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| The dreadful night in spring when the observatory and everything within it was was burned to ashes |
SIX months after a blaze devastated the bird observatory and guesthouse on Fair Isle, the cause remains unexplained.
It may now never be known what sparked the disastrous events of March 10 this year.
But the island's single fire tender was inadequate to extinguish the blaze.
Totally destroyed in the inferno were the building proper, the personal effects of the warden and his family plus original Richard Richardson artwork and a 2,000-volume library.
Happily, years of research data had been backed up and is safe. It is hoped that most if not all of the books can be replaced, many of them by donation.
The observatory was the successor to two predecessors which had been deemed outmoded.
Costing £4-million, and constructed largely of wood from prefabricated pods, it opened in 2012.
In a presentation at Birdfair on Friday, trustee Ian Cowgill provided an update on behalf of colleague Douglas Barr who was sadly prevented from attending as a result of a close family bereavement.
It is unlikely insurance will cover the full cost of constructing a new building, but fundraising is continuing apace, and this should help to make up much of any shortfall.
Lessons have been learned - for instance that a sprinkler system should have been fitted.
But it is regrettable, from a future planning perspective, that it is not known what flaws or weaknesses led to the disaster.
"The site has now been cleared thanks to the work of island residents," said Ian. "It’s tidying up nicely."
Architects have been invited to submit quotes for the proposed replacement building, and, once the contract has been awarded, a quantity surveyor and engineer will be appointed.
Any sort of construction project is problematic at a location as remote as Fair Isle, but preliminary interest has already been expressed by a couple of contractors.
The aim - an ambitious one - is to have a new observatory completed and ready for opening in summer, 2021.
Despite the setback, observatory staff, currently temporarily accommodated in crofts on the island, are continuing, in conjunction with Aberdeen University, with their important surveys of seabirds.
It seems that the decline in puffins - down by 50 per cent since 1985 - is continuing but numbers of Arctic skuas have tripled.
There may be some correlating link, but so far it is far from proven.
For auk species, insufficient food seems to be the main issue - razorbills tracked with RSPB geolocators are sometimes flying 300-plus km to offshore Dundee to find the right fish for their young.
However Ian is hopeful that the situation might reverse following a recent Government decision to accord protected marine area status to the waters off Fair Isle.
Ian could hardly complete his talk without highlighting the mouth-watering rarities that regularly and famously make Fair Isle such a magnet for birders.
These include the likes of Siberian rubythroat, yellow-breasted bunting, great snipe, Marmora's pipit, lanceolated warbler, Pallas' grasshopper warbler, song sparrow, crag martin and many, many more.
The hope is that the proposed installation of a Motus system will track the movements of some of these migrants for at least part of their journeys.
The observatory had its own well-visited stand at Birdfair from which fundraising raffle tickets were being sold.
In addition, over the three days, some 30 artists contributed to the painting of a mural of Fair Isle which, it is hoped, will one day grace a wall at the proposed observatory.
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Birdfair artists at work on what should be a fantastic mural for the proposed new observatory |
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