grazing livestock. In a moment I'll be
00:39meeting the crofters making a secretive summer visitor feel welcome. But first here's what else
00:44is coming up. Shabazz is heading for Ilza Craig on a mission to protect the birds.
00:54Rosie suits up to deal with some alien invaders. Within four weeks you would expect the plant to
01:00be more or less dead. And we meet the man who brought life back to this river.
01:13But first, all through the summer Scotland's farmers are out cutting their silage crops.
01:18But here in Kilmure crofters are not jumping into their tractors just yet. They're giving
01:24some space and time to an elusive and rare bird that visits each summer.
01:33Once common across farmland in Scotland, the corn creek is now only found in a handful of places.
01:44Like here in Skye where Sheila Parleen from the RSPB is looking and listening out for them.
01:51Hi Sheila, good to see you. Hello. What a glorious day.
01:55It's gorgeous. Fantastic isn't it? So what are you seeing?
01:58We're looking down on kind of some classic croft land I suppose. Lots of birds. There's
02:03house martins, there's cuckoo, there's peewits on the hill. But no corn crakes?
02:07You don't see corn crakes. Their instinct is to stay hidden in the vegetation. It's a small
02:12migratory bird. It's just a little bit bigger than a blackbird. And they come here to breed
02:18between April and September, October. They go to the Congo Basin in Africa for wintering. But their
02:24call is extremely loud, extremely repetitive and they do it all night. Do it. Cracks, cracks.
02:31There you go. This is the call of a male corn crake. During the mating season, each bird can make
02:42this call around six million times, but mostly at night time. But by 2023, these fields were
02:52almost silent. With only 14 birds recorded.
03:01Farming is their habitat. And so as farming mechanised, they just couldn't keep up with it.
03:06They nest in the hay in the silage fields. And as farming intensified, crops would be taken
03:12in more multiple times through the seasons that the corn crakes just couldn't maintain
03:16a population. They couldn't breed. They couldn't successfully raise chicks.
03:20The only way to save the birds was to get crofters and farmers involved to change the way they
03:26manage their crops. So a task force called the Sky Crofting and Corn Crake Partnership was set
03:33up. The crofters happily signed up where we were oversubscribed with interest in this
03:40scheme. Great. So is there someone I can speak to about that then?
03:43Well, down in this area here we have David McInnes, who's one of the many star mowers we
03:49have on the island here. Right, I'm going to go and chat to him then. But hang around,
03:52I'll come back and speak to you later. Nice to see you.
03:54David runs the family's eight acre croft and has made some big changes to the way he does
04:05things. Before we were involved in it, it was mostly grazing cattle and sheep in every
04:11kind of corner we could get to with a tractor and mower, you know. It's managed quite a bit
04:16differently now. We're not grazing as heavily on certain bits of the croft. It helps the
04:25corn crake a lot more when the grass is longer, gives them better cover.
04:31Livestock are moved off the fields from mid-May to let the grasses grow. David also waits later
04:37until August to cut his silage.
04:40And what's your mowing strategy then?
04:42Well, the mowing strategy is when you come into the field initially, you've got to cut
04:47from the inside of the field outwards. It's supposed to be pushing the birds out to safer
04:54areas in the field.
04:55And what about this year? Have you heard them back already?
04:58Yes, just the other night there I was hearing three or four in a small area down the road
05:03here. A couple of nights ago I was hearing another one just below the house over by.
05:07Nice to hear them.
05:08Well, it keeps you up at night. Yeah, it is very nice to hear them now.
05:15The scheme pays crofters like David to delay mowing until August when the first brood of
05:22chicks will have hatched. But for him, the rewards are bigger than that.
05:28Why is it important then for you to have the corn crake on your crop?
05:32It's important because it was here before us. It's the little things that count, you know,
05:36things like less grazing and higher grass sward. And if it helps them, it's helping us too,
05:44you know.
05:44And it's working. Last year, 27 male corn crakes were recorded on Skye. A significant rise. And
05:56Sheila hopes this good work will continue.
05:59The fact that we still have a corn crake population here in Skye is testament to successful teamwork.
06:05More importantly, they're a kind of umbrella species that if you've got corn crakes, if
06:10you've got a thriving corn crake population, it means something else is right about the
06:14environment. Your soils will be healthy. You're producing nice, healthy, diverse grasses.
06:20You know, nature's doing well.
06:21Non-native invasive species are one of the biggest threats to habitats in Scotland. And river catchments
06:34are particularly vulnerable. But every summer, some hardy individuals head out there and tackle
06:40this growing problem. Roses in angus to meet some of them and discover what's lurking down by the river.
