Bird Sightings

By Greg Lee

A scorching hot day on the island today, with the recent heatwave reaching its apex, though I'm sure those reading on the mainland will see the island high of 28.6 degrees and prefer that to what their own thermometer is reading! 

I was out early with another survey of the Kittwakes and Guillemots at Aztec Bay. Even at 6:00am, the warm breeze was more than comfortable so I was not looking forward to the inevitable rise in the heat. Heading beyond Halfway Wall, I picked up a nice surprise flying over, a Redshank, no doubt an early migrant moving on after possibly failing to breed. Over the next few weeks, birders across the country will see an increase of this noisy wader on their wetland and estuary patches as young birds and postbreeding adults being to appear. They aren't quite so common on Lundy but perhaps a bird may appear on the rocks down in the Landing Bay. 

The Guillemot chick numbers are increasing with a range of ages amongst the chicks, although some adults remain on their large eggs. Indeed some youngsters are now not far off jumping and gradually the ledges will begin to empty out of birds. Whilst doing my surveying, another sound and sign of the changing seasons caught my ear, the raucous and far-carrying call of a Sandwich Tern and sure enough, I spotted two birds diving and flying southwards. The tern migration in July and August is always an enjoyable experience for me and although I won't be sifting through large flocks of Sandwich Terns for other smaller species such as Black or Roseate whilst on Lundy, unlike at some other Observatories, any small signs of Tern passage will be greatly appreciated. 

Once I'd finished my work for the day, I avoided the heat of the day and did some office-based jobs. Once the temperatures had somewhat repealed in the evening, I joined a few members of the Conservation Team for a swim off the Jetty. Usually, I'm often hesitant to get in and choose to slowly descend my way into the cold water. Today, I chose and different method and plunged straight in, which ultimately paid off.

Storm clouds behind South Light by G.Lee

As darkness fell, so the storm clouds came and as dusk fell, great streaks of lightning flashed the sky from all angles. With the humidity so high and the clouds so dense, I optimistically set the moth-trap at Benjamin's Chair, hoping that the south-facing light may tempt some migrants in. Even within just a few minutes, it was clear the moths were very busy, with many insects coming into the light, so the optimism was high for a busy night in the trap! 

By Chloë Langmead 

Hiya everyone!

This morning started slower than usual as we had a late night out ringing. Last night Jessie, Tara and I went up to North Light earlier than the rest of the conservation team to have a beautiful sunset swim! The water was crystal clear and the sun sank beautifully into the ocean as Razorbill calls soundtracked our swim.

Despite our late night, this morning Tara, Jessie and I were soon wide awake due to the pungent smell of defrosted Pollock. We spent the morning preparing to deploy our BRUV (baited remote underwater video), starting with the task of preparing bait. Cutting and portioning fish is a messy job on a good day, but the intense heat today made it even more so! 

We deployed the BRUV at the Devil's Kitchen today. It was high tide, so we floated the BRUV out on a kayak and pushed it along in the water. Once we picked a spot we dropped it down and left it for an hour. I then had to head up for a tavern shift, but Simon kindly stepped in to help with the retrieval, and it sounded like a proper operation hauling it up between two kayaks!

Unfortunately, there isn’t very much to see on the footage, other than the kelp swaying, but we did have a couple of passing jellyfish including some Blue Jellyfish. We are working on improving our deployment method and we will be shortening the BRUV, so it is closer to the seabed, trying different locations and bait types. 

The day started with a travel day meeting as it was a boat day on a glorious day.

There were many tasks to get completed today, and even at the time of writing a lot of those tasks are still to be completed.

Firstly, a walk to North End was required to drop off some equipment. Eleanor and I started walking around 8am and made a slow wander north with the poles. We spotted around 60+ Painted Lady, a Black-tailed Skimmer and about 30+ Red Admirals along the main track. Skylarks and Meadow Pipits filled the sky with song, and the calls of Linnets could be heard too. When approaching Widow’s Tenement, we accidently flushed a Quail, this could well be a migrant or it could even be on territory as we have had a few records already this year in seemingly the same spot. The equipment was dropped off soon after and we spotted a few loafing Puffins, a flyby Small Tortoiseshell and had nice views of the seabirds.

