By Chloë Langmead
Hello everyone, I hope you had lovely weekends :)
It’s been a busy day today! We have had the first sightings for the year of Mistle Thrush and Great Spotted Woodpecker today as well as a Reed Warbler singing in Millcombe.
Jessie and I started our morning with a Bee Walk. However there weren’t many bumblebees to be seen, our total for the transect were 2 Common Carder and 1 Buff-tailed. In contrast, the butterflies and moths have been out and about today, Emma and Greg saw 137 Meadow Browns, 5 Ringlets, 69 Painted Ladies, a Grayling and 4 burnet moths.
After the Bee Walk, Jessie and I headed straight down to the Landing Bay and met Tara for our snorkel safaris. We had two great sessions, during which we saw lots, including two beautiful Doto sp. sea slugs and a Boring Sponge. There were also so many Moon Jellyfish bumping about.
After the two snorkel safari sessions we were all pretty cold, but we soon warmed up as we kayaked, paddle-boarded and swam out to deploy the BRUV. This time we repositioned and angled the BRUV so that it was closer to the ground (a temporary fix until Ian kindly permanently adjusts it for us) and we crushed the bait up a bit more before putting it in the canister. We positioned it in the seaweed and while we have yet to thoroughly review the footage to identify all the fish species, we did have our first BRUV sighting of a curious Grey Seal who came to have a nosy!
Chloë and Tara deploying the BRUV on a paddle-board. Photo by Greg Lee
By Jessie Dermody
Although the day today started off pretty grey, it was lovely down by the water. The assistant warden team - Tara, Chloë and I had some snorkel safaris to run. They were all quite well attended, and we had some lovely crystal clear water. We always start out examining the columns of the jetty, as these act like artificial reefs and are teeming with wildlife. Some particularly charismatic residents are the Montagu's Blennies, small, territorial fish who will often pop out to try and scare you away from their patch. These fish have beautiful blue spots along their columns and a single red tuft on their heads. Two Spot Gobies are also very common around the columns of the jetty, and we saw several shoals of these tiny fish today.
A Montagu's Blenny defending its territory in devils kitchen. By Jessie Dermody
These columns are also home to plenty of sea slugs! This is because they are covered in hydroids, bryozoans and sea squirts, which lots of sea slugs like to eat. We are now entering the sea slug section of the sightings report, so buckle up! We spotted four Facelina auriculata sea slugs on the columns today – a beautiful slug covered in pink and iridescent blue cerata. These were munching on the eggs of a Doto sp. sea slug. Nearby was a lovely Polycera capitata, and some Sea Lemon eggs! A Sea Lemon is another type of sea slug, a big slug that looks like a type of sponge.
A Facelina auriculata sea slug by Jessie Dermody
Before we headed back to shore, we spotted a large Spiny Starfish crawling across the seabed beneath us. They move quite quickly as they have hundreds of tube feet beneath their bodies. As we moved over the seaweed of the rocky reefs, we saw lots of Ballan Wrasse and juvenile Pollack.
Spiny Starfish by Jessie Dermody
Once we got out of the water, we dried off and enjoyed some well deserved lunch at the tavern. After that I headed back down to the Landing Bay with the ‘rat pack’ to complete the important task of checking all the rat boxes. There are seventy of these boxes hidden around the island, and they help us ensure that the island is still rat free. Each box contains a bait made of chocolate and wax, which we need to check for teeth marks each months. If we did find any thick, rat like teeth marks, that would mean we would need to begin the process of extermination again. The island celebrated its 20th year of being 'rat free' last week, and we want to make sure it remains that way! Our ground nesting seabird colonies, like the Puffins and the Manx Shearwaters, would be put at risk if rats ever returned to the island. Thankfully, I have found no signs of rodents in the boxes this week.
A shoal of tiny two-spot gobies within the rocky reef, By Jessie Dermody
After I’d finished rat boxing, I felt I deserved another dip in the sea! I enjoyed the feel of the water on my skin, and the reflection of the sunlight in the water. On my way back I found a lovely piece of Sea Beech growing out of a piece of kelp on the seabed. I often pick up and examine pieces of kelp that have broken away from their moorings, as this is a great way to spot sea slugs. No slugs today, but lots of sponges and parasitic sea weeds.
Sea Beech and other seaweeds growing out of an old piece of kelp. The Sea Beech is the longest of the seaweeds pictured here, and looks a bit like leaves. Photo by Jessie Dermody
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
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 Pollack. 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.
Blue Jellyfish seen on BRUV. Photo by Chloë
Lundy map - click to enlarge