Compost Gull and Seawatching

It's often a subject around the dinner table between the summer residents of the Isle of May on whether it is always the same Lesser Black-backed Gull that visits the compost heap that is just outside the Lighthouse Keepers cottage.

The compost heap mainly consists of a few rotting citrus fruits and spent ground coffee, but the odd bit of left over pasta or dead bird keeps the gulls returning daily.

About a week ago Mark successfully trapped a gull in the heap and Carrie got to ring her first Lesser which was seen returning to the garden within a couple of days.

It became quite obvious there was more then one gull using the compost heap as unringed birds were noted daily, so while I was having a post dinner seawatch from the veranda I decided to try and catch an unringed bird that was using heap.

 

I hid in the mothtrap shed and waited for the signal from Mark and Lowlighters, Steve and Ian who had come out to join us looking out to sea. After about 15 minutes the bird dropped into the wooden frame so I decided to go for it.

 

The bird panicked on my appearance and got stuck, it's path blocked by my considerable bulk flying over the side. I landed ankle deep in some pretty rotten horrid filth of the heap, but the bird was secured.

 

 We took the bird to the ringing hut where it was ringed by Ian and released.

Close up the bird was quite stunning. Close up you can see the details of the eye and the wings. The bird was not too pleased about being caught and really gave as good as it got.This bird is marked with a green colouring with the letter M on it. We shall keep an eye on the compost heap to see which birds return the compost heap.

The fun did not stop there either. While we were watching the sea, we noted Arctic Skua, Manx Shearwaters, a probable island record count of Common Scoter, Harbour Porpoise and a Minke Whale.

Minke Whales are noted off the island regularly throughout the season with an increase of sightings from mid July onwards. Tonight's sighting was quite special as the Minke was jumping right out of the water! It leeped out near a fishing boat. Even though the animal was over a mile away you could see the tidal wave splash with the naked eye! It almost made me jump out of my skin as it came right up in my field of view in my telescope.

We don't watch the TV out here but with that kind of nightly entertainment who needs to?

I'd like to thank Ian and Mark for contributing photographs for this blog entry.

Another Eider sequence.......

We were having a meeting out by the Mouse House because the sun was shining. It was a very pleasant place to discuss  up and coming projects. As we went through our agenda our attention was attracted by an Eider with six hatched youngsters. The mother was clearly determined to get through the wall. Unfortunately she was able to get up the step but none of her youngsters managed it!

 She tried several times to tempt them up but they ended up in a duckling pile at the bottom of the step

 

We tried putting a step in for them. But instead of another attempt they decided to sit down with the islands most celebrated Eider, Toilet Duck. She is named because she nests year after year outside the doors to the toilet. She is a firm favourite with visitors as she's often the first Eider to be seen by the tourists!

The ducks did not really take to each other and Toilet duck took to pecking the youngsters

 

But the youngsters really took to toilet duck!

Mummy moved back in to take the children back from her foster mum. One of the ducklings had actually got underneath Toilet duck but got moved on. There was no sign of the teamwork that I'd recorded down at Horse Hole the other day. I waited for a while but had to see the Rib Osprey off so I never found  out whether the Eider got up the step.

Toilet Duck is due to hatch any day. hopefully she'll treat he offspring with a bit more kindness!

A Shrike on the Horn

Today began with coffee out on the deck of the Principal Keepers cottage over looking Kirkhaven and the most stunning sunrise I have seen for a while.

There wasn't a breath of wind and I could hear the seals from the end of the island grumbling and wailing. The last couple of days have been quite interesting as it has been generally fairly still but with light east winds bringing in at different times a deluge of rain, thick fog (called haar round here) and a whole pile of interesting birds.

Jeremy and I have been torn between wanting to lookf or birds and get on with the long list of island close down tasks, So a compromise was reached where we have been wearing our binoculars every moment of the day and have got on with the tasks but just very slowly, with repeated interruptions for checking out birds (message to line manager - don't worry Caroline, all the jobs were done, honest). For example Jeremy spotted his first crossbill for his Isle of May list when he was perched on top of a hide that we were reroofing with a hammer in his hand. It was a close run thing whether it was the hammer or the binoculars that he brought up to watch it.

A redwing

Things started getting interesting on Friday late afternoon when redwings started appearing, these beautiful thrushes come from Scanadnavia to spend the winter here in the UK. By Saturday there were at least 200 on the island with similar numbers of song thrushes and also parties of robins and blackbirds. A load of rain later on on Saturday briought in more migrants including my favourite a great grey shrike whh seemed to like perching on the trumpet of the South Horn.

Great Grey Shrike

While looking for the shrike I also found this tiny treecreeper on the side of one of the fog horn buildings. Normally you only see these birds fly a few yards in the woodland where it noremally lives but this little birds had flown hundreds of miles on migration. It was exhausted and starving and immediately started feeding.

Treecreeper

Sunday was a better day for weather and we woke to find the island absolutely hooching with birds. Mostly they were goldcrests, unbelievably they are Britain's smallest bird yet they were stopping off on the island to refuel and rest while on a journey of hundreds of miles. Mixed in with them were chiffchaffs, bramblings, blackcaps, whitethroats, garden warblers and about 50 wheatears. The bird watching was exciting as you just didn't know what would should out of cover or drop out of the sky next.

Wheatear

The calm conditions of last night and this morning were good for travel so most of the birds have now left the island and just in time as tonight it has all blown up again. A south westerly gale is now howling down the chimney, rattling the gates, sending spray across the island and generally making life for humans and birds more difficult out here. According to the forecast it will be with us for 3-4 days and this will slow down or stop bird and human journeys until the next bit of favourable weather but until then I will be remembering 1200 goldcrests peep peeing from every wall and bush.

West Rona this evening.

Bird movements

The other night Jeremy and I had to go down to the North Horn to check that a key that we had been given fitted. The sun was setting and we took advantage of being in an elevated position to watch the sun going down and see what birds might be coming over to the island to spend the night. On the isle of may we are always looking at birds moving about, it can look a bit random (them not us) but birds always move from place to place with a reason. So some are on migration heading north or south depending on the season, others only pass the island once a year, Some travel to the island to breed for the summer and then head away and some just spend the night on the island as it is safe from many predators.

Half an hour just watching revealed a lot of moving birds. As the sun dropped down behind Fife making it look almost beautiful parties of curlew and knots came speeding in low over the water having spend the day feeding along the mainland. The knot are working their way south while the curlew are mooching around while the moult their feathers. Shags and cormorants rumbled in to spend the night together on a rocky point. A black-headed gull, a rare sight here, flew down the island going south. But what was most striking was the herring gulls coming onto the island for the night. The first few parties came in in groups of 20 to 30 and then they started to pour in. When I looked up I could see a steady stream of them all the way back to Fife. Having been feeding all day and now replete on earthworms, landfill rubbish and chips they gained height over the mainland and then taking advantage of the wind in their faces to maintain lift they just soared downhill to the island. We stared counting and in half an hour reached 1000 and when we left in the gloom there were still birds drifting in. An insight into the bird movements of the island and a spectacular sight from one of our commoner birds.