A wander back and a trip down to see the boat in was required as we were celebrating both the 20yrs Rat Free Celebrations and the arrival of Emma and Nick who are here to help with some Gull/seabird ringing over the next couple of days, as well as some permit assessments for our trainees on the island. A sweltering trip up and down Millcombe was super sticky, and the highlights were the Song Thrush, Stonechat, our local breeding Starlings, and a few Shags in the Landing Bay.

After a well earned break and a lunch stop in the shade, we joined the celebrations and checked the Manx Shearwater boxes whereby we were able to show the group of leading experts, scientists, conservationists and landowners the true success of the Rat Eradication 20yrs ago. And what better to be shown then a very fluffy, a few day old Manx Shearwater chick! Something that was unimaginable over 20 years ago when rats ate and decimated the seabird colonies on the island.

After some much needed admin, some food was had and then an evening of Storm Petrel catching resulted in 50 birds being caught including 34 new and 16 retrap.

By Thomas Weston

Today was our annual Jenny's Cove count. The team assembled at the Tavern where Eleanor, Tara, Greg, Emma and I set off to count the cove. Emma and Greg had just got back from counting moths in the trap and their non-moth highlights included another Red-veined Darter (10^th record ever for the island – though the 7^th this year already) as well as a small passage of departing Swifts. There have been a good number seen passing on the North Devon coast this morning too which is amazing to see.

We set off at a leisurely time of 08:25am and headed off north up the track. There were small flocks of Linnets and Meadow Pipits in the grass, and a friendly family of Wheatear were in Brick Field. As we passed Pondsbury, a distant check of the waterbody yielded a very quiet scene, though a Common Snipe was accidently flushed from near the track. A local failed breeder or returnee from the North?

Jenny's Cove Count by Thomas Weston

Puffin at Jenny's Cove during the Jenny's Cove Count by Thomas Weston

At Jenny’s Cove we split into two teams. Tara and Greg went to the northern sections of the cove and surveyed four viewpoints whereas Eleanor, Emma and I surveyed the southern sections. With a brisk east wind and lovely sunny weather, we remained cool in the heat. Counts were extremely successful, and we have some good results which we hope to publish in the ‘General News’ section of the website. I spent the afternoon combining the totals and there are some certainly some good results from today!

Red rumped Swallow over the Village and Bartons by Thomas Weston

On our way back, we had just dropped Greg and Emma off at the Lodge. A few hundred metres south of the Lodge, around the Barn area, we spotted a white-rumped hirundine flying towards us. It looked a little like our seemingly over-summering House Martin loitering over the Village, though as it flew by it was obviously a Swallow in structure but without binoculars, I couldn’t see many more features. The penny dropped, and on its return over our heads heading back south towards the Church it was a Red-rumped Swallow. I ran to the Lodge to get the volunteers out and posted on the island’s bird news WhatsApp chat for birders to join.  

The bird loitered across the southern end of the island, heading between the Lambing Shed and the Castle whilst the wind blew from the SE. The bird remained on island for about 1hr before a band of rain (due to some atmospheric breakdown on the mainland) came across, forcing the wind to go E and then briefly SW as the band passed. This rain gave the bird enough of a inspiration to leave and head out from the Castle not to be seen again! A stunning find and so lovely to get everyone onto the bird.

I completed some Bird Obs admin and headed back for dinner baking in the heat. A walk around Millcombe as it cooled yielded some good local breeding totals of residents and our breeding migrants before heading up to our Daily Bird Log. Whilst log was being completed a flock of 30 Swifts headed around the Church screaming as they passed. Amazing and a sure sign of summer!