Bird Sightings

By Simon Parker 

It's been a slow start to the season with storms still passing through and boat cancellations already stacking up.  But the island is starting to look greener and life is returning, large areas of blackthorn are now in flower, the bluebells and daffodils have appeared, bees are busy roaming up and down the east coast.  It feels like spring for about two days, and then the next storm rolls in.

Storm Dave, the latest and possibly strongest of the year passed through over the weekend.  Yesterday was spent repairing the window on the bird observatory hut before being called to fix the WiFi in the Church, it seems whoever was behind Storm Dave doesn't approve of people watching cat videos.  After checking on the beach hut and falling in the sea whilst collecting a dumpy bag that had decided to go for a swim, I collected some wood for a little bushcraft project and headed back up.

Making the most of the calmer weather today, me and some of the team set out to map Rhododendron on the eastern cliffs ready for the rope access team to come and clear it.  The odd plant still lingers on and we found enough to keep the rope team happy when they arrive.  We made the most of the time at quarry beach and managed to clear some rubbish and check on the safety of the steps down.  Whilst mooching back along the lower East path, I spent some time watching a female Kestrel repeatedly dive bomb a Raven, it seemed to be working until a Great Black-backed joined in and then it looked a little hopeless.  Groups of Linnet were darting around along with Blackcap and Wrens as I made my way back to the village.

Thomas, Eleanor and Greg had a good time down in Millcombe.  19 new birds ringed including the somewhat elusive Treecreeper.  Swallow, Linnet, Blackcap, Robin, Wren, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler were also ringed showing a good solid sign of migration.  The afternoon ahead involves repairing the moth trap before the Lundy duck race at 4pm.  After finishing second in my first race in January, I've been training hard and my duck is feeling strong.  Keen to avoid the psychological peril of 2nd place syndrome, I've coached a winning mindset from my military days; it's all out for the win.  Or retirement back to being a bathtub duck. 

By Thomas Weston

Manx Shearwater Seabird Researchers by Thomas Weston

Last night was lovely. An hour and a half on the cliffs resulted in 15 Manx Shearwaters being caught and ringed under licence. This included 13 new and 2 retraps. One of the retrap birds was from 2013 and the other from 2023. Amazing how one is at least 13yrs old and the other 3yrs old but we know they do not return to the colony until they are 4yrs old so these both easilly be in their 20s by now! We were joined by two researchers from Imperial College London and they are recording and analysing the calls of the Manx Shearwaters to determine differences in the calls of each colony as well as individual calls. Basically looking for regional dialects around Lundy and also individual slang! They have placed recorders across the island so we are looking forward to the results and what they find.

Goldfinch at the Church. Thomas Weston

I seem to get more bad weather days to write the blog then anything else and this was the case again, with the morning being rather windy and wild on the island starting with low cloud base, but gradually rising throughout the day as the main front came through in the morning. A windy walk to Benjamin's Chair this morning before my stint in the Tavern did not yield much; apart from an unringed male Wheatear singing to me and a few Meadow Pipits, there was not much to be seen. The two local Ravens were scouting me out as I checked the area for any passing seabirds but this resulted in more drizzle and some impressive gusts plus a Gannet. A Goldfinch at the Church was noteworthy.

The Tavern called. The evening/night consisted of strong westerly gusts and most of the staff acccomodation shaking! Not ideal and a wild night indeed.  

by Greg Lee

It was almost a complete 180-degree turn for today’s census with Storm Dave bringing the exact opposite of the weather conditions I had enjoyed on yesterday’s census. Instead, an F5 WSW wind was blowing across the island, and we were completely enveloped in a thick fog complete with spells of (mercifully) light rain. Usually censuses at the moment produce a total of between 35-40 species in good weather, but with viewing so difficult, I could only muster 27 species this morning, which was ten less than yesterday. However, I was able to produce a year-tick for the island when I picked up a Stock Dove in flight over Millcombe. The bird seemed quite unsettled and seemed to fly around the valley several times before disappearing somewhere, clearly it didn’t enjoy the company of its bigger cousins, the Woodpigeons, which were also hunkering down in the trees. A very small total of Warblers was sheltering in Millcombe, with Willow Warblers leading the majority and the Treecreeper was again scrambling up a tree trunk on the slopes of the valley. The Landing Bay was actually easier to view then yesterday with a single Guillemot, a couple of Razorbills and a modest number of Shags in the sheltered waters. Off Benjamin’s Chair, the Razorbills were still gathering as we fast approach the time of year where the bustling seabird colonies are most active. It was most surprising in the murk to hear a Skylark still bursting in song near the airfield, clearly it doesn’t want to put spring on hold. With the weather being so unpleasant, today presented a good opportunity to catch up with the very important job of data-entry and so for much of late morning and early afternoon I was collating the recent bird sightings onto the online data log before preparing for a kitchen porter shift in the evening.

Stock Dove by G.Lee
Elsewhere, Rosie, who was been helping out with ringing this week reported a Curlew flying off the West Coast and a Hooded Crow hybrid was found in Tillage Field by Eleanor and Thomas. After the past couple of days of triple-figure counts, a lone Sand Martin battling the winds at Pondsbury was a bit of a sorry sight.

Hooded x Carrion Crow by T. Weston