06:51Walk along any riverbank at this time of year, and there's a pretty good chance you'll see some of this.
07:04It looks like it's taking over here on the banks of the North Esk.
07:10Callum Sinclair from government agency Nature Scott can tell me what it is and why it's here.
07:17I've spotted something that's pretty nasty looking.
07:20Well, it could well be giant hogweed. Giant hogweed grows along rivers, the banks in Scotland, and is pretty nasty. So you're right.
07:27Okay, and is it native to Scotland?
07:30It's not at all native to Scotland. That's from the Caucasus, and it was brought to Britain in about 1820.
07:40Introduced as an ornamental pond plant, it's gone rogue and become a threat to our native flora and fauna.
07:50Giant hogweed grows to be a giant plant, you know, it's massive, eight to ten feet high, and when it gets to that size, it outshades the other plants that should be growing on the riverbank.
08:00So the native plants that should be there, and the little animals and insects that should be using those native plants, simply don't get a chance, because the hogweed bullies them out the way.
08:08And because it spreads so readily, and it can disperse so quickly by lots and lots of seeds, you know, once it's in a place, the problem can spread very quickly.
08:16And in the back of my mind, as a wee girl, I think I was told never to touch hogweed.
08:20You definitely don't want to touch it, you're absolutely right.
08:22Hogweed is a dangerous plant. It's got little bristles, and it's got phytotoxic sap, so that when it comes in contact with the skin, and then sunlight catches the sap on your skin, it can cause burns and blisters.
08:33And those blisters can actually come back year on year when exposed to the sun again.
08:38That's really nasty. So you have to be really careful when you're tackling it then.
08:41Totally. When we're controlling it, we've all got protective clothing on, we've got gloves, and we've got to be trained people that are close to these plants so that we can treat it safely.
08:52Kat Cooper is one of them. She's part of CC, the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative.
08:59The project was set up by the Scottish Government, and Kat's battling hard, to keep this unwelcome guest under control.
09:08Kat, you're suited and booted. How are you doing?
09:11Hi, Rosie. I'm good, thanks. How are you?
09:12Good, good. You're looking very industrious.
09:14Can I come and give you a hand?
09:16Yes, absolutely. You will need to put on some PPE first.
09:19This may not be the most fetching outfit, but to be safe, it's essential for the work I'm about to do.
09:33How long will this actually take to take effect?
09:37So depending on the weather, you'd probably be looking at about two weeks to start seeing some yellowing, and then within four weeks you would expect the plant to be more or less dead.
09:47And it seems a huge amount of work. Are you a one-woman band?
09:51We have lots of volunteers who help us out across the whole project on the South Esk and the North Esk where we are today.
09:57We have got some excellent people who put in so much time.
10:00Fortunately, it's not a one-woman job. Everyone who has any sort of interest in the river takes part.
10:07And if I were to see any whilst I was out and about, what would I do?
10:10Report it to the CC website.
10:13So it's not something that I would want to try and tackle myself.
10:15No, absolutely not. All of our project officers are trained on the safe use of pesticides.
10:22Okay. And you do need the full hazmat suit.
10:25Yes.
10:26As fetching as it is, you do need to be safe.
10:28Yeah, I think just due to the nature of the plant and its phototoxic sap, you're definitely better to wear PPE.
10:35Job done. Now Kat's going to show me what all my hard work will achieve one day.
10:46Along with her four-legged friend, Roag.
10:50Kat, there's no hogweed.
10:51Yeah, so this site's been under control. There's been control work done here since 2019.
10:57As you can see, it has almost completely regenerated.
11:01And from a safety point of view, with Roag at your feet, is he okay to be here now?
11:06Yeah, absolutely. I think this is, you know, more or less cleared.
11:09This is a really popular area of the North East.
11:11You do have children who come here and swim quite regularly.
11:14Previously, there would not have been any way that you would have children playing in this area
11:19because it was just too dangerous.
11:20Whereas now, plenty of space for them to get down to the river and play.
11:27The work that Kat and the team have done here has been a long-term project.
11:32But as you can see, it's been well worth the effort
11:35because this place is absolutely thriving with plants and insects.
11:39But best of all, it's a safe place to be.
11:47From one invasive species to another now,
11:50an attempt to stop them before they get established.
11:55Shabazz is in Ayrshire,
11:57heading for an island bird colony that needs some protection.
12:06Rising out of the first of Clyde,
12:08this 99-hectare outcrop of volcanic granite
12:12is one of our most distinctive islands.
