The RSPB Shetland Biosecurity Project purchased three new remote solar powered cameras, providing a long, continuous live monitoring feed that can send images straight to mobile phones. This especially supports occasions when cameras cannot be physically accessed when the island cannot be reached due to poor sea state, and will enable a faster response time to incursions which have the potential to decimate vulnerable ground nesting bird populations.
The grant for this project also supported preparatory work to inform the study design for deploying motion-triggered trail cameras, including Identifying survey design considerations and options for deploying trail cameras to allow a robust estimate of Fair Isle’s predator population.
As a result of the study, the camera are planned for deployment on Fair Isle in 2026.
In 2025 SMEEF was able to provide a grant of £10,364 to support this work using resources from the Nature Restoration Fund.