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2003 News
Recent news from the Island (posted 2/10/03}
Shearwaters: Our hopes of ringing 1000 young have been dashed, but we have managed a very respectable 750 approximately. It is a slight mystery why we have failed on this one. Just as big an effort has been put into this work this year as last, when we got 913. Manning has been even better this year. The peak emergence occurred when the moon was full, so it may be that the chicks spent less time on the surface at the time of the full moon and were therefore less catchable.
Pond: The liner is in position, but the rains still have not really come, so there is still a long way to go before the pond is full. Some gardening work will be needed to tuck in the liner at the final water level, and marginal plants and mud will be laid around the edge. The source of these will be simply the previous edging of the fluctuating and often dry smaller pond that has now been replaced by the new giant one. Moorhens already have been using what there is of the new pond.
October manning: Duty Officers are volunteering for the weekends of 10th, 17th and 24th but on each occasion, the final decision to go will be made on Thursday evening beforehand when the weather forecast is clear. No one should go for a weekend if they have important reasons to be off the island on Monday. There is a high risk of being stranded on the island in October. If anyone is interested in a midweek visit (Sunday to Friday), please phone or e-mail me to register an interest and I will keep you informed of the possibilities.
Recent news from the Island (posted 27th September 2003)
The tern restoration project has been completed for this season. Thanks are due particularly to Walker Simpson for regularly recharging and changing the batteries for the tape player.
The huge effort at Balsam clearance in early July has now been followed by a further effort at pulling out the regrowth. Very few plants in the cleared areas will have been able to drop seed, so the job of eliminating any regrowth next year should be relatively easy. At least 3 new acres have been cleared and some scattered regrowth over a furthe 8 acres has been removed. Balsam now has a grip on only about 2-3 acres of the island and next year may see it gone. Meanwhile on Big Copeland, it has conquered about 10 acres of land.
Path and sward maintenance has been well done too. The net round can be done in shoes, even in wet weather.
Many people have tried their hand at the mowing of paths and the hand pulling of Balsam.
A plan has been agreed for the improvement and partial reconstruction of the Gavney jetty. Work has started well thanks to the determination of George Thomson, who has used a hired rock hammer to reshape the old jetty ready for the new concreting.. Already new steps are providing easier landing conditions for parties arriving at low tide. The rebuilding of the fireplace in dorm 1 is also well under way.
Mainly due to the inspiration of Ian Humphreys, his family and Wesley Smith have dug out the pond base in the south garden, lined it with carpet, and more recently (on 4th September) the PVC liner donated by Bangor Rotary has been laid in anticipation of lots of rain. We can only hope that there is lots quite soon before the sun damages the liner. Luckily there is unlikely to be much strong sun in September, especially if it rains a lot! Trimming and tucking in will be done when the pond is full, hopefully in late September.
A big effort is still going on to ring the departing shearwater chicks. Despite a similar level of effort this year, the numbers ringed so far are well below last year's at the same stage. By 6th September, just over 500 have been ringed. Perhaps they are just later coming out than last year. By late September we will know and they will all have gone. For those who had been watching the chick in the shallow burrow with stone slab roof under the heli bushes, you will all be pleased to know that it departed on the night of the 4th.
Storm Petrels have not been receiving much attention in recent years, but almost 70 have been ringed this year. Two recently caught birds were in primary moult, causing considerable excitement among those that have an interest in procellarid moult.
Recent news from the Island - late July to mid-August (posted 23rd August 2003)
An evening visit to Big Copeland on 22nd July indicated that the tern situation had turned out, as we had expected, in near total failure. The repeat nests of Arctic Terns had all failed. Apparently a resting flock of large gulls had become established overlooking the tern sites and had predated the 60 nests just north of the landing. Common Gull late broods had fared better, though only around 20 young were approaching fledging. Probably only 20-30 Arctic Tern chicks fledged from the 800 pairs. It may be that the colony has reached the natural stage of break-up. All the twists and turns of the story will be discussed in the Annual Report for 2003.
It has also been generally a poor breeding season for a wide range of species on the Observatory island. Passerines have not done well and Magpies seem to have had something to do with it. They predated the Swallows nests twice, though one nest escaped the carnage. Our presence is insufficient during June and July to monitor exactly what is happening. The species which have done well are Black Guillemot (29 young ringed), Herring Gull (most pairs reared 2 young - also true on Big Copeland - and almost no botulism in this species), Oystercatcher (28 pairs), Stock Dove (20+ pairs) and Linnet (30 young fledged on the two outer islands). Particularly poor were Fulmar (1 chick), Common Gull (only 6 fledged), Lesser Black-backed Gull (severe botulism), Great Black-backed Gull (no active pairs), Swallow and Sedge Warbler (successful enough but only 4 pairs instead of 7-9.
