By Thomas Weston
The day started last night, out walking the Village looking for Wheatears for ringing. The aim was to catch and ring as many Wheatears as possible to see how many come back to the island in future years where they can be caught and colour ringed as part of the Lundy Wheatear Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) Project. The night was successful with an hour and a half session in very very calm conditions resulting in 6 new birds out of 12 birds seen - a positive 50% catch rate.
Wheatear metal ringed in the Village. Pic by Chloe
A few hours later and the sun was in the sky and a strong wind again! The wind seems super strong during the morning before dying off by the evening. However, this didn’t deter me from undertaking census this morning, and the sun was nice and bright encouraging some butterflies to emerge from the undergrowth – Painted Lady, Meadow Browns, and Green-veined White. Bird wise, it was quiet but rewarding. There were mixed finch flocks including Goldfinch and Linnets, as well as a nice feeding frenzy off Rat Island again with Gannets, Manx Shearwaters, and Kittiwakes all in the flocks again. The gulls were diverse this morning but were only the larger trio – Great Black-Backed, Herring and Lesser Black Backed, despite hopes the easterly wind woud push some more of the smaller scarcer ones across. In Millcombe, a Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff were both present, with a flyby Kestrel and Peregrine the most notable overhead. Moving round the fields there were a few suspect Meadow Pipits around the census route showing signs of second broods, and we hope to find another couple of nests before the season finishes. After a few late nights recently out catching Wheatear, it was amazing we did not see any ringed birds on my travels – especially as we went out last night! We shall see if some start to appear, or whether there is a larger movement around the island then we imagine! Moving onwards, the highlight of this morning was a Grasshopper Warbler that was flushed underfoot near Old Light. The long grassy coloured warbler flew over the wall and dived into cover in the graveyard. It was not seen again, but the wind did not help in this location. The rest of the day was based in the office inputting data, writing rarity descriptions, and making sure our nest records for the BTO Nest Recording Scheme were up to date.