By Simon Parker
Feral is one of my favourite words, it's often been used in the past to describe my past lifestyle choices or appearance. But today it was counting Feral animals, not looking or behaving like one.
The annual Feral stock count is carried out once a year to give an idea of how many animals are on the island. On a small island, large numbers of herbivores can easily damage the vegetation if their numbers are too high. Equally, if the numbers are too low, the Islands vegetation can get out of hand. How do we count the feral stock on Lundy? What a great question! Read on...
Essentially, we gather in a line that spans the width of the island. Using radios to stay in contact, we slowly walk North and push the animals with us. When the animals eventually run past us South, we count them. Once we reach the North Light, it's time for Tunnocks and tea.
Walking the line
On Lundy, the Feral stock consists of Sika deer, Soay sheep and Goats. Goats are the least numerous with around 30 on the island, Sika at around 100 and Soay are up around 250. All three of these animals are tied to the Island through heritage, tourism, grazing and supply for the tavern. Anyone who has had the game pie, will of been eating one or more of these animals in the tavern. After some complex maths, the numbers that we have will dictate our management plan for the coming winter.
We also used this opportunity to count the breeding birds as part of a new project. This year we plan on mapping the terrestrial breeding bird population to give us an idea of what's breeding, where they're breeding and what birds are being successful or not.
No treasure was found
So... Bird wise, we managed to spot 5 pairs of Peregrine, 22 Meadow Pipits, 10 Skylarks all singing and on territories, Mallard, Wren and Teal were spotted around Pondsbury along with the Grey Heron. Red-throated and Great Northern Diver were also spotted down in the Landing Bay. On the West coast, we had numerous Razorbill, Guillemots and Puffin all making the most of the calm weather. Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Firecrest have all been spotted up in Millcombe valley but not in large numbers. A successful weekend's counting!