The Species on the Edge 2025 Comic!
Bringing you our 2025 activity as a comic! Courtesy of the extraordinary Aimee Lockwood....
Orkney
Learn more about our activity in Orkney – the local team, our target species, and what we’re doing to help them.
Orkney
| In Orkney, we have a team of two Species on the Edge officers, Sam and Helen, who are working closely with local communities and land managers to secure a future for nine nationally rare and vulnerable species.
Our activity
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Our species
Your Orkney team
What we’re up to in Orkney
Autumn update from Orkney
Little Tern breeding success, bounteous beetles, wildlife wellbeing walks and more!...
Discover your local bats: An introduction to the National Bat Monitoring Programme
Learn about the UK's bats and how you can help them in this online talk led by Species on the Edge B...
From Oban to Shetland, rare Scottish beetle is creating a buzz
2025 has been the year for sightings of the rare Plantain Leaf Beetles!...
Supporting Scotland’s coastal farmland birds
Learn about our work with communities and land owners across Scotland's coasts and islands to help s...
Endemic
Guest blog post from author James Harding-Morris on the unique endemic Scottish Primrose....
Upcoming events in Orkney
Stromness Social Walking Group, Stromness, every other Wednesday
Connect to nature and with each other on fortnightly walk with the Stromness Surgery Social Walking ...
Get involved
There are so many ways you can get involved with Species on the Edge and support your local species. We have a range of volunteering opportunities and events throughout the year – from practical conservation action to nature and wellbeing walks – and we are also able to work with land managers to help them support biodiversity on their land. Find more information on how you can get involved below. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with our Orkney People Engagement Officer, Sam.
Report your sightings
You can help your local ‘species on the edge’ by reporting your sightings using iRecord or by sending details to our Orkney wildlife local recorders:
Common Pipistrelle Bat – Tim Dean timdean4@hotmail.com
Great Yellow Bumblebee – John Crossley flawsjohn@gmail.com
Tern, Curlew, Lapwing – Steve Dudley orkneybirdrecorder@gmail.com
Oysterplant and Scottish Primrose – John Crossley flawsjohn@gmail.com
Plantain Leaf Beetle – Brian Ribbands queenamidda@gmail.com
Do some citizen science
Help make a difference by joining a citizen science survey. Our Be a Citizen Scientist webpage provides links to and information on lots of different citizen science opportunities, including:
Butterfly Conservation Trust’s Big Butterfly Count
Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s BeeWalk
Plantlife – The National Plant Monitoring Scheme
Bat Conservation Trust – The National Bat Monitoring Scheme.
Help Nature Your Way
Here at Species on the Edge, we believe that we can all play a part in helping protect the wildlife on our doorstep. Whatever your daily life looks like, whatever your skills and interests, we promise that there’s a way of helping nature that works for you. Explore our Help Nature Your Way Hub for information and inspiration on the many different ways of helping nature near you – what will be your way? Have you helped nature near you? Add your action for nature to our map!
Help Buglife create B-Lines
Imagine trying to travel around the UK without our road and rail network. Or imagine if nine out of every ten miles of road just didn’t exist – life would be impossible! That is the situation faced by our vital pollinators and other bugs. B-Lines is Buglife’s unique solution.
B-lines are ‘insect pathways’ running across the UK providing habitat, food and shelter to vital pollinator species. You can add to your local B-line by taking actions such as growing wildflowers or providing water for insects in your garden. You can even grow a whole wildflower meadow! Head to Buglife’s B-Lines webpage to find out more: B-Lines.
Not on a B-Line? You can still help pollinators! Go to the Buglife website to find out how.
Volunteer with RSPB Orkney
Contact our RSPB colleagues below about their practical volunteering opportunities in Orkney:
For information on practical habitat conservation volunteering, contact: Adam (Assistant Warden) Adam.Lake@rspb.org.uk
For information on volunteering at RSPB events, contact: Parker Hansen (Events Officer) Parker.Hansen@rspb.org.uk
For information on volunteering with the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, contact: Tom Hadley (Community Engagement Manager) info@onwp.org
Resources
General
Bumblebees
- A guide to the bumblebees of Orkney and Shetland | Species on the Edge
- Managing your land for bumblebees | Bumblebee Conservation Trust
- Managing hedges and edges for bumblebees | Bumblebee Conservation Trust
- Managing field margins for bumblebees | Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Birds
- Farming and crofting for wildlife: Over-wintered stubble | RSPB
- Scrape creation for waders | RSPB
- Managing grassland for breeding waders | RSPB
- Rush management for breeding waders | RSPB