Bird Sightings

By Thomas Weston

Today started with a warm, breezy south westerly wind gracing the Village. Eleanor and I started census and made our way down through Millcombe. The valley was alive with activity, with a nice upsurge in returning breeding Linnets, the resident Blackbirds showing themselves and a nice bubbly flock of 18 Goldfinches - a small increase on the last few days where numbers have remained around 12 individuals. Chaffinches were in full song, as were the Dunnocks, lone Song Thrush, Wrens, Robins, and even a Water Rail. The Landing Bay was unusually quiet with a few gulls, 4 Oystercatchers, and a couple of Shag. We checked in with the ringers who have been having a quiet day today and quickly went back to the bushes where we found a nice flock of 10 Blackcap near Millcombe House, most of whom were females. We also saw some nice Chiffchaffs, a couple of Willow Warblers and heard 2 Grasshopper Warblers in St John’s – our first of the year. Absolutely love them!

Walking round the south coast and the species list continued increased, with a flock of Kittiwakes, 2 Fulmar, 3 Manx Shearwaters, 227 Razorbills, and a couple of the breeding Ravens showing well over Rocket Pole. An unringed Wheatear was nice to see too. Walking up to Old Light, the Skylark were in full song and flocks of Meadow Pipits graced the path whilst a small trickle of Swallows and Sand Martins flew overhead as they moved northwards. The Airfield was quite quiet but the Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Linnets were all in full voice, as well as a Wren and an out of place Blackbird! The gorse bushes by Pointless Wall can turn up rarities but today held 3 Willow Warblers and a Blackcap who were very exciting to bump into. The area of Quarter Wall added a few nice views of Wheatear before heading back to the Village. Checking Barton Field and the first Yellow Wagtail of the year was seen, in fact it showed us it’s head and quickly became the first Blue-headed Wagtail of the year! Success and a new migrant for the year.

We opened the walk-in trap for Starlings and House Sparrows but ended up catching a flock of Goldfinches including a bird originally ringed in Pembrokeshire in April 2025, one ringed on-island in 2024, another from 2025 and a new unringed bird too. We closed the trap to check the Manx Shearwater nestboxes with lots of success with two individuals seen, as well as four colour-ringed Wheatear combinations read. A busy day and more Manx Shearwater catching/guided walk for the visitors later! The fun life of a Bird Observatory Warden.

by Greg Lee

Census was the port of call this morning and with a strong south-westerly wind blowing in from the island, it was going to be a wild one! As I looked off towards the mainland coast, I saw multiple showers passing through the Bristol Channel over the sea. I have to admit it is a spectacle I always enjoy seeing, being raised as a landlubber in inland Gloucestershire. Millcombe was no place for refuge either with the wind barrelling up the area and shaking the various trees and bushes. Despite this though, a flock of Goldfinches seemed to be having a great time, noisily chattering to each other and flitting from tree to tree. Down in Smelly Gully, a few Chiffchaffs were loitering and roleplaying as Dippers and Grey Wagtails by feeding in the stream, so clearly some birds had made the journey overnight. Two days ago, I had the great surprise and pleasure of stumbling across a Hawfinch in Millcombe, though the bird proved to be frustratingly (and typically) elusive, only briefly showing itself and calling before vanishing into the trees. Both times I had seen it, it was near the Casbah, so as I approached the general area, my pace slowed and I looked into the tops of the trees. Lots of Goldfinches, a Chaffinch and even a few Linnets but nothing else. Approaching Benjamin’s Chair, the wind was buffeting my face, but I was able to first see the male Kestrel hovering near the Rocket Pole but also Razorbills collecting on the cliffs and beginning to assemble, clearly the foaming and choppy seas weren’t very appealing to these hardy birds. Up near Old Light, the Herring Gulls and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls were gathering in large flocks in the sheep fields, not something they had been doing too much as of late, but they too were obviously looking for some respite.