12:15Ailsa Craig.
12:18It's the source of our nation's famous curling stones.
12:22But it's also one of Europe's most significant seabird colonies.
12:26And that's why I'm heading there today.
12:27Leaving Girvan Harbour is a group of conservationists
12:37and a dog.
12:41They're part of the Biosecurity for Life project.
12:45Laura Bambini is in charge.
12:47We're all about safe-gliding seabird islands.
12:53So seabirds are really vulnerable to brave predators,
12:57things like rats and things that would eat their eggs and chicks.
13:02And that's one of the reasons why they breed on islands, seabirds,
13:06because these mammals don't tend to be panked on islands.
13:10So Biosecurity for Scotland and our sister projects
13:14are working to prevent arrivals of new predatory mammals.
13:19Any new species that arrives will cause disruption.
13:23But for the seabirds in particular,
13:26predators are really devastating.
13:28They just haven't evolved any coping mechanisms with this.
13:32They tend to just sit there completely defenseless.
13:34And the seabirds on Ailsa Craig were completely defenseless.
13:49When brown rats arrived on shipwrecks in 1889,
13:53they spread fast.
13:58The invading rats hit the island seabird colonies hard.
14:04By 1935, puffins were wiped out,
14:08with gannets, gulls and fulmers hanging on.
14:13For a century later, in 1989, an eradication programme began.
14:18Just three years later, the island was declared wrathful.
14:23And the team are here to keep it that way.
14:27Rats are still a risk.
14:30Stowaways on boats can end upon shore.
14:32And even if the vessel doesn't land,
14:34rats can swim up to a kilometre.
14:37Laura's team have created a network on the nature reserve
14:40to keep an eye out for unwanted mammals.
14:44Hannah Linton, from Nature Scott,
14:46is busy setting up something
14:48called a biosecurity surveillance station.
14:50Hi Hannah, what are we doing here?
14:53Hi.
14:53What are we doing here?
14:54We're just setting up bait traps.
14:57So this is just one of our methods
14:58that we use to detect whether rats are present on the island.
15:03So we've got this wax block,
15:05which is normally flavoured with cocoa or peanut butter,
15:10which the rats quite like.
15:12And when we come back to check on it,
15:14maybe in a month's time or something like that,
15:17we'll see no marks on it.
15:18The idea is just to see if they've been chewing at it,
15:20we know they've been here.
15:21Yeah, exactly.
15:22And we just put it inside the box, basically,
15:25and close that up.
15:27And that is it.
15:29And we'll just put that in there
15:30and find something heavy to pop on top.
15:33Can we weigh it down with some Ilsa Craig granite?
15:36Definitely.
15:39But there are other techniques being deployed.
15:42Remember that dog?
15:47That's Reid.
15:48He is working with his handler, Rachel.
15:51They are following his highly sensitive nose
15:53to detect any scent of rats.
15:55And thankfully, it's a clean sweep.
15:57How important is the work that you're doing here today?
16:02It's critically important.
16:03So seabirds are globally threatened.
16:05It's the fastest declining group of birds.
16:08They have all sorts of issues.
16:09They're dealing with climate change.
16:11Their food supplies are declining.
16:13And seabird islands,
16:15there need to be absolute safe havens
16:17for these birds to breed,
16:19to raise their young successfully
16:20so that they have a fighting chance to survive.
16:23But the good news is we can reverse this.
16:25So Ilsa Craig is a good example of that.
16:28When we do remove the rats,
16:29the birds bounce back.
16:34But a trip out here just wouldn't be complete
16:36without seeing the famous gannet colony.
16:39I've always wanted to visit Ilsa Craig.
16:44And this is why.
16:46For 40,000 gannets and other seabirds,
16:48it's home.
16:50The work that Laura and her team are doing
16:52will hopefully keep them safe
16:54and thriving for the future.
16:55From the crofting fields of Skye
17:05to another visit to the landward field,
17:08we're following the progress of one field
17:10in the borders across an entire growing season.
17:16Arlene started it all off a couple of months ago
17:18when she helped farmer Neil White
17:20plant the seed
17:21at his stockyard field near Dunn's.
17:26Look at this.
17:28Don't make it look too easy.
17:30Then she returned a few weeks later
17:32to spread fertiliser on the barley crop.
17:36Now when this grows really well,
17:37you can say,
17:38well, I actually put the fertiliser on it too
17:40and helped it grow.
17:42So you could say,
17:44I'm quite invested in this 20 acres of land.
17:47I'm back to find out how it's growing.
