Bird Sightings

By Thomas Weston

It's amazing how a couple of days off island can make you feel more refreshed. We love the island, but there is always this thing where staff especially say after about 12 weeks, you have to go off, even for a few days. Anyway, the day started with heavy downpours and thunder, something neither the mainland or the island have seen this summer. Is this the end of the summer? 

On island, Kirsty got a soaking on her run this morning, but she said it was rather refreshing. We currently have 8 pups which are all doing great - 4 of which have just been seen today at the time of writing!

Greg was on census and had a good mix of species and numbers, he spotted 2 Dotterel who have been around the island for the past couple of days, 30 Willow Warblers, 5 Whitethroats, 4 Blackcap, 2 Sedge Warblers, single Garden Warbler, single Reed Warbler, single Redstart, 4 Tree Pipits, 2 Whinchats, 22 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Pied Flycatchers, 2 Yellow Wagtails, 2 House Martins, and 2 Dunlins.

Guillemot from the Oldenburg by Thomas Weston

On our way back there was not massive numbers of birds: 2 Meditterranean Gulls with a flock of 9 Black-headed Gulls were probably the best for the island totals, there were only 2 Fulmar, 3 Manx Shearwaters, and 3 Gannets, but what was most impressive were the 82 Guillemots on the water who were mostly resting, though a couple were flying past. These species were nice, and a good start back to work. Amazingly, on our return, we glanced up to Millcombe and saw 8 Swifts flying around the Valley and the Village. It is good to see this stunning summer visitor before they head back south.

Also today, we say goodbye to Simon and Kirsty momentarilly, both on holiday for a little and back in the next couple of weeks.  

By Kirsty Cox

Today was the last Wednesday boat of the season and it was a busy one. It also turned out to be an unexpectedly hot day.

I started the day in the office catching up on a bit more seal ID work - there are always more photos to process! I had success in finding one of the Mums from this year in the Lundy catalogue and discovered she had pupped on the same beach here previously in 2018 and 2019. It’s always really interesting to learn a bit about their history and makes all the time spent on ID work worth it. 

We have had several pups arriving over the past week including a couple in the Landing Bay. It is such a busy part of the island that, especially on a day like today, when there are a lot of visitors to Lundy, disturbance is a real concern. Seal pups are very vulnerable as they are completely reliant on their mums and if there is any disturbance from people on the land or in the sea then the mothers will not come onto the beach to feed the pups. It is really important when seeing any seals to keep your distance, always remaining at least 100m away, and to make sure you stay quiet. In order to try and convey this message to the visitors arriving on the Oldenburg today, last night we created a new sign which I put up in the Landing Bay at the start of my East Coast Survey today.

The New Seal Sign! by Kirsty Cox

The East Coast Survey takes around 5 hours in total to complete. I walk the length of the Lower East path from Benjamin’s Chair all the way to North Light. The walk is divided into sections and at each section I stop and count the seals present, both hauled out and in the sea and how many males, females, juveniles and pups there are. And each hauled out seal is photographed to ID later. Today there was a good count of 80 seals across the East including several pups.

When I reached North Light I was sadly informed from a visitor about some disturbance that had just occurred. A boat with day-trippers had come in close to the shore and flushed a large number of seals from the rocks. Seals haul out on land to rest, sleep, and digest their food, so disturbing them means they waste vital energy. At this time of year, when there are so many pregnant seals and young pups, it is especially worrying to hear about any disturbance events. 

After a very hot walk back to the village I headed straight down to the Landing Bay to help Jessie in monitoring the pups in the Landing Bay as the visitors started to make their way back to the boat. We encouraged visitors to keep moving on past the beach and to take their photos at a safe distance in order to allow the mums to feel able to haul out to feed them. 

Then it was back up the hill for an evening shift in the tavern on KP duty. Another busy day on Lundy!

