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Friday 16 February 2018

Highlights for Sat 3rd to Fri 16th Feb – Skylarks start to sing; another Iceland Gull

After a 'blank week', when Lundy Warden Dean Jones was off-island and there were no logbook entries from visitors, highlights during the last few days have included:

Red-throated Diver – six present in the Landing Bay on 12th at around 14:00, followed by four on 15th and six again on 16th; Great Northern Diver – one feeding close in to Rat Island on 14th; Shag – a small southward passage of 13 birds, plus an additional three feeding birds in the Landing Bay, all seen from the Ugly on 12th; Water Rail – Dean reports "rather quiet as of late but I saw two birds chasing each other in Smelly Gully on 15th"; Snipe – three flushed near Quarter Wall on 12th; Iceland Gull – one, thought to be a 3rd-winter bird, was found on Mouse Island, by Martin Thorne, during the early afternoon of 16th (it flew off around Rat Island after being harassed by Herring Gulls, but reappeared in the Landing Bay just 50m off the jetty!); Skylark – two were in South West Field on 15th and this year's first reports of singing birds came from there on 16th and from near the Water Tanks on the same day; Blackbird – max 10 on 15th (Dean notes that numbers of both Blackbirds and Song Thrushes seem to have dropped again); Redwing – 22 scattered between Barton Field and Millcombe on 12th and 14 in Barton Field on 15th; Song Thrush – max seven on 15th; Black Redstart – one below Benjamin's Chair on 15th; and Goldfinch – two birds still regularly around the village area.

The Iceland Gull is the second record for 2018, but only the 10th ever for the island, and follows the sighting of an adult – and therefore a different individual – in Tillage Field on 19 January.

Observations by Dean Jones and Martin Thorne.

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