Big news, the first House Sparrow egg was laid today! This is significantly later than usual, for context the first egg was laid on the 25th April last year and the first fledglings were recorded on 1st May 2021! There's clearly a few factors at play here and the delay appears to be mirrored on the mainland, but a few factors could be the cold and wet spring, overwintering Sparrowhawk and Merlin, and removal of the Lundy chicken coop (in line with HPAI guidelines) which provided an excellent food source for the resident sparrows.
Elsewhere across the island, a single Hooded Crow continued to associate with the 25 Carrion Crow, favouring Tillage Field. Hirundine passage was modest, but estimates saw 200 Swallow over Lundy airspace. The Pondsbury Purple Heron was present for another day while two Sedge Warbler continued to kick around Millcombe, accompanied by the Lesser Redpoll, Spotted Flycatcher, 4 Whitethroat and a new-in Garden Warbler.
I'm sure you will all join us in wishing the very best to Stuart and Megan who left the island today. We'd like show our appreciation and say a huge thank you to Stuart for driving forward Lundy's re-accreditation as a Bird Observatory.
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| Yellow Wagtail, Castle Hill © Tony Taylor |
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| Colour-ringed Wheatear (unfortunately missing a ring to allow for individual identification) © Paul Dean |
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| The Lundy Team wishing Stuart and Megan goodbye for their exciting new chapter |
Contributors: Joe Parker, Luke Marriner, Stuart Cossey, Chris & Carol Baillie, Tony Taylor, Steve Wing, Paul Dean, Yuheng Sun.
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