Moorhen & Manx Shearwater recorded at night

MS Oldenburg departs a sun-kissed Landing Bay with her final passengers of 2020, 23 Oct © Dean Jones

 

With the last passenger sailing of the year marking the turning of Lundy's seasons once more, Tim Jones looks back through night-time recordings he made of birds overflying the Castle a bit earlier in the month. There were some interesting results, although the buffeting easterly winds made it a challenge to pick out quieter calls, even in the relative shelter of those high Castle walls.

Night of 14th – 15th October (20.08–06.42 hrs)
 
Redwing 104 calls
Song Thrush 5 calls
Skylark 2 calls
Grey Heron 2 calls
Blackbird 1 call
Robin 1 call
Manx Shearwater 1 bout of calling at 23.36 hrs
Oystercatcher 1 call
 
Night of 15th – 16th October (20.29–06.43 hrs)
 
Redwing 62 calls
Song Thrush 2 calls
Blackbird 1 call
Sika Deer (this animal was probably not overflying the Castle, given that there were still more than two months to go before Christmas)
 
Night of 16th – 17th October (20.11–07.11 hrs)
 
Redwing 13 calls only (in line with the much-reduced numbers of Redwings seen by day on 17th)
Skylark 6 calls (just before first light at 06.55 hrs)
Blackbird 2 calls
Manx Shearwater 1 bout of calling at 01.30 hrs
MOORHEN 1 call at 21.40 hrs (see spectrogram below) – very much a Lundy rarity, being the first for the island since 2009! No doubt others fly through at night completely undetected...
Sika Deer (very vocal, giving their strange, wailing, diver-like call)

 

The distinctive spectrogram of a calling Moorhen, 16-17 Oct