Bird Sightings

By Thomas Weston

The day started with me getting ready for census. A thick band of nice cloud and a cold NE wind braced the island which was refreshing to say the least. Pairs of Swallows flew overhead with up to 10 seen in total. Walking towards Millcombe there were a lot of calls and activity amongst the bushes. A pair of Woodpigeons were in the trees, and a mix of warblers were seen with 7 Willows, 1 Chiffchaff, and a Blackcap noted. I saw our breeding pair of Spotted Flycatchers with their juvenile, and throughout the Valley, 2 Chaffinches, 3 Blackbirds, a Dunnock, and Wrens were noted. A couple of Oystercatchers, 4 Shags, and a flyby Common Sandpiper were in the Landing Bay and on the way out of St John's Valley, 3 Mallards were seen distantly in Barton Field. Off Benjamin’s Chair, 4 Kittiwakes and 7 Gannets were seen in a feeding frenzy. Gulls were in mixed flocks but consisted of 4 Great Black-backed Gulls, 11 Herring Gulls, and a Lesser Black-backed Gull was spotted. Across the plateau, 5 Stonechats, 4 Wheatears, 3 Pied Wagtails, 44 Meadow Pipits, 78 Linnets, and 29 Goldfinches were noted.

I was then joined by Lucile and we tried to catch House Sparrows and Starlings with mixed success resulting in a lot of great Starling data. After completing some admin in between trap checks, we later checked the Channel Wagtail pair’s second brood nest and found both chicks unfortunately dead in the nest. It would be highly likely the chicks were never going to make it due to genetics and the fact that the adults had invested so much in their first brood. There is always next year!

The afternoon involved more ringing-related admin, helping set a net near the Chicken Coop and heading out in the night to catch Wheatears before heading to the slopes to catch Manx Shearwaters. Both species are high quality ringing on the island, the former helping towards the Wheatear colour-ringing RAS and the latter helping towards our 50 years of understanding the colony on the west coast. Fun, fun, fun! Some brief dull aurora, the Milky Way and a few meteorites seen too.

By Chloë Langmead

Today started with a butterfly transect along the lower east path. The hot, sunny weather has brought the butterflies out in full force! There were Large Whites, Small Whites and Peacocks flitting around Millcombe, Red Admirals and Painted Ladies throughout the walk in healthy numbers. I counted 8 Ringlets and of course there were 90 Meadow Browns! Additionally, there were a few Hummingbird Hawk-moths and several Silver Ys.

Meanwhile, Greg was out on census with the highlights being 29 Willow Warblers, 6 Sedge Warblers and 2 Grasshopper Warblers. Additionally, he also saw a migrant Hawker Dragonfly near Millcombe Pines.

Next on the agenda for me was Seabird Station at Jenny's Cove. The sun was shining bright, and Jenny’s looked beautiful as always, with the ocean looking particularly inviting in this hot weather. Thankfully there was a gentle, cool breeze to keep me from baking too much! Despite most of the auks having left, with the Guillemot cliffs looking stark, there were still just enough Puffins out rafting on the water to show the day trippers, all of whom were pleasantly surprised and happy.

By Lucile Doyen

A Wheatear juvenile by Lucile

For Emma, Jessie, Thomas and I, this week started with a nice little tour on a designated path, which would hopefully allow us to meet some young Wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe). The little expedition took place at dusk and would end early on Monday, just after midnight. Thomas was leading with a thermal camera, through which he detected the birds sleeping on the path before catching them with a net. Out of 14 birds seen, 9 were successfully trapped and ringed! We first measured the tarsus width of each individual to confirm the subspecies and ensure fitting the correct ring size : the british subspecies would take a smaller (A) ring than the greenland one (B sized ring). Wheaters are a very interesting species : they have a complete ossification of the skull in only two months, which usually take around six months in juvenile passerines (Svensson, L., 1992)¹. 

 ¹Identification Guide to European Passerines. Lars Svensson. British Trust for Ornithology.

