By Thomas Weston
Census started well with no rain, but omminous skies. Eleanor and I walked down to Millcombe firstly spotting our friendly Jackdaw feeding with the House Sparrows, Starlings and Chickens. Walking through the top of Millcombe, we have seemingly missed all the recent rarities and scarcities hanging out here! Today, there was a couple of Blackbirds totalling 14 across the whole route. Overhead a flock of 6 Ravens were annoying 3 Peregrines. Other corvids about included 21 Carrion Crows across the route, but no Jays having one sighted and photographed on Monday. The Monday record was the first since 2003, a 23 yr gap which we hope does not mean we have to wait another 23yrs for the next one!! Gliding down the valley, a single Kestrel and 2 Sparrowhawks were the best as well as 2 nervous Goldfinches. In Millcombe the first of 29 Redwings were spotted, as well as a single Firecrest and Goldcrest in the pines. Offshore, the east winds were strong and 3 Shags battled the winds, a Gannet flew by, 6 Great Black-backed Gulls passed overhead with a Herring Gull, and 23 Oystercatchers were on Millers Cake. Back to the bushes and 3 Wrens will almost certainly be the lowest count this year for this species. There was a flock of 5 Long tailed Tits in St Johns with another 2 seen at the Quarries meaning we still have at least 7 on island. Semi-resident species, with some being big migrants last month, were low with 6 Robins, 6 Dunnocks, 8 Chaffinches, 3 Song Thrushes, and 6 Woodpigeons the best. A single singing Water Rail was heard on the way out of Millcombe, with the totals on the Plautaeu being quiet for sure. There was a noticeable flock of 16 Fieldfare with Redwing in Lower Lighthouse Field, whislt a female Merlin flew by. Nothing to note on the second half until the Village where we spotted 55 Starlings, 12 Mallards, the male Wigeon, a female Teal, and 26 House Sparrows.
By Thomas Weston
A very wet Siskin....
A day off, but a wet one to say the least. A walk around the Village and Millcombe yielded 4 Long-tailed Tits in St Johns Valley with 2 Goldcrests, very soggy Chaffinches, a Siskin hiding in a wall(!), single Goldfinch, 12 Fieldfare, 22 Song Thrushes, 32 Redwing, 8 Blackbirds, the male Wigeon in Bartons, the Jackdaw outside Pigs, and 5 Ravens overhead with the 'normal' House Sparrows and Starlings.
Nocturnal wanderings around a couple of fields resulted in a Woodcock seen and ringed, 5 Snipe seen (2 ringed), as well as 3 Redwing seen and ringed.
By Thomas Weston
We say goodbye to Greg today as he departs Lundy after completing his volunterring with us since March. Greg has been a great assit to the team, having been able to assist and gain a C permit for Manx adults, Manx pulli, and trapping for passerines and near passerines. Greg has found many a rare and scarce bird too, and has been key in achieving our census and log requirements as the Bird Observatory. Greg has posted quite a few blogs during his time, and many of you would have met Greg on your travels to the island. We hope he goes on to big and great things, plus we look forward to seeing Greg again on island. A real round circle happened too, with Greg's first bird processed on the island being a Common Snipe, and his last bird processed on the island being a Common Snipe too! After we caught 3 last night. This marks the last of our long term volunteers to head off for the season. Alas, census continues until the 15th, and blogs will still be posted here daily until December. However, in December we will be changing the blog timings to a weekly occurance from December to February during a quieter period when it is notoriously hard for readers to visit. The only exceptions to additional blogs will be unless we get some nice winter birds arriving, which we hope will be the case.
Highlights from today:
Lundy map - click to enlarge