Advanced level English

Environment and wildlife

Interview: the Bird-Man of the Isles

A hospital for birds on the Scottish island of Skye

Andrew Rossiter talks to Graham Ross, who runs a one-man wildlife hospital on the wild and beautiful Scottish island of Skye.

• ANDREW: Graham; people call you the "bird man of the Isles"; so can you tell me what exactly is it that you do with birds?
• GRAHAM: Well I take in injured birds, mainly birds of prey; I fix them, and hope­fully return them to the wild. These injuries would be broken wings, or starvation, or whatever.
• Are there a lot of birds of prey on the Scottish isles, or are there less than there used to be?
• The Scottish islands are still a stronghold for a lot of birds of prey. There are probably as many as there ever were.
• When you get a bird in, what do you do to it? Do you keep it in a bird's hospital, or do you send it out to a doctor? Or are you the doctor yourself?
• I'm not the doctor! But the veterinary sur­geons here tend to be more acquainted with sheep and cattle, rather than birds. And I tend to look after the bird side of it. In fact, some of the veterinary surgeons here refer patients to me!
• You get in falcons and eagles here! How does an eagle manage to get here? How do people find eagles to bring to you?
• Somebody'll maybe come across an in­jured eagle, for example, on the hill; and report it to somebody. And more often than not it's the police that contact me and tell me there's an injured bird, eagle or what­ever, at such and such a place. And I usually go for it if it's an eagle, but if it's something like a smaller bird, I ask people just to put a box over it and bring it to me.
• Do all the birds you have come from the island of Skye? Or do people bring them in from further afield?
• All the ones I have at the moment come from the Isle of Skye. I have had them from further afield; from the mainland of Scot­land, and from some of the other islands nearby.
• And after you've had a bird, what do you do with it? Do you release it into the wild? And if so, how many of your birds can you release into the wild? Or do you have to keep some of them because they're unable to fly?
• The majority of the birds are released back into the wild. I do have some that over the years I've had to keep, because they were unable to fend for themselves in the wild..
• Are there a lot of people doing this kind of rescue work for birds of prey in Scot­land? Or are you one of the few?
• There are a few throughout Scotland; and most areas are covered by somebody who will take in birds and attend to them as best as possible.
• Is the situation for birds of prey or eagles still getting worse, or is it improv­ing in this part of the world, would you say?
•  I think compared to the situation in the sixties, when they had a pesticide prob­lem, the situation is improving.
• Would you say it's going to go on im­proving? Or have we reached a sort of equilibrium now?
•  As far as Skye's concerned, I think probab­ly that the numbers of birds of prey are about as high as we could expect; as high as the habitat will stand.
• You sometimes breed birds, I believe, in particular owls. What do you do with these? Do you put them back in the wild, or do you send them to other parts of Britain, or what? 
• We've been breeding barn-owls for several years now, and we release them into the wild on Skye.
• Have you got any plans to breed any other types of bird? 
• No plans immediately. It just depends on what I might have; and if I had a pair... the buzzard*, for example. There's no point in breeding buzzards; they're so common. Peregrine*; there's not many peregrines in the area, but to breed them and release them could improve the natural stock. But I think they're doing quite well naturally, and I think if they reach their own levels, that's quite sufficient. Kestrels*, sparrowhawks* are fairly common throughout Skye and the country, so there's no point in breeding them.

Originally published in Spectrum magazine.  Copyright Linguapress renewed 2022
Andrew Rossiter  was chief editor of Linguapress Magazines

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WORDS
 bird of prey: carniverous bird; these include hawks, falcons and eagles - the wild: nature - vetinerary surgeon: vet, animal doctor - be acquainted with: be familiar with, know about -  starvation: having no­thing to eat - release: let go  fend for themselves: live without help - attend to: help, pay attention to - stand: support - breed: reproduce.

* Kestrels, buzzards, peregrines and sparrowhawks are four different types of birds of prey found in Britain and Europe.
 
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STUDENTS' WORKSHEET

The Bird man of the Isles

Comprehension: true or false?

Read through these true/false statements, then listen to the interview and try and answer them:      



Pair work, oral:
Have students recreate this interview in their own words, working in pairs. In each case, the student taking the role of the interviewer should read the questions, the other student answer them as best as he can.     

Writing: Imagine that this interview is to be used as the basis for an article , and write this article in 400 words or more..    

Discussion: perhaps you have some keen ornithologists in your class; if so, get them to talk about the questions raised by this interview.

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