By Kirsty Cox
Today was the last Wednesday boat of the season and it was a busy one. It also turned out to be an unexpectedly hot day.
I started the day in the office catching up on a bit more seal ID work - there are always more photos to process! I had success in finding one of the Mums from this year in the Lundy catalogue and discovered she had pupped on the same beach here previously in 2018 and 2019. It’s always really interesting to learn a bit about their history and makes all the time spent on ID work worth it.
We have had several pups arriving over the past week including a couple in the Landing Bay. It is such a busy part of the island that, especially on a day like today, when there are a lot of visitors to Lundy, disturbance is a real concern. Seal pups are very vulnerable as they are completely reliant on their mums and if there is any disturbance from people on the land or in the sea then the mothers will not come onto the beach to feed the pups. It is really important when seeing any seals to keep your distance, always remaining at least 100m away, and to make sure you stay quiet. In order to try and convey this message to the visitors arriving on the Oldenburg today, last night we created a new sign which I put up in the Landing Bay at the start of my East Coast Survey today.
The New Seal Sign! by Kirsty Cox
The East Coast Survey takes around 5 hours in total to complete. I walk the length of the Lower East path from Benjamin’s Chair all the way to North Light. The walk is divided into sections and at each section I stop and count the seals present, both hauled out and in the sea and how many males, females, juveniles and pups there are. And each hauled out seal is photographed to ID later. Today there was a good count of 80 seals across the East including several pups.
When I reached North Light I was sadly informed from a visitor about some disturbance that had just occurred. A boat with day-trippers had come in close to the shore and flushed a large number of seals from the rocks. Seals haul out on land to rest, sleep, and digest their food, so disturbing them means they waste vital energy. At this time of year, when there are so many pregnant seals and young pups, it is especially worrying to hear about any disturbance events.
After a very hot walk back to the village I headed straight down to the Landing Bay to help Jessie in monitoring the pups in the Landing Bay as the visitors started to make their way back to the boat. We encouraged visitors to keep moving on past the beach and to take their photos at a safe distance in order to allow the mums to feel able to haul out to feed them.
Then it was back up the hill for an evening shift in the tavern on KP duty. Another busy day on Lundy!
There were some lovely other sighting across the island today too. In the afternoon 2 Dotterel were spotted at John O’Groats. And Greg and Emma saw 2 Dunlins at Pondsbury, a Tree Pipit at Pointless Wall, a Curlew, Cuckoo and Sparrowhawk along the East, a Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Terrace and 4 Pied Flycatchers and a Spotted Flycatcher in Millcombe.
Dunlin by Greg Lee
Greg also spotted a Wryneck at Rocket Pole Pond in the evening.
Wryneck by Greg Lee