 Rain squalls offshore

Though I admitted I liked appreciating showers from a distance, I’m not such a fan of getting closer to them and the last part of my walk was facing the incoming rain whilst trying to see if anything was around. It was here that I also discovered my key had slipped out of my pocket somewhere on the route. Luckily, I kept to the paths so hopefully it will be found at some point. Although this weather is not so great for watching birds, it proved to be very helpful last night when a team of us visited the Manx Shearwater colonies. In the dark and mist, a good number were attracted to island, and we processed 39 birds in total, the highlight being a bird wearing a ring from the Channel Islands! Details of this bird will hopefully be obtained soon but this was a very exciting discovery for Lundy.

Night working!

Data-entry and looking through some sound recordings I took of the Manx Shearwaters last night were additional duties during the day as well as sorting out my laundry, a very important job! 

Other notable sightings during the day included the lingering Greenfinch in Millcombe and two reeling Grasshopper Warblers early dawn.

By Emma Abel

I started the day carrying out Puffin productivity monitoring at Jenny’s Cove. The Colony is still quiet at this time of year with 74 counted on the cliffs.

Enjoying the view!

It was exciting to see lots of Puffin pairs billing outside of their burrows, bonding at the start of the breeding season. A few individuals had beaks full of grass, carrying the nesting material back to their burrows preparing for an egg. I also spotted an individual with interesting colouring arriving onto the colony. Its head and back feathers were a light brown, most likely due to a lack of pigmentation called Leucism.

Leucistic Puffin

I then joined Anna for the Seabird Station as today was the first day since 31^st March that day visitors have been over to the island. The weather had started to turn grey and wet but visitors did make the journey, determined to see the promised Puffins! We chatted to lots of people, showing them the seabirds through the scopes set up at the top of Jenny’s Cove. For some it was their first Puffin sighting, so it was great to get to share in their excitement. Various Fulmar pairs are settling in on the cliffs, re-establishing their territories and defending them from intruders.

Get off my ledge!

Additional interesting bird visitors included a Whimbrel seen flying past Jenny’s Cove, a Stock Dove at Pondsbury and 2 Pied Flycatchers, one at Quarter Wall Copse and another near Goat island.

By Simon Parker

A new week dawns and this morning started with the promise of fairer winds and some sunshine, I was up quite early to get a run in before work.  My new plan is to run in the morning to get the feel good flow all day, I heard from a Bear Grylls show that this was a good thing to do. In general, I always like to be awake fairly early and start moving but I'm not afraid to squeeze in a siesta if energy levels run low. I'm also open to changing my mind given that some of Bears other advice involves ingesting questionable substance to survive.

Census this morning was pretty active, a fair amount of noise around Millcombe and large numbers of House Martin and Swallow were already moving.  I met Thomas and Greg down by the nets, already setting up for a short morning session.  I was joined on census by Anna who's travelled from Germany to spend a few weeks here, we both took a while scanning the landing bay and enjoying the calm after the past weekends rough seas.

Shag, Great Black-backed Gull, Oystercatcher, Guillemot and Gannet were all present, it was one of those days when you could just happily sit and watch the landing bay but we had to move on.  As we passed along the South near Benjamins chair, I heard a Jackdaw heading out to sea followed by a Curlew calling from somewhere overhead but I didn't spot it.  A Peregrine was wrestling with two Raven over by the castle and a fair size group of Razorbill rafted off the South coast.

Large numbers of Linnet were spotted around the gorse bushes and the Black-headed Gull is still here, wandering alone around the village.  Over by Old Light, we spotted a first for the year.  A lone Cuckoo being mobbed by Meadow Pipits.

Cuckoo perfectly disguised as a Pipit

Emma had also been down to Jennys Cove to undertake her Puffin survey, over a hundred sighted and some "billing" action was underway.  "Billing" is a term used to describe the action of two puffin rubbing their bills against each other and is a good sign that they will be nesting.  

As the day wore on, it soon became clear that migration was well and truly underway, over 1000 Swallow were recorded by Thomas and Eleanor moving through the Island.  Another first for the year, Ring Ouzel spotted by a visiting birder rounded off a pretty spectacular day considering our slow season.