Later in the morning, I monitored the last active brood of our House Sparrows (Passer domesticus). This is the second brood of a couple of one year old sparrows, which re-used the outstanding nest they made for their first brood. This may have allowed them to save some time, and the time interval between their two broods was 7 days (with a mean of 12.75 days for our population, s.d. = 4.34). This was a rather little brood of just two chicks, one of them being unfortunately half the weight of the other when weighed at 5 days old. At ten days old, the imbalance in food intake between the two siblings got the better of this little chick. Life can be rough, but it is also beautiful. All nestlings from first broods made it, and we got a good survival of 72.7% in our second broods, with a population now estimated to 73 House Sparrows! It is a real pleasure to see them around, way more numerous than at the beginning of the breeding season.

Painted Lady by Lucile

In the afternoon, I walked along the east coast. I started the promenade by following butterflies: mostly Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) and Meadow Browns (Maniola jurtina).

Pied Wagtail by Lucile

Linnet by Lucile

On the first tree, 3 Pied Wagtails (Motacilla alba) and a Linnet (Linaria cannabina) have found shelter on the trees. Adult and juvenile Stonechats were flying around, landing on fences and bracken. A lot of migrant Willow Warblers halted on the island, and I could see ten of them hiding on the vegetation just around the goldfish pond.

Meadow Pipit by Lucile

The promenade led by butterflies ended with one of them being caught by a Meadow pipit for the goûter. 

The day ended up with a Wingspan game, a board game where players collect bird cards, eggs, resources, and try to get the best score out of this. I teamed with Chloë, and playing a Ring-billed Gull and a Bald Eagle led us to victory! We hope the former arrives on the island this autumn.

By Thomas Weston

A Bird Day with nice fine weather again, but today a cool breeze in the air which was nice and refreshing, even a little cold at points.

A 5am start and I walked down to Millcombe where I opened a couple of nets and sat waiting. The birds were quite quiet to begin but gained in activity soon after 6am when I began to catch a few individuals. There were Goldfinches and Linnets in the bushes and the sounds of a couple of Willow Warblers. A couple of Peregrines were searching for any highflying migrants, so everything stayed low and in the bushes for the next hour. Lucile joined just before 7am, and this coincided with the Willow Warbler wave. A Lundy phenomenon whereby Willow Warblers start to descend in the valley and pass from top to bottom in a wave. The flocks can vary between a couple to 10 and the following round we caught the next 3 birds, followed by a round of 10 and so on... The wave was quite late today and arrived about 07:30, the other day it was at 06:00. This is something we are intrigued by. Do they spend the night on the island and then head off SE? Do they fly in and drop out the sky onto the island at dawn, find each other and head SE? The majority were new and juveniles, with yet again two retraps being adult birds. One was ringed on Friday and the other ringed last year which was very nice!

A reminder to stay cool in the heat! Thomas Weston

Eleanor joined and it was going well with the Lundy breeding adult female and her young Spotted Flycatcher caught and ringed, another two Lundy-born Blackcaps, more Wrens(!), and a couple more Linnets too. We decided to pack up and undertake census with a slightly later start time. Census was good and included multiple heard only records of the Great Spotted Woodpecker in the Valley. We believe it to be a different bird to the one last week but we are certainly not sure as it sounds the same and I have not seen it well yet. There were birds in bushes but not much out to sea. Benjamin's Chair held a feeding frenzy of Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, and a Sand Martin overhead, but overall it was quite calm out on the water. Passing through the Airfield and over to Quarry Cottages, there were flocks of Linnets, small flocks of Wheatears, and a nice mix of breeding Meadow Pipits seen. Pushing it for time getting back into the Village before 11am but a few flocks of Starlings and House Sparrows later we made it!

Manx Shearwater chick! Our youngest of the box birds...

Later on, Manx Shearwater nestbox checks saw the smallest of the chicks becoming a lot bigger now and the biggest gaining weight quickly! 

An afternoon of admin awaited, whilst Tara, Jessie and Chloë were out and about searching for any early seal pups. Meanwhile Eleanor was in the Tavern but got some much needed time outside and Lucile was keen to catch some Starlings and House Sparrows but alas no success today.