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.