The Jewel of the Forth: seabirds, seals, shipwrecks, smuggling and sea ducks!

Wildfish Crafts is all about making sustainable, functional products using traditional techniques. Recently, I was lucky enough to visit the Isle of May, in The Firth of Forth, travelling the 10 miles by fast moving Rigid Inflatable Boat. I spent a few hours admiring all the various birds on this fabulous island and finding out about the deep history that the island is known for - going back more than 1,000 years.

What I wasn’t expecting to find was a duck who takes crafting to the next level!

The Common Eider (also known as St Cuthbert’s Duck) is the UK’s largest sea duck…the ultimate mother & crafter. This beautiful Eider Duck uses her beak to pluck out her breast feathers before knitting them into the edges of her nest, in order to keep her eggs and chicks toasty warm. She sits, motionlessly, for 24 days, losing 40% of her body weight until her brood has hatched.

Once the chicks have arrived, she will waddle her chicks down to the sea where, mothers

and non-breeding female Eiders form one huge crèche of up to 150 chicks and, together, they protect the young throughout the brood rearing period from predating gulls.

For more than 1,000 years, people have been using Eider feathers to keep warm, so once the nest has been vacated, the feathers can be sustainably collected and used as a luxurious stuffing for quilts & pillows.

The ultimate Mother, Crafter & Eco-Warrior!