17:50Neil's been spraying the crop
17:53with seaweed extract.
17:55It's a biostimulant,
17:56not a fertiliser,
17:58designed to promote natural growth functions
18:01rather than adding nutrients.
18:04Some biostimulants
18:05can also help the soil retain water,
18:08which is just as well.
18:11I don't want to be negative.
18:13I expected it to be further on.
18:16Yeah, well, it's a fair point
18:17and that's just what's happened
18:19with the weather system that we've had.
18:21We've had 11 millimetres of rain since February.
18:24Oof.
18:25And most of that came in kind of one event,
18:28so the crop is really struggling.
18:31Can we have a closer look?
18:32Yeah, well, I've got my trouble with us
18:33and we can dare to dig some up.
18:35I noticed that.
18:35Yeah, dig some up
18:36and just see what it's like below ground.
18:38I'll follow you.
18:38Yeah, so we've got some plants here
18:42that are obviously,
18:43you can see that.
18:44It's almost like gravel.
18:46The ground is really dry
18:48and it's beginning to struggle.
18:49Gee, the ground is rock hard though.
18:52There's a tiny, tiny amount of moisture.
18:54Yeah.
18:55It's quite a healthy plant,
18:56but there's just no moisture
19:00down at root level in there
19:02and I would think, you know,
19:04within the next week to 10 days
19:05is going to be critical for this crop.
19:08It's definitely going to have an impact on yield
19:10if we don't get some significant rainfall in that time.
19:13Is it this sort of state of affairs
19:15across the whole plot?
19:17Well, I think if you come and have a look, Arlene,
19:19you can see that it is quite variable, unfortunately,
19:23across the whole field, Arlene.
19:24You know, there's different soil types.
19:26Uh-huh.
19:26So you can see in some of these bits
19:28where you've got maybe some of the lighter ground
19:30up this top end,
19:31you know, it's sort of suffered a bit more
19:33with the dry weather.
19:35You've got some heavier ground in the bottom there.
19:37It's much greener down there, isn't it?
19:38Yeah, and it's just held that moisture in the soil.
19:44I suppose no year is the same.
19:46You know, wetter weather, that wouldn't fare well,
19:49whereas the drier patch at the top would be better.
19:51Yeah, exactly.
19:52You know, last year, yes, it would have been the opposite.
19:55This is not an easy game, this farming lark, is it, really?
19:58It's so stressful.
19:59The weather does make it a constant moving feast.
20:04And the weather this spring,
20:06one of the driest on record,
20:08is an issue not only for Neil.
20:11Farmers all over the country
20:12are facing a potentially disastrous harvest.
20:16What are we looking at here?
20:18What's the worst-case scenario?
20:21Well, the worst-case scenario,
20:22which I've not had before,
20:23because in Scotland we always get rain at some point,
20:26but, you know, if we go past the 10 days
20:29and we don't get rain,
20:30it'll begin to accelerate through the crop stages
20:32and try and produce ahead.
20:34So, obviously, that impacts massively on yield.
20:36So, we definitely are needing, you know, something to...
20:41Well, we need rain.
20:42Nothing else you can do?
20:44No, there's nothing else I can do.
20:45I just have to wait.
20:46Please!
20:47We just have to wait.
20:48Yes.
20:49Well, there will be a harvest.
20:50There will be a harvest?
20:51It just might go very quickly if it's not a big crop.
20:55All right.
20:55Well, fingers crossed.
20:57Have some rain.
21:00Neil has had rain since we visited.
21:03Find out if it was enough
21:05when Arlene returns to the field later in the series.
21:08Earlier, I found out how crofters here on North Skye
21:19are championing the very rare corn crake.
21:23Rosie's back on the riverbank in Wester Ross now,
21:26meeting a man looking after the fish in an entire river.
21:33Some people like to take things easy when they retire,
21:37but not Bob Kindness.
21:38Seven days a week, 52 weeks a year,
21:43you can find him beside the river Karen.
21:47But when he arrived here over 30 years ago,
21:50the river was in real trouble.
21:52Fish stock of sea trite and salmon were so low
21:55they were at risk of extinction.
21:58So Bob decided to do something about it.
22:04Bob, I thought I might find you down here by the river.
22:07I'm never far from it.
22:08Tell me what it was like when you first arrived here.
22:11I looked at the river when I came first,
22:13I thought I would love to fish that river.
22:15When I did get a chance to fish it,
22:16I realised there was nothing in it.
22:21Rivers across the country have seen similar declines in fish.
