Four decades of wildlife from the North Sea's oil rigs

Now released in a new book, the labour brought about by a partnership between the North Sea Bird Club and the University of Aberdeen will showcase some of the stunning images captured by over 400 offshore workers and observers.

From 1979 to 2019 all kinds of wildlife from birds to marine animals, and even the likes of bats, moths and butterflies have been spotted in the North Sea.

This rare White-tailed Eagle surprised workers on two rigs in August 2017 (Image: The North Sea Bird Club) In November 1984, one offshore worker on the Maureen platform was recorded as saying: “On opening the door from the control room it appeared to be snowing. The sky was full of birds in every direction – Blackbirds, thrushes, Snow Buntings, Lapwings and even some Canada Geese. In addition there were at least 50+ owls. I’d estimate the numbers to be hundreds of thousands around the platform.”

It was 1979 when the North Sea Bird Club was formed by a group of senior oil industry executives, and it quickly led to a collaboration with the University of Aberdeen. The result after four decades; 120,000 records of local wildlife.

Some of those record, alongside the partnership’s history of fascinating wildlife sightings and identification are now to be shown collectively for the first time in a new book by Andrew Thorpe.

Long- and Short-eared owls are regularly seen offshore in autumn (Image: The North Sea Bird Club)

Thorpe is the club’s former Recorder who was employed on a part-time basis by the University as a Research Assistant between 1999 and 2019. The book titled ‘The North Sea Bird Club 1979-2019’ mixes entertaining anecdotes, interesting facts, and hard data to tell the story.

Andrew said: “Back in 1979, it was thanks to the foresight of Professor George Dunnet, Regius Professor of Natural History at the University and other associates that the Club was created.

“He continued to act as an adviser to the club and we drew heavily on University expertise. Being located within the Zoology Department, we were able to access other specialists - Dr Mark Young  provided support with identification of butterflies and moths sent from offshore, Professor Paul Racey provided guidance for those who found bats on offshore installations and Mr Kenn Watt was a hoverfly expert in the department who helped with identification.

Bat Murdoch - one of many bats found alive offshore (Image: The North Sea Bird Club) “Marine animals offshore were also recorded and the University’s Oceanlab staff were able to assist here.”

Throughout the book a staggering amount of information is available that will allow the reader to identify even common birds that can be spotted in their gardern crossing the North Sea.

Blackbirds, robins, chaffinches, blue tits, crows and owls are all regularly reported from rigs in the North sea, and even tiny wrens.

Huge flocks which have been recorded are discussed including the sighting of 30,000 blackbirds in 1979 and an estimated 50,000 Starlings passing by Auk Alpha in 1984. In the same year, as mentioned by one worker, an exceptional number of birds landed on the Maureen platform during very bad weather – some 200-300,000 were estimated including 40-50 owls.

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Some of the birds are known to travel thousands of kilometres including a Starling found on the Hewett platform in December 1992 which had travelled over 1500 kilometres.

The first British record of a Pacific Swift came from Shell BT platform in 1981. It normally breeds in the Far East and migrates to Australia.

But it’s not only birds that were reported over the years. Over 300 killer whales have been seen offshore and reported. 20-30 were around Brae B in April 1988 and one remained there for almost a year.

This Killer Whale stayed around one rig for almost a year (Image: The North Sea Bird Club) While butterflies, bats, moths and dragonflies are regularly reported in the book, some of the finds led to a better understanding of each species behaviour. Even small animals are known to travel thousands of miles, as can be seen from the recording of a Blue Dasher dragonfly from America, which was found on an unmanned rig near Shetland, and was the first record in Europe.

Although the club was wound up with the downturn of the industry in 1999, the records it received, maintained by the University, continue to be used for academic research.

Andrew Thorpe added: “A Club Secretary in 1990 wrote ‘The North Sea Bird Club is a unique organisation operating in a unique environment’ and that remained true throughout the 40 years.

“Records came from all over the North Sea and allowed us to put together a picture of where birds were moving at peak migration times and this could often be related to similar patterns of arrival onshore.

This rare Gyr Falcon was sent ashore in March 2000 where it was cared for and released (Image: The North Sea Bird Club) “The 120,000 record database the University helped us to create has been used to provide data to many interested parties. For example several different University students requested data on Buzzard feathers, Twite records offshore, Porbeagle shark and bat records.

“Professor Racey, formerly of the University, informed us that much valuable information about the occurrence of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bat had been obtained from offshore records of that species. Certain corpses of dead birds found offshore were passed to The National Museum Scotland for their collections.”