There were some lovely other sighting across the island today too. In the afternoon 2 Dotterel were spotted at John O’Groats. And Greg and Emma saw 2 Dunlins at Pondsbury,  a Tree Pipit at Pointless Wall, a Curlew, Cuckoo and Sparrowhawk along the East, a Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Terrace and 4 Pied Flycatchers and a Spotted Flycatcher in Millcombe.

Dunlin by Greg Lee

Greg also spotted a Wryneck at Rocket Pole Pond in the evening.

Wryneck by Greg Lee

Greg Lee

After yesterday’s migration event, it wasn’t surprising that things were generally a bit quieter on the island today. A new weather-system has started to appear today with the winds switching around to the east, certainly it will bring some drift migrants to the British Isles but will any stray as far west as Lundy? We’ll certainly be trying our very best here!

A good sign was another increase of Pied Flycatchers, with at least four on my travels around the island today. Two Goldcrests were around the Pines in Millcombe, presumably having used the easterly winds to push them across the Bristol Channel. A Tree Pipit over the Village was also a nice first species in the book for census, we’ve had a few buzzing individuals visit the island over the past week. After such as big fall yesterday, just five Willow Warblers and three Spotted Flycatchers showed a reduction in migrant numbers after the clear conditions overnight.

Pied Flycatcher by G.Lee

Afterwards, I met up with Kirsty who showed me the Seal Pup transect, which I will be covering whilst she is off the island. Covering the various viewpoints around the South End of the island. Despite the fresh easterly and very choppy waves coming in, it was pleasing to see a couple of healthy looking pups around the island, one of which was enjoying swimming practice in a sheltered pool. Lets hope many more pups appear over the coming weeks! 

Seal pup and mother by G.Lee

It was a variety of office jobs in the afternoon, including writing up a description of the Western Bonelli’s Warbler, data entry and catching up with various blog pieces. Thomas and Eleanor also had some good sightings across the island today with a very showy Dunlin on Quarter Wall Pond, four Snipe south over Quarter Wall and two Pied Flycatchers further north up the island.

Dunlin by T.Weston

By Jessie Dermody

My first job of the day was a pup check! There were strong easterly winds last night, so I was worried that there would be a lot of dead pups on the beaches. Thankfully, I did not see any dead pups, only live ones! We are up to seven pups now, spread out on beaches around the island. Asrai was the first pup found, followed by Dunnie, Emer, Fext and Golem. The most recent two appeared last night on the landing bay beach - one is named Heffalump, and the other one is yet to be named. We are worried about their chances of survival, with all the disturbance from traffic on the road. If they are disturbed often, their mothers may be too afraid to return to the beach to feed them. All we can do is try to minimise disturbance and hope for the best! We have closed the beach, and put up signs explaining best practise for veiwing and photographing the pups from a distance for visitors. Both pups are extremely cute. 

Baby Heffalump - photo by Jessie Dermody

After pup check, I had a butterfly survey to do! On my way to the start of the survey route, I spotted a Pied Flycatcher! This was very exciting for me - I'm not much of a birder, especially not for terrestrial birds. I was very happy to see a new species without anyone having to point it out. There were 4 Pied Flycatchers seen across the island today. It was a grey and windy day, so I didn't think there would be many butterflies around. I was proven correct, only recording one Painted Lady on the whole survey route. I did see 3 Small Whites, 2 Red Admirals and another Painted Lady outside of the survey route, but unfortunately these do not count. 

Manx Shearwater from the artificial nest boxes by ThomasWeston

The rest of my day was to be spent in the office, identifying species from our rockpool surveys earlier in the month. One rockpool we surveyed had a total of 51 different species in it! I ran into Thomas on his way out to check if any of the Manx Shearwater chicks in from the nest boxes had fledged. Three of them had! The youngest of the box chicks (my favourite), is still looking very fluffy, but the others have grown a lot of their adult feathers.

 On census this morning, Greg saw the first 2 Whinchat of autumn, a Dunlin and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.