Kerry Leonard was DO for the last week-end of July and a healthy 150+ Manx Shearwaters were caught and their details noted. The final 5 days of July was manned by a keen team of Boyd Bryce, Peter Munro, and Neville and Pat McKee, encouraged by new-comer Ken Wilson. The main intention was to work on Manx Shearwaters (the so-called shearwater festival!). In the 5 days, about 640 shearwaters were handled of which about one-third were new. Some quite old birds, up to 35 years ringed, were noted and some birds were caught which had not been handled for up to 27 years, indicating that our catching rate is currently insufficient to keep good tabs on the colony. Undoubtedly, the balsam clearance by the work party in early July contributed greatly to our ability to connect with birds which would normally be beyond our reach in rank vegetation in July and August. Using the Agria mower, we cleared another one and a half acres of balsam in the area west of the westwood. It seems we should open this area which clearly has some shearwaters even though it has been choked by dense vegetation for years. It could support a much larger number.
About 30 Storm Petrels were also caught, but there seem to be few in our area this year. Passerines were not ignored while all this was going on. Incredibly to me, Boyd was up from 7am, despite having only been to bed from 4am, and caught a nice mix of Willow Warblers, Sedge Warblers, Wrens, Swallows and Linnets. Some extra spice was provided by a Garden Warbler amongst others. Kerry's weekend produced about 25 passerines, about half Willow Warblers. The midweek stretch produced almost 90 mixed passerines, again warblers featuring strongly.
Then Maurice McNeely accompanied by new-comer Trevor Fisher followed on for the weekend and caught around 100 passerines, including 14 Willow Warblers, 20 Sedge Warblers, 20 Linnets and almost 50 Swallows. Among the other birds ringed there was a nice Grasshopper Warbler. All this was rather good for the time of year, and was managed while not ignoring the night birds either. Trevor handled his first Storm Petrels and Shearwaters.
The shearwater colony has been very impressive over these last few weeks. There has been a lot of noise and flighting activity. Mid-air collisions have been observed. To be in the colony when it is all bustling, is one of the ornithological spectacles of the world. It is a mystery to me why so many of our local birdwatchers have not yet come out to experience it! I personally never tire of it, even after 49 years.
The indications are that in general over the countryside warblers and Swallows have had a successful breeding season, despite a poor return from Africa this spring.
Phil Grosse and Colin Guy manned the weekend of 8-10th August. While a bit quieter, and winding down for Copeland's traditionally quiet second half of August, they still managed to catch 6 Wrens, 5 Meadow Pipits 12 Linnets, 3 Reed Buntings, just 1 Sedge Warbler and 4 Willow Warblers, 13 Starlings and a few others totalling 60 Passerines. Their best bird was a Spotted Flycatcher, and another was seen.
Bookings for late August have been heavy and all places are taken. The first two weeks of September are also quite full but there is plenty of room from 19th September onwards, when Goldcrest and Meadow Pipit movement will be at its best, and ever more interesting birds are likely to show up from then into October.
BTO Press Release: The world's oldest bird found in Northern Ireland! (7th July 2003)
Copeland Bird Observatory in County Down has just reported the capture of the world's oldest known wild bird! The Manx Shearwater was caught during routine trapping at the Observatory in Co Down, and was originally ringed in June 1953.
Part of the routine work of Copeland Bird Observatory in Co. Down, Ireland involves the standard catching of nocturnal Manx Shearwaters which come to the island every year to breed. This work has been going on since the Observatory was founded in 1954. It was on an exploratory trip to the island in 1953 that 25 shearwaters were ringed, including ring number AT14414, and this bird has been going strong for nearly 50 years.
On 21st July this year, 42 shearwaters were caught, of which 33 were already carrying Copeland rings. On checking the Observatory's logbooks, one of these birds (EJ14240, originally AT14414) was found to have been originally ringed over 49 years 11 months earlier!
Since 1953, this bird has been recaught only 15 times, and the last time it was caught was 14 years ago! Over its life, this bird has outlived four rings, and now carries a newer alloy ring that should now outlive the bird itself. The bird was originally ringed as an adult, meaning that it was hatched 1952 or earlier. It is most likely it was several years earlier, as most birds do not return to the colony until they are three or four years old.
The shearwater study is one of the most important parts of the observatory's work. Though this is an obvious high point in the study, the huge amount of basic information gathered is of the greatest importance in understanding the island population (and therefore the conservation issues) of this species. Visitors can watch or even become involved in the scientific studies being carried out, including bird ringing, during which they can see birds close-up in the hand.
