Tony Taylor, who arrived by helicopter on Tuesday 19th – the scheduled sailing of MS Oldenburg having been cancelled that day due to rough seas in an unseasonably strong westerly – reports things to be "quiet" so far birdwise. In addition to the Black Guillemot that continues to frequent the Landing Bay, highlights have been limited to single Whimbrel, Yellow Wagtail and Reed Warbler. Among potentially breeding landbirds, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler have all been heard singing, while Tony's continued ringing studies of the growing Lundy shearwater colony have included the retrapping of a Manx Shearwater originally ringed as a chick on the island in 2007. This makes it among the older of the known 'Lundy born & bred' shearwaters, following the eradication of rats in 2004.
Alan Rowland, who together with other Lundy Field Society members helped out with the Landmark Trust's 'Golden Weekend' 50th Anniversary celebrations (16th/17th May), adds that a Cuckoo was heard calling near Felix Gade's Memorial (and elsewhere aound the island) and that a dead Gannet was washed up in the Landing Bay; apparently the third such recent occurrence.
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