Bird Sightings

By Emma Abel

The morning started with a successful moth trapping session in Milcombe with 81 moths of 14 species waiting to be identified in the trap. The most abundant moth species was Bright-line Brown-eye with 24 individuals. Some of the most exciting species included a Buff Tip, with its twig-like camouflage, and a Pale Tussock with its signature positioning of the front legs, presenting its fluffy legs to the world.

Buff Tip Moth By Tara

Pale Tussock Moth By Tara

I walked to Jenny's Cove early this morning and was greeted by a Cuckoo's song echoing across Acklands Moor from the direction of Old Light. After scanning Pondsbury for any sign of the Teal duckings (no such luck...), I sat and monitored Puffin burrows for the morning. Although numbers are not what they ususally are this time of year, breeding adults are still back and using burrows and I'm up to 185 potential burrows mapped at the Jenny's Cove monitored colony. As Puffins lay their eggs in burrows we cannot be sure when eggs are laid and hatched, but judging by the birds bringing back nesting material we can assume that eggs are being laid at this month. Other birds that are laying eggs less secretively are the Guillemots, with their bare rock ledges to call a nest. My estimation of Jenny's colony was 2887, many of which will hopefully be laying their bright blue pear shaped eggs at the moment.

After finishing my monitoring, I was joined by Jacob who has been helping out around the island with the LFS work party. Together we ran the Seabird Station, chatting to visitors about the seabirds and bringing the Puffins closer using our scope. It is always rewarding to share the joy of seabirds with people and share in their excitement at seeing Puffins up close, often for the first time. Maddie was also running a Seabird Station at the Battery and together we spoke to over 100 people, despite the grey and windy conditions.

A grey but beautiful Jenny's Cove

Elsewhere on the island a Reed Bunting was seen over at Quarry pond, while Millcombe had 3 Sedge Warblers, a Whitethroat and a juvenile Stonechat. 2 Collared Doves were also hanging around after a few days hunkering down in the South.

By Greg Lee

Heavy rain lashing down on our bedroom windows is never the most auspicious start to the day, but the island is definitely thankful for it. Thomas still braved census and managed a couple of late migration highlights including two Redpolls and a Sedge Warbler. Perhaps more exciting were the sightings of the first newly fledged juvenile birds, with a speckly young Blackbird chasing its rather tired looking mother around Millcombe and some very squeaky young Dunnocks sticking to the undergrowth. The male Channel Wagtail was also on his normal perch, we’ve managed to narrow down this bird to three individuals ringed in 2024 of the brood, though we are trying to nail down that last number on his ring.

With the rain still coming through in stages, a bit of office-work was done to keep up to date with census counts and descriptions of some of the interesting bird sightings we’ve collated so far this spring. Once it had passed though, Thomas and I decided to take a look at the sea from the Ugly, where a small stream of auks and Kittiwakes was noted, though nothing seemed to be moving ahead of the intermittent squalls moving up the Bristol Channel. We also checked one of the Swallow nests on the island, where, we noted that the neat cup had been lined with feathers, likely from the six Feral Pigeons currently taking up residence on the island.

Lundy Cabbage in flower

The final act of the day was heading up to the North End to check on the seabird colonies, notably the Shags, as further up the Irish Sea, Bardsey has been reporting chicks already. Heading down the area, it felt very reminiscent of my season spent on Bardsey last year, with the steep grassy slopes bringing back the excitement of the seabird work I did there, particularly with the pastel-pink Thrift now carpeting certain areas of the cliffs and the distinctive, but not necessarily unpleasant, smell wafting from cliffs of busy seabirds. With multiple Shag nests found, we were pleased to see that some eggs had been laid but also the Gulls had also started laying as well. Over the next month or so, the team will be doing a lot of work with our cliff/colony-nesting seabirds.

By Thomas Weston

Today’s blog is a lot shorter and sweeter. Having lost my camera in Millcombe the other day and not really realising until yesterday, it was great to have found it in lost property in the evening and back with me for today’s census. If you were the person who handed it in, thank you so much!

Stonechat on census by Thomas Weston

The weather was lovely and sunny with a nice northernly breeze to begin but this quickly turned into wind, rain and grey cloud throughout, with on and off sunshine up to the end of census. However, to begin, walking through Millcombe yielded the most birds with breeding birds in full voice again – see yesterday’s blog for some of our breeding bird highlights too as they were very much the same today. It is always great to note where the males are singing, as you never know we may get some juveniles from the areas they are singing too! Some nice new breeding evidence came from our Stonechats, surely they are nesting somewhere near to where we spotted this female.

A nice highlight for the morning was the warblers. They have had a mixed year so far. The Chiffchaffs never really had a passage and overall, it has been an incredibly poor spring for them albeit two birds singing in Millcombe was nice. Likewise, Willow Warbler peaked on a single day, but that was it. Numbers for this species have been really concerningly low, although three singing birds on territories is a small win. Moreover, Blackcap, have had a one-day peak so far this year, but other than that where have they been!? One today was a highlight for being how scarce they have been so far. In more positive news, Whitethroat have had a good year so far with a couple of ‘big’ days and today three singing birds in Millcombe was nice to hear, but ideally, we will find some more males on territory.

A personal highlight of census was the seemingly constant passing of seabirds that seems to be happening at the moment, with Manx Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Gannets, Razorbills, and Guillemots, including some nice feeding flocks and frenzies.

Manx Sheartwater evening by Tara

I got back in good time for my main role of today which was Tavern. However, in true conservation style, after finishing a busy shift that went up to 9pm, the team led a Manx Shearwater evening whereby ~25 visitors joined us for a night on the cliffs. After waiting for it to get fully dark, which included getting soaked by passing squally showers, we ended up showing the public three Manx Shearwaters in the hand. All birds were newly ringed, and biometrics taken before being released, hoping to be seen again in many more years to come! A long and successful day.