By Thomas Weston
A Bird Day with nice fine weather again, but today a cool breeze in the air which was nice and refreshing, even a little cold at points.
A 5am start and I walked down to Millcombe where I opened a couple of nets and sat waiting. The birds were quite quiet to begin but gained in activity soon after 6am when I began to catch a few individuals. There were Goldfinches and Linnets in the bushes and the sounds of a couple of Willow Warblers. A couple of Peregrines were searching for any highflying migrants, so everything stayed low and in the bushes for the next hour. Lucile joined just before 7am, and this coincided with the Willow Warbler wave. A Lundy phenomenon whereby Willow Warblers start to descend in the valley and pass from top to bottom in a wave. The flocks can vary between a couple to 10 and the next round we caught the next 3 birds, followed by a round of 10 and so on... The wave was quite late today and arrived about 07:30, the other day it was at 06:00. This is something we are intruiged by, do they spend the night on the island and then head off SE? Do they fly in and drop out the sky onto the island at dawn, find each other and head SE? The majority were new and juveniles, with yet again two retraps being adult birds. One was ringed on Friday and the other ringed last year which was very nice!
A reminder to stay cool in the heat! Thomas Weston
Eleanor joined and it was going well with the Lundy breeding adult female and her young Spotted Flycatcher caught and ringed, another two Lundy born Blackcaps, more Wrens(!), and a couple more Linnets too. We decided to pack up and undertake a little later start time to census, this was good and included multiple heard only records of the Great Spotted Woodpecker in the Valley. We believe it to be a different bird to the one last week but we are certainly not sure as it sounds the same and I have not seen it well yet. There were birds in bushes but not much out to sea. Benjamin's Chair held a feeding frenzy of Gannets, and Manx Shearwaters, a Sand Martin overhead, but overall it was quite calm out on the water. Passing through the Airfield and over to Quarry Cottages, there were flocks of Linnets, small flocks of Wheatears, and a nice mix of breeding Meadow Pipits seen. Pushing it for time getting back into the Village before 11am but a few flocks of Starlings and House Sparrows later we made it back in time.
Manx Shearwater chick! Our youngest of the box birds...
Manx box checks after saw the smallest of the chicks becoming a lot bigger now and the biggest gaining weight quick!
An afternoon of admin was to be whilst Tara, Jessie, Chloe were out and about searching for any early Seal pups. Meanwhile Eleanor was in the Tavern but got some much needed time outside and Lucile was keen to catch some Starlings and House Sparrows but alas no success today.