by Greg Lee
A grey and still morning on Lundy with not a breath of wind for the first couple of hours. Sensing this as a rare opportunity, particularly with the upcoming forecast, I decided to carry my shotgun mic around with me to see if I could get some sound recordings of any birds that were around during census. Despite the wind dropping down early in the morning, there didn’t seem to be a hint of any major arrivals with Millcombe hosting single figures of both Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, quite the reduction on the numbers experienced on Wednesday. I had been hoping to record both species in song with my microphone; however, this may have to wait as the birds were very hesitant to use their voices today! Joe and Flo had decided to set the nets up and their totals for the ringing session also reflected that it was a quiet day for migrants. Indeed, I saw a few Warblers still sporting rings, so they were likely birds from Wednesday that were still lingering in the area. Goldfinches were again active in the area, and the small flock were flitting around the area chittering to each other during my walk. As I approached Old Light, a Wheatear was sat on the dry-stone wall singing, a perfect opportunity to get some sound-recordings sorted as well as testing the wind-proofing ability of my "dead-cat" microphone cover. Hirundines were in short supply this morning, it seemed, which was perhaps surprising with the lack of wind but a mixed party of Sand Martins and Swallows over Quarter Wall caught my eye. Approaching Quarries, another Wheatear was perched nicely close to me and also broke out into song, starting with a bit of Green Sandpiper, which seems to be a popular species to mimic in the island bird community before turning to the scratchier notes typical of Wheatear, just a short while later, a female appeared, possibly by the fine vocal antics on display. High overhead, a circling Sparrowhawk was also interesting to see, we have had a few birds around recently with one even seen heading south out to sea in recent days, so perhaps this was another passing migrant.
Wheatear by G.Lee
Later on in the day, Emma and I tasked ourselves with making an indent into the recycling, a constant job but very important to sort it out on a weekly basis. It was a good effort with the pile of bags going down considerably through the afternoon. Elsewhere, Thomas relocated the Greenfinch around the village, seemingly taking company with the House Sparrows and an island scarcity in the form of two Canada Geese were seen flying down the East Side. The Mallards have also been active recently and a brood of nine ducklings was seen near the Lambing Shed, hopefully over the coming days that number stays as a constant rather than being seen as an opportunity for the local corvid population to get some food.