Fowlsheugh – RSPB Fowlsheugh nature reserve – A seabird metropolis
Between April and August every year, just 15 miles from the hustle and bustle of Aberdeen city centre, there can be found enough noise and clamour to rival any metropolis. However, the sounds (and smells!) come not from humans but from 100,000 seabirds crammed onto the cliffs at RSPB Fowlsheugh nature reserve. All the life and death drama of any big city can be found here and just like in the movies, the city never sleeps!
The RSPB reserve stretches from Crawton north past the evocatively named Hogs Holes, Henry’s Scorth and Dovethirl Coves to Tremuda Bay. Through the Heritage Lottery Funded Mearns Coastal Heritage Access project, the RSPB has recently been able to double the size of the current reserve which now extends just south of the imposing ruin of Dunnoter Castle. 
From mid-March seabirds start to congregate in vast rafts offshore before venturing onto the spectacular cliff ledges to nest. Guillemots are the most common of the auk family to frequent Fowlsheugh with 54,000 individuals counted in 2006. The guillemot lays a single pear-shaped egg on a ledge and incubates it for around 3 weeks before it hatches. The young guillemot only spends about 3 weeks on the cliffs before leaping into the water below to begin a life at sea, accompanied for the first few weeks by an attentive father. The guillemot is a social bird unlike the razorbill who inhabits nooks and crannies on the cliffs and doesn’t generally seek the company of its own kind. Nearly 5000 individual razorbills join the throng and their throaty growl can often be heard amongst the cacophony of incessant noise. If you are lucky, you may see a puffin amongst the cast of thousands either bobbing around on the water or standing around on a grassy slope, its orange legs and colourful bill conspicuous.
Often the most vocal of the inhabitants of this seabird city are kittiwakes, an attractive and delicate gull, most of whose life is spent at sea. Their incessant ’kitti-wake’ call fills the air from April onwards when the birds return to the cliffs to build a nest from grass and mud. They lay two to three eggs and the young are fed on a nutritious paste of regurgitated sand-eels. Their equally noisy larger relative the herring gull, nests on the grassy slopes but numbers have declined in recent years.
Other wildlife encountered at Fowlsheugh includes grey and common seals which are regularly seen hauled out on Craiglethy Island; Bottlenose dolphins frequently entertain visitors, the white beaked dolphin can be spotted in July and August, and the occasional minke whale swims past. The frantic activity on the cliffs begins to wind down once the first of the auks chicks leave the cliffs and gradually the cliffs fall almost silent by the end of August. Only fulmars, shags and herring gulls remain.
The latter part of the 20th and early years of the 21st century have proved to be tough for many seabirds with some colonies, though thankfully not at Fowlsheugh, suffering drastic declines and almost non-existent breeding success. The role of climate change and global warming has and will play a dramatic and pivotal role in the fortunes of our seabirds and it remains to be seen whether we will be able to enjoy the spectacle that is Fowlsheugh in years to come.
The reserve is situated 3 miles south of Stonehaven at Crawton and is open at all times. There is limited car parking at Crawton and no other facilities. There is a request bus stop on the A92 which is a mile from the reserve entrance. A 1.2km ‘out and back’ footpath starts from Crawton although there are plans to extend this footpath in the next two years as part of the Heritage Lottery funded Mearns Coastal Heritage Access Project.