Suspected egg-robbing hits breeding success on Big Copeland (28th June 2003)
During visits to Big Copeland from the 15th June onwards Anthony McGeehan had been checking the status of breeding Arctic Terns. He discovered that, especially at the southern colonies, the birds seemed to be rather behind those at other mainland colonies. On a later visit he found that many of the terns had lost their eggs or had just one egg. There was no sign of predator damage, such as broken eggs. Anthony suspected that the first clutches, which usually have three eggs, had been taken by thieves and that some of the pairs had re-laid. On our next visit it appeared that the nests had been cleared again. Both Anthony and ourselves reported our suspicions to the Environment and Heritage Service and an article appeared in the Belfast Telegraph.
On a visit to ring gull pulli Shane Wolsey, George Henderson and John Stewart then discovered that the Common and Black-headed Gulls along the southern shore appeared also to have lost their eggs. Those chicks that we did find were younger than expected and many pairs had two or three eggs when they should have been hatched. At the northern end of the Island we found much the same except that evidence that the situation wasn't due to natural causes was provided when we found an area where the situation was 'normal'. Here there were lots of well-grown Black-headed Gull chicks, up to a week older than anywhere else on the Island.
We will make further visits to assess the full extent of losses to the terns and gulls and will post more details soon.
Manx Shearwater Survey on Big Copeland (22nd June 2003)
The survey was carried out by John Stewart and Kerry Leonard on the 1st and 15th June 2003.
The method used was that described in the Seabird 2000 Handbook, using tape playback of a male manx shearwater call.
In the survey conducted in 2002, it was estimated that there were 1,082 pairs in the sections sampled and possibly a further 465 pairs in unsampled sections adjacent to those which had been covered. This survey concentrated on the western ridge of the Island. It was also noted that there were some heavily burrowed areas of the Island which were not covered at all including the walls and ditches over the top of the Island and some other areas away from the important western ridge.
The aim of this year's survey was to cover the broken down walls and raised ditches over the inner part of the Island which were not sampled in the June 2002 survey. The burrows occur in narrow strips closely aligned to the walls or ditches. A stratified random method, as described in the Handbook, was used to select tetrads for sampling. Not all the walls and ditches were sampled. A selection was made based on covering the whole of the Island and concentrating on those stretches which had good numbers of burrows. It is therefore not possible to extrapolate an estimated population by assuming the density of birds discovered in the sampled walls and ditches may be applied to all the walls and ditches over the island.
Density varied from site to site with most tetrads having no responses. Distribution seems to be very patchy among the walls and ditches with isolated pockets at higher densities. The results are summarized in the table and the map shows the locations sampled.
| Section sampled (see map) | Estimated pairs |
| Ridge A | 21 |
| Wall 1 | 16 |
| Wall 2 | 0 |
| Wall 3 | 13 |
| Wall 4 | 0 |
| Wall 5 | 60 |
| Wall 6 | 53 |
| Wall 7 | 46 |
| Wall 8 | 0 |
| Wall 9 | 0 |
| Wall 10 | 0 |
| Wall 11 | 0 |
| Total | 218 |
The sections sampled had a total length of 2,122 metres (of which 344 metres were in the 60 tetrads sampled). The total length of ditches and walls on the Island is approximately 6,000 metres. However, not all the walls have equal burrow density, and the survey was biased towards those which had higher numbers of burrows. One area in the southeast had a full count of burrows in the walls and ditches (thanks to John O'Boyle, EHS). In this area the total wall/ditch length was 1,608 metres and the total burrow count was 936. The three sampled stretches were 480 metres long and had 586 burrows. Therefore 63 % of the burrows available were in 30 % of the walls/ditches available. This is an example of the effect of selecting heavily burrowed areas for the survey.
The average burrow density in the southeast counted section is 936 divided by 1,608 or 0.582 per metre. If the burrow density is similar over the whole island, then 6,000 metres of total wall/ditch would have approximately 3,500 burrows.
In the 60 tetrads used for the survey there were 380 burrows and from these 21 male shearwaters answered the tape. It has been shown that, at this time of year, for every male answering the tape there will be another burrow which contains a female (females don't answer). Males and females share incubation duties and are equally likely to be present in the burrow during the day. So, we assume the number of pairs is twice the number of answering males. The occupancy rate is 0.1105 pairs per burrow (42 divided by 380) or approximately one pair to every nine burrows.
At this occupancy rate the number of shearwater pairs in all the walls and ditches over the Island would be approximately 387 (0.1105 multiplied by 3500).
