By Greg Lee
The first settled day for what seems like ages. As a result, I was quick to head out and do an early morning patrol on census joined by Emma. Although migration is nearly over (for the timebeing), the patrols at the moment are certainly full of life with plenty of young birds to be enjoyed. Noisy brown Starling chicks squawk at and follow their parents all over the place, young Goldfinches lacking the red facial colours of the adult birds flit in the sycamores and streaky, young Linnets seem to be in every bush! Meanwhile, other birds were still on parental duties with Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers seen carrying food to their fledglings. In the meantime, our Millcombe Spotted Flycatcher pair were taking advantage of the drop in the wind to flit out and snatch insects on the wing. Our well-known Song Thrush is still going strong too, though the repertoire seems to have stalled, with passage waders being a firm favourite. Over on the Airfield, a female Mallard with a brood of nine small ducklings in tow, waddled into the thick Bracken and disappeared.
Spotted Flycatcher by G.Lee
Linnet by G.Lee
For a lover of the outdoors, it seems to be some sort of cruel irony that I'm somewhat allergic to it, the long grass near Government house releasing a dust cloud of pollen. Cue sneezing, itchy eyes and a streaming nose, my nemesis at this time of year. Emma, (positively unaffected by the offerings from the grasses), may well have frolicked through the vegetation just to further exemplify the blissful existence that I can only imagine the non-sufferers have in summer. So, once census was completed, the eyedrops and antihistamines were produced to prevent people wondering if my glassy, red eyes were an insight into my wellbeing.
Then, it was out to the coast to lead the seabird station at Jenny's Cove for the host of day-trippers and new staying guests arriving on the island. On the way, a party of Swifts streaming overhead and screaming caught my ear. Back in my small Gloucestershire village where I grew up, I always hallmarked the day that these marvellous birds would arrive back on territory to swirl in the summer skies. Whilst the Swifts may have been late spring arrivals, a Sand Martin heading southward wasn't so clear. Most Sand Martins pass through in March and April, with May birds generally being quite late. On the contrary, one of the first autumn migrants I expect to see moving southward in July are small parties of Sand Martins moving through. So, was this bird a failed breeder that decided to head back to warmer climes? Or was it a tardy spring migrant that had stalled its journey northward? Even though I often treat mid-July as the start of autumn. I concede that it may be just a tad early to start treating the biridng as though autumn is here, though I'm sure some southbound waders will be spotted before June comes to an end.
The biggest surprise came on the walk back when I spotted a small Dragonfly basking on the main track. I saw this was a Darter sp. which, with the lower sections of the eye being blue, helped to identify it as a Red-veined Darter, our third record this year of this migrant species to Lundy. Unfortunately, as I didn't have a camera to hand, I had to take record shots through my binoculars.
Red-veined Darter by G.Lee
By Emma
Today was another grey blustery day, but that did not stop Chloë, Jessie and visiting rockpooler Eleanor heading down to the Landing Bay to do some rockpool surveys. They were quite successful finding many interesting species of sea slug, including some Celtic Sea slugs with their lovely gherkin body shape. An exciting find was Trapania maculata which is a rarely seen slug species in the uk, and not usually found in shallow rockpools like where it had been floating around when Eleanor found it, alongside its cousin Trapania pallida. Another beautiful invertebrate found was a Candy Striped Flatworm, matching its name very nicely with red and white stripes running along the length of its flattened body.
Celtic Sea Slug by Jessie Dermody
Trapania maculata by Jessie Dermody
Candy Striped Flatworm by Chloë Langmead
Elsewhere on the island, the gap between the Spring and Autumn migration periods is leading to low numbers of new birds passing through. However bird numbers are ever increasing as more and more fledglings emerge from their bracken, bushes and cavities, with a plethora of young Wheatears, Linnets, Starlings and more hopping around learning how to be birds. Thomas managed to read a ring number of an adult male Mallard and discovered that he had ringed it as a duckling 2 years ago on the island, which is very sweet to hear as many of the ducklings we have seen this year have become Raven Snacks.
Greg and I ended the day with a Seawatch, settling in the Ugly with a scope and watching out over the ocean. Whilst we did not see any migrants of the skua type (definitely not holding out for one!) we did see a couple thousand Manx Shearwaters flying close over the waves, putting on a graceful display of speed and acrobatics. Gannets were joining the party soaring high above the waves on air currents, a young individual showing off its dark feathers. Razorbills and Guillemots were heading out low over the waves to fetch fish for their hatched chicks, wings flapping frantically, holding up their little black and white bodies. I then had to run off to the Tavern to end my day with a tavern shift but slowed to walk through the Pines and listen to the Blackbird song echoing around the valley.
By Chloë Langmead
Hello everyone :)
It's been a windy week over here! I'm writing this while sheltering in the tavern from the 39mph gusting winds, meanwhile the Manx Shearwaters are loving it, with around 960+ seen in an hour this afternoon flying north.
I want to briefly mention that yesterday I went letterboxing for the first time, as it was my day off. I collected 9 stamps, and I found the Lundy Bunny! I ended the day by helping Jayden retrieve his Guillemots and it was a beautiful evening. I had the honour of checking the temperature, the wind speed, and direction.
Finding the Lundy Bunny. Photo by Chloë
Today has been a good day for office jobs! Jessie and I are going to be revamping the social media, trying to encourage more young people to visit Lundy. We've been working on creating some content in the form of post and videos.
We're also working on building a BRUV (Baited Remote Underwater Video) system. This is a non-invasive way to survey marine life and it works by deploying a frame with a video camera and bait canister. The BRUV is then left underwater for a set period and once retrieved, you go through the footage and ID the species seen. In this case we will be looking for Octopus, as we are interested to see if the Octopus bloom that has been occurring around the southwest UK is also occurring on Lundy. So today we have been looking at the best method to build one using what we can find on the island.
BRUV deployed on Lundy. Photo of a Smooth-hound by Robert Irving
This afternoon I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on Nudibranchs by visiting expert Bernard Picton. He and Robert Irving are running a Nudibranch ID course on Lundy for a group of divers and enthusiasts. Jessie and I were kindly invited to attend as we have a passion for marine life and more specifically Nudibranchs. They will also be hosting a talk open to the public on tomorrow at 8.30pm in the Tavern Wheelhouse!
Lundy map - click to enlarge
