Bird Sightings

By Emma Abel

 Osprey over the Airfield © Thomas Weston

Marsh Harrier male over the Airfield © Thomas Weston

Blue Tit in Millcombe © Tim Jones

Black Redstart male at North Light © Tim Jones

By Tara McEvoy-Wilding

An early start this morning to check the moth trap! We got a total of 28 moths including; 1 Angle Shades, 5 Marbled Coronet, 8 Common Quaker, 5 Brown Silver Lines, 7 Early Grey, 1 Silver Y and 1 Oak Tree Pug.

Marbled Coronets looking fresh! Photo by Emma Abel

I spent the morning in the office until midday when we set off on a whole island seal survey for the Seal Research Trust’s Spring seal census. We split the island into 5 sections and walked along the coast path looking for seals hauled out on the rocks and swimming in the sea. I had the southeast section, which had a grand total of….. 0 seals! This was most likely due to the strong easterly winds! Others had more success and 82 seals were recorded in total. However, this is significantly less than the 184 that were spotted at this time in 2025.

No seals on the south east!

Although the seals didn’t like the easterly winds, the migrating birds didn’t seem to mind them! The Terrace was busy with 6 Willow Warblers, 5 Chiffchaff, 5 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler in the Willow trees. Millcombe was also busy with Sedge Warbler, a male Pied Flycatcher and a Spotted Flycatcher sighted.

Pied Flycatcher Photo taken by Greg Lee

Other exciting sightings included a Yellow Wagtail flying past the Tavern toilets, a Ringed Plover in Middle Park, 1 Jackdaw in Tillage field and a Collared Dove on Quarters' roof! Lots of Wheatears arrived today, causing chaos on the west coast as they bothered the birds that had already arrived and set up their territories.

Wheatear photo taken by Greg Lee

In the late afternoon I went to check the Manx Shearwater boxes on the west coast. All were unoccupied apart from one box which contained a bird sat on an egg! The first of the season! In the evening, bats were spotted flying around the village. Simon got out his bat detector and identified them as Common Pipistrelles! Overall a busy day with lots of wildlife action!

By Anna Helberg

Today was the first day of the 2026 Lundy Field Society (LFS) conservation working parties on the island.

We split up in several groups, each tackling either a patch of Spanish Bluebells or a stretch of the path - digging, pulling, clearing gullies, levelling, widening. Again thanks to the great work of the whole LFS team we made good progress and came back to the village earlier than expected, treating ourselves to ice cream from the shop and/or a shower.

by Greg Lee

This week we are pleased to be joined by a glut of brilliant Lundy birders who have contributed immensely to the long term-studying of the avifauna of this small island in the Bristol Channel. Today I joined Chris Dee, head ringer of the Observatory ringing group, and his small team down in Millcombe for a ringing session. Having arrived on Tuesday, Chris had unfortunately experienced some pretty dramatic weather which limited setting up any nets, however, with the winds finally calming down and the weather looking settled for the remainder of the week, it was worth getting some ringing done. The session overall was good with a steady trickle of birds well into the afternoon, Willow Warblers being the main species along with the intermittent Chiffchaff and Blackcap. There was some variety too though with a couple of Sedge Warblers, a Meadow Pipit and perhaps the highlight of the day, a female Pied Flycatcher that had somehow slipped in under our noses, despite the fact we were all armed with binoculars to watch for birds between net rounds. During the whole session, it was noted that a stream of Swallows was consistently going overhead along with smaller parties of both House and Sand Martins and we were treated to the reeling of a Grasshopper Warbler above the valley.  Something which was echoed by other birders around the island during the day. As a boat full of day-trippers and new guests arrived, we were also able to show members of the public the work we were doing, a fine acredula-type Willow Warbler being very popular. I was also pleased to meet both Tim Jones and Tim Davis and we look forward to seeing what they can discover on the island over the next week. They had already sighted the Great Northern Diver, our first Whimbrel of the year and a good flock of Arctic Terns, the latter being just outside of the Recording Area on the boat across to the island! Thomas would also have fruitful census with a Whitethroat, four Greenland Wheatears and two Siskins. 

Willow Warbler

Once things had started to calm down around lunchtime, I headed back up to the Lodge although Chris and his team would continue to ring a few more birds into the early evening. Migrant totals from across the island during the day included 96 Willow Warblers, 258 Swallows, 66 Sand Martins, 52 House Martins, 21 Chiffchaff, 14 Blackcap, three Sedge Warblers and two Whitethroats. It was also noted that many butterflies were on the wing including Large White, Red Admiral, Small White and Holly Blue, the latter being the first record of the year.