Bird Sightings

Spotted Flycatcher along the Upper East Path. ©ThomasWeston

Today we have seen a large push of hirundines again, with several hundred House Martins and Swallows heading North towards Wales, as well as a couple of Spotted Flycatchers in Millcombe. The counts of Spotted Flycatcher were particularly high again for the third day in a row, with a nice count of 8 seen along the Upper East Path alone. A high count of 33 Shag in the Landing Bay and Manx Shearwaters returning from their feeding journeys this evening summed up a really nice day on the island.

An unringed female Wheatear with food at OldLight. ©Thomas Weston

Other jobs the team were doing involved helping out with the Wheatear researchers currently on the island. The Wheatear RAS Project has been running since 2012 with the aim to further our understanding of the survival of Lundy’s Wheatears. Through catching and ringing the known breeding adults with individually colour marked rings in a combination of colours and striped rings, we can monitor the lives of individuals through resighting colour ringed birds. The researchers have a standardised process of montioring the island’s birds through a resighting trip in April when birds have arrived back and settling down on their territories, and a subsequent trip in May to catch any unringed birds and resight those missed at the start of the season. A whole island census of the Wheatears is also undertaken during the researchers stay to try and get an accurate number of pairs/individuals by undertaking a 6-8hr walk along the whole island. Just to put it in context, for a bird that winters south of the Sahara Desert and breeds on the island, the thousands of miles these birds are flying each year is phenomenal! We absolutely love them.

If you see a colour ringed Wheatear on your stay/visit to the island, please report it to the Bird Observatory team through the Tavern/Conservation team staff. Photos, or a note of the specific colours on both legs, will enable a successful resighting to be made – thank you!

Winds remained NW for the second day in a row, but migrants are moving through again which was nice to see on census.

A mix of large gulls on Highstreet Field. ©ThomasWeston

Census resulted in 13 Mallard with a brood in Lower Lighthouse, a brood in Quarters Pond, and adults in Bartons/St Helen’s Field. The pair of Collared Doves who have been hanging around the Lambing Shed remained along the main track and frequented the shed environs. A large arrival of ‘large’ gulls has been noted the last few days with Herring Gulls dominating the counts. Today, 347 Herring Gulls were in the fields with 17 Great-Black Backed Gulls and an incredible 76 Lesser-Black Backed Gulls joining the flocks. The latter had the largest variation in ages, with the majority being 2–3-year-old birds and some showed signs of being of the ‘intermedius’ subspecies who breed in Scandanvia. Flocks of seabirds off the Landing Bay resulted in 5 Manx Shearwaters and 6 Shags seen swimming. Moving around the coast, Auks off Benjamin’s Chair resulted in 16 Guillemot and 145 Razorbills seen. In the fields, only 3 Carrion Crows, 5 Meadow Pipit, a single Wheatear, 32 Linnets, and 4 Ravens were noted. Singing Skylarks were seen and recorded alongside, presumably, females on the ground resulting in 7 birds in total. A small passage of hirundines moved through with 20 Swallows and 17 House Martins hinting today maybe another good day for both of these species. This did not seem to transpire through our other work today. However, in Millcombe, 2 Whitethroats and 2 Chiffchaffs were the only warblers seen today, with 4 ‘new in’ Spotted Flycatchers the best on the migrant passerines. Resident birds were seen throughout census with 9 Wrens, 4 Dunnocks and 21 House Sparrows noted. Our lone single Song Thrush remains in Millcombe singing away near Millcombe House as were a flock of 9 Goldfinches. The breeding season has been in full swing for a while for both seabirds and passerines, but it is certainly nice to see that 1 out of the 5 Robins and 1 out of the 6 Blackbird seen today were juveniles. Two pairs of Chaffinches are almost certainly nesting in Millcombe, a Pied Wagtail was checking out one of the walls around Tillage Field, and the Rocket Pole Pair of Stonechats remain defending at least one juvenile. Starling juveniles have been out in force for the last week and counting all the flocks in the area 88 Starlings were seen today.

At Pondsbury, the 26^th record of Tufted Duck remains, as does a Moorhen (less than 50 records), a Grey Heron, and a pair of Golden Plover with one bird singing and displaying over the pool to another individual.

1st summer male Pied Flycatcher caught and ringed in Millcombe. ©ThomasWeston

‘Our dodgy looking flycatcher’ left the island overnight and remains unidentified to species level as no DNA was collected. Although, on the plus side, there were some amazing photos by our guests and the response on social media was quite instructive, so we thank everyone who contributed. With response to our friends at Skokholm Bird Observatory, we believe it was most likely a very pale Pied Flycatcher. To add to this, a 1^st summer male Pied Flycatcher was caught and ringed in Millcombe with a small arrival of warblers. This individual also had a grey rump and extensive brown in the coverts and primaries almost identical to the female type yesterday. A sudden burst of 1^st summer birds shows migration has not ended, but has definitely slowed over the past couple of weeks.

In other news, a cloudy day turned to fog and then rain in the afternoon. A few hirundines were seen migrating North, a raft of Manx Shearwaters totalled 120 birds fed in the Landing Bay for most of the morning, and our Wheatear researchers found a new nest in their study site which was very nice. Our House Sparrow researcher Sophie continued to monitor the boxes across the island so was busy checking birds, boxes, and buildings today. Manx Shearwaters came back in force in the night so a nocturnal survey was productive with a small catch made with visiting ringers.

Ringing

Wheatears, House Sparrows, Manxies and Millcombe today. Read more on the Trek update once complete…

The day started and remained hot and sunny. The local risk of thunderstorms never really came about so it remained dry all day.

Flycatcher spp by Pointless Wall. ©Thomas Weston

What's this flyctcher??? Today's big debate after being found on census today.

Cuckoo at Quarter Wall. ©Thomas Weston

Census was productive with 3 Mallard around Barton’s Field; a Cuckoo in Millcombe and one at Old Light that flew to Quarter Wall; a Feral Pigeon on the Lambing Shed; single Woodpigeon in Millcombe; 3 Oystercatchers in the Landing Bay; three large flocks of gulls totalled 11 Lesser-Black Backed Gulls and 127 Herring Gulls; 18 Guillemots and 48 Razorbills off Benjamin’s Chair; 7 Shags along the South coast; a single large female Peregrine flew along Tillage Field; 4 Carrion Crows, single Song Thrush, 7 Blackbird, 4 Robins, 4 Dunnock and 7 Ravens remained in Millcombe; a slight passage of hirundines resulted in 15 Swallows and 7 House Martins North; only 5 Skylarks were seen so we hope some are on nests; a Blackcap, 3 Whitethroats and 4 Chiffchaff were the only warblers seen; 11 Wrens and 88 Starling were recorded throughout; 3 Wheatears, Pied Wagtail, 4 Meadow Pipits and a single Stonechat were in SouthWest Field; 25 House Sparrows were in the Village; the Chaffinch pair remained around the nest and a small flock of 25 Linnets and 8 Goldfinches were seen on the circuit.

Ringing

The clear weather did not produce any late falls of migrants, but a few hours in the gardens resulted in a couple of birds caught today.