22:24Overfishing at sea, disease, predation, habitat loss and rising water temperatures have all affected numbers.
22:32But Bob has his own theory about why fish stocks had crashed here.
22:37We had five winters of severe spades.
22:42Every winter there was a big enough spade to wash the gravel down the river.
22:46And it's that very gravel that the salmon have laid their eggs.
22:50And of course, once the gravel moves, the eggs are lost and they don't survive.
22:54So the gravel that we're standing on just now wasn't here before, it's come from further upstream, is that right?
22:59So the water is incredibly powerful.
23:03Bob didn't hang about.
23:05If there were no fish in the river, he'd put them back.
23:09All right, Bob, what have we got here?
23:12Begging and borrowing equipment, he built his own fish hatchery on the Atterdale estate.
23:17We've got a variety of different things here.
23:21We've got some very young salmon.
23:24They'll be growing through now until the end of the summer.
23:27And then they'll be stocked out to the river.
23:29And then in the bigger tanks, we have some sea trout broodstock.
23:32These are older fish, much bigger fish.
23:34And these are fish that I take the eggs off and then hatch them and then really fry through before stocking it.
23:39The broodstock are still waiting to be fed and they'll be getting quite hungry.
23:42Okay, it's lunchtime. Shall we get going?
23:47Wow, oh my goodness, they're massive.
23:51Just give it a flick, the ship is in it. That's it.
23:53They're looking quite lively.
23:54Oh yeah, yeah. They've settled down a little bit.
23:58There's strict legislation in place on stocking rivers, regulated by Marine Scotland.
24:04And it's all followed by Bob.
24:06He released 8 million fish into the carron since he started in 1995.
24:12But not everyone agrees with what he's doing.
24:15Some conservationists say hatchery fish aren't suited to life in the wild
24:21and interbreeding dilutes the wild salmon gene pool.
24:26But Bob thinks it's simple.
24:28If you want to keep fish in the carron, this is the way to do it.
24:33There's no guarantee that nature can sort things out.
24:36If that was the case, then nothing would ever become extinct.
24:38And it's simply because things change, the environment changes
24:41and they can no longer cope with what they have to deal with.
24:45The rate that they're disappearing is quite alarming.
24:48The numbers are going down very quickly.
24:50And I doubt if nature would be able to change what it does.
24:54And how do you know that the fish that you have here
24:57are then going to be successful out in the wild?
24:59It can take you to a place in the river
25:01where we have a method of monitoring how many fish leave the river.
25:06This is a rotary screw trap.
25:09Bob captures a sample of the smolts, or young fish,
25:12before they head out to sea.
25:16I'll take each individual fish out
25:18and I'll check it, examine it for any potential bird marks that might be on it
25:22and then release back below the trap.
25:24Bob also takes DNA to see if the samples are his.
25:29It gives me an idea of the proportion of stocked fish
25:32that might be going through the trap.
25:35Conservationists may be wary,
25:37but there have been dramatic increases in fish numbers.
25:41When I came here first, I reckon the smolts run was very, very low.
25:45I suspect less than 2,000 fish a year.
25:48What we've had in recent years
25:50was probably between 30,000 and 40,000 in some years.
25:53A big difference.
25:54It certainly is.
25:57Now, just because 30,000 leave the carron
26:01doesn't mean they'll all make it back.
26:05But there's no doubt there's more fish in the river now
26:09than when Bob found it.
26:12He's aware of the concerns that conservationists hold,
26:16but feels what he's doing is worthwhile.
26:19How does it feel seeing the fish coming back into the river?
26:24It's always a thrill when you see fish anyway.
26:26But when you see fish coming into the river,
26:28which at one point had virtually nothing,
26:31it's an extra thrill
26:32because it's not something you maybe thought you'd ever see.
26:35And that brings us to the end of this programme.
26:44If you'd like to watch it again
26:46or catch up with many of our previous episodes,
26:49go to the BBC iPlayer and search for Landward.
26:52Now, here's what's coming up next time.
26:54The roadside pit stop for Bairns.
26:58But they can motor away a service station, I suppose,
27:01to feed off and carry on their journey themselves.
27:03Arlene gets a tip when she takes on the asparagus harvest.
27:08Cut away.
27:09And Shabazz is overexcited in his attempts
27:12to save the Caledonian forest.
27:14Yes, yes.
27:18Please join us for that and much, much more if you can.
27:21In the meantime, from all the Lamar teams around the country
27:23and especially from me here in Sunkist Sky.
27:27Thank you so much for your company.
27:28Bye for now.
27:53Bye for now.