Isle of May

The Isle of May (56.186°N x 2.558°W), within the Isle of May National Nature Reserve since 1956, is the southernmost SEATRACK locality. It lies on the east coast of Scotland in the entrance to the Firth of Forth, approximately 8 km off the coast of mainland Scotland.

The 0.57 km² island is 1.8 km long and less than half a kilometer wide. The island is owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. The island is characterized by a low lying and rocky eastern coast, and a west coast dominated by high cliffs. Although only 0.57 km², it is of national and international importance for its seabird and seal colonies. During the height of the breeding season, over 200,000 seabirds of 14 species nest on the island, including puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, razorbills, guillemots, shags, fulmars, oystercatchers, eider ducks, and various species of terns and gulls.

Isle of May, which became a SEATRACK locality in 2014, is one of the four strategic seabird-monitoring sites in Great Britain, the others being Fair Isle, Canna and Skomer. Seabird research started on the Island in 1966 and has increased dramatically to date and since 2000 an intensive study focusing on the link between fish stocks and seabirds is being carried out. Extensive GLS studies have been carried out on the island where Atlantic puffins, black-legged kittiwakes and razorbills have been instrumented since 2007, European shags since 2009 and common guillemots since 2011.