St Kilda, a remote archipelago, some 40 miles off the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, is a remarkable place - a World Heritage Site, no less. In this guest blog, explorer Roland Arnison describes his challenging journey to the island via kayak for his ongoing Call of the Loon expedition and how this corner of the North Atlantic Ocean is a tough testing ground for both man and gear alike.
“I have spent the last two summers kayaking around the Hebrides in Scotland, on the hunt for seabirds. The heart of this solo expedition is my mission to record the calls of all of Scotland’s seabird species.”
“And after kayaking 700 miles and visiting countless seabird colonies on remote islands, I have captured sound recordings of 25 of the 30 species on my list, including the bird after which the Call of the Loon expedition is named: the great northern diver, Gavia immer, aka the Loon.”
"Solo sea kayaking has been adventurous, challenging, and at times a little too perilous. In 2024, my kayak floated away from the shore (due to a momentary lapse of concentration!) and my attempts to recover it by swimming in the cold waters off the Isle of Coll resulted in hypothermia, exhaustion, the intervention of the Coastguard – and no kayak!"
“My precious kayak was later found off South Skye, and I was reunited with it to continue the expedition. In 2025, the expedition took me to the Outer Hebrides, and I grabbed the opportunity to paddle out to St Kilda, that magnificent compact rocky archipelago in the Atlantic with the tallest seacliffs in Britain, some 40 miles off the west coast of North Uist. St Kilda is a haven for seabirds, a World Heritage Site, managed by the National Trust for Scotland and an obvious destination for me on my seabird expedition. But it did involve a memorable 14-hour, 60km epic solo paddle to get there.”
“The Call of the Loon expedition has a particular relevance due to the ecological state of Britain’s seabirds. Most of our seabirds have seen significant declines in the last twenty years, due to climate change, changes in the availability of food, and the impact of invasive predator species, amongst other factors.”
“Of the 25 seabird species that regularly breed in Scotland, 21 are on the Red or Amber lists of Birds of Conservation Concern. In Scotland, over the last twenty years, puffin populations have dropped by 32%, Arctic Skua numbers fell by 66% and the rare Leach’s Storm Petrel is now classed as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the UK, with its Scottish population crashing by almost 80%. The bird flu epidemic in recent years has also hit some species, such as gannets and great skuas, very hard.”
“The Call of the Loon expedition has broader research aims beyond the quest to record the sounds of seabirds. One disarmingly simple research question I have been trying to answer is: is it possible to carry out transect surveys of seabirds from the cockpit of a sea kayak while paddling along coastlines and across the open sea?”
“Even writing down the information – species, number of birds, behaviour, time and location – is often difficult to do in bumpy seas, and I have been comparing the pros and cons of writing in waterproof notebooks vs using a phone or tablet in these expedition conditions. Recording research data using a phone or tablet brings some significant advantages compared to a waterproof notebook: a bird recording app will usually record the time and location automatically, and it doesn’t suffer from the frustration of trying to later decipher illegible scrawls jotted on paper.”
“I use my phone not just for this seabird recording but for day-to-day kayak navigation too. I do use the old school tools of map and compass, but the modern GPS functionality of phone mapping apps - with their ability to show exactly where you are, record your track, report your speed and more - is very useful in long-distance sea kayaking. I’d say it was almost essential on my solo paddle to St Kilda, where all I could see ahead of me for ten hours was sea and sky, with no reassurance of any land on the horizon.”
“This is where Aquapac cases have proved essential: my tablet and phone have to be accessible from the kayak cockpit and have to be waterproof – capsize proof if needed. I have found the Aquapac cases to be excellent, by far the best I have ever used. Really well designed and built, they have been totally waterproof, tough and easy to use. I have been using these cases on every kayaking day of the expedition. The mechanism used to open and close them has proven to be expedition-proof!”
“One of the great benefits of the Aquapac cases is the great variety of fixings available to securely attach them using their Dock System, which has a clever mechanism to allow you to quickly attach and detach the case.”
“Fixing the phone, tablet cases (ed. or radio cases) to my kayak deck using this system took a bit of experimenting before I set off on the expedition. I ended up choosing a deceptively simple solution using Aquapac’s Molle Dock, which I strapped to the top of the deck bag in front of me when I paddle. It worked so well all through the expedition, I never gave it a second thought.”
“I will publish an expedition research report in due course, and I am currently developing a plan for a future seabird research expedition in 2026 or 2027, building on what I have learnt from this year’s expedition. Anyone interested in collaborating with me on this can contact me at: roland@shearwater.me.uk”
For more on the expedition head to the Call of the Loon website or support the expedition through the Crowdfunder. And you can follow the expedition on Facebook and Instagram.
The Call of the Loon expedition is also supported by Sea Kayaking UK, Celtic Paddles, Sennheiser, Whetman Equipment, Reed Chillcheater, NHBS and the European Nature Trust.