The seabird colonies of the Hebrides and the Shetlands are noisy, malodorous places. Thousands of kittiwakes, gannets and puffins come to breed, fight, defecate and die on a few overcrowded outcrops every spring. It is a spectacular scene: mounds of steaming guano, grotesque opened mouthed chicks, the collective scream of countless angry birds, and if you’re lucky, a flustered second-rate television presenter complaining about the smell. As the camera records terns plunging i