By Emma
Today was another grey blustery day, but that did not stop Chloë, Jessie and visiting rockpooler Eleanor heading down to the Landing Bay to do some rockpool surveys. They were quite successful finding many interesting species of sea slug, including some Celtic Sea slugs with their lovely gherkin body shape. An exciting find was Trapania maculata which is a rarely seen slug species in the uk, and not usually found in shallow rockpools like where it had been floating around when Eleanor found it, alongside its cousin Trapania pallida. Another beautiful invertebrate found was a Candy Striped Flatworm, matching its name very nicely with red and white stripes running along the length of its flattened body.
Celtic Sea Slug by Jessie Dermody
Trapania maculata by Jessie Dermody
Candy Striped Flatworm by Chloë Langmead
Elsewhere on the island, the gap between the Spring and Autumn migration periods is leading to low numbers of new birds passing through. However bird numbers are ever increasing as more and more fledglings emerge from their bracken, bushes and cavities, with a plethora of young Wheatears, Linnets, Starlings and more hopping around learning how to be birds. Thomas managed to read a ring number of an adult male Mallard and discovered that he had ringed it as a duckling 2 years ago on the island, which is very sweet to hear as many of the ducklings we have seen this year have become Raven Snacks.
Greg and I ended the day with a Seawatch, settling in the Ugly with a scope and watching out over the ocean. Whilst we did not see any migrants of the skua type (definitely not holding out for one!) we did see a couple thousand Manx Shearwaters flying close over the waves, putting on a graceful display of speed and acrobatics. Gannets were joining the party soaring high above the waves on air currents, a young individual showing off its dark feathers. Razorbills and Guillemots were heading out low over the waves to fetch fish for their hatched chicks, wings flapping frantically, holding up their little black and white bodies. I then had to run off to the Tavern to end my day with a tavern shift but slowed to walk through the Pines and listen to the Blackbird song echoing around the valley.