This survey confirms the presence of manx shearwaters in the walls and ditches over the top of the Island. If the Island total is in excess of 2,000 pairs, then the walls and ditches may hold 10 to 20 percent of the colony.
EHS awards grant aid for new Roseate Tern project (10th May 2003)
The Environment and Heritage Service of the Department of the Environment has awarded funding of almost £2000 towards a new three-year project which aims to attract the rare and endangered Roseate Tern to breed on Mew Island. Because Roseates are unlikely to recolonise Mew on their own, we will begin by trying to attract Common Terns. This year we will clear some of the vegetation on one of the Mew islets nearest to Lighthouse Island and put down a layer of cockle shells over the bare earth. Common Terns are said to find this very attractive as demonstrated at the RSPB's Harbour Estate Reserve, where the warden, Anthony McGeehan, has had great success using cockles spread on a 'floating island'.
As soon as we can obtain them, we will put out nest boxes and decoys and use a solar-powered tape recorder to play the calls of nesting terns.
This is an exciting new project for the Observatory and there will be opportunities for members to help with the preparation and monitoring work. We also owe thanks to the RSPB and Birdwatch Ireland who are helping on the project.
News from the Observatory by Neville McKee (9th May 2003)
The last weekend in March and the first one in April were missed due to no duty officers being available. The 11th April weekend was cancelled due to the illness of the duty officer. However the clear easterly weather which we experienced at that time was unlikely to have brought any significant arrival to the Observatory, judging from past experience. Under clear skies, we are not well placed to experience falls of migrants.
After that the weather broke, and continued very cold on the Island with much wind and rain, interrupted by brief nice spells. Indeed, it was quite good from 29th April to 2nd May.
The Galbraith family stayed from the 18th to the 25th, coming off in very rough conditions. Migration was almost non-existent, except for Tuesday 22nd, when there was a moderate arrival of about 40 (35 ringed) Willow Warblers and a Blackcap. Otherwise, the ringing total for their week barely reached 60, but included a few more Willow Warblers, a Robin, Chaffinch, Moorhen, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush and a Whitethroat (early on 23rd). A very special catch was of two Mallard ducks, bringing the observatory total from 4 to 6 in one catch.
Bad weather always inspires Elaine to get stuck into a variety of jobs which included a general spring-cleaning and the start of the plastering of the upper toilet, complete with tasteful shell decoration at the back. Everyone collected and burnt rubbish washed up over the winter on the western beaches included approximately 200 plastic bottles.
On the evening of 23rd a lot of supplies were brought out on a special evening run.
Only regular Copelanders can come out for a week of cold, bad weather and claim to still enjoy it. The log author wrote on their last day "rather horrible day weatherwise", but ended the log with "very enjoyable week, hope to be back soon"!
With a dreadful forecast, the weekend was abandoned, so manning continued on Sunday afternoon 27th April, when Phil Grosse, Patrick Keatley and Neville McKee arrived for the week. Even on the first evening, as the wind dropped, a few birds were about. A Starling and 2 Moorhens were caught in the Gully trap, attracted by the seed which David had been spreading there all of his week. Then a really special catch of yet another Mallard happened and we began to feel lucky. Then at 8pm, a lovely adult female Redstart arrived in the Wall trap.
On 28th it rained most of the day, but the gully trap continued to yield seed eating birds like Moorhens, Linnets and 2 Stock Doves.
Next day, we had a trickle of 4 Willow Warblers, a Robin, and saw 4 House Martins, a Redpoll and a Swift, but the catch of the day was a beautiful Grasshopper Warbler. This is a variable coloured species and our specimen was at the warm yellow end of the range. Yet another Stock Dove was caught. This species is only abundant in Northern Ireland, we believe, on the Copeland Islands, due to the presence of the shoot on Big Copeland, where the doves enjoy their purloined portion of the feed put out for the Pheasants and Partridges. Clearly the Stock Dove is anothe farmland species in decline due to modern clean grain-harvesting and weed-free cultivation methods, and can thrive given a bit of help. The Islands' population is around 200. Rather upsettingly, a Sparrowhawk bounced out of the pond net just before Patrick's hands reached it.
A very interesting thundery weather front hovered to our west all day on 30th giving spectacular skies, variable winds, and another trickle of migration. 5 Willow Warblers, 3 Wrens, 2 Stock Doves, a Robin (when we ring a Robin in spring it is a new arrival), and yet another Mallard, thus doubling our 50 year total ringed in just 2 weeks! Also seen were a Fieldfare, Wheatear, and great views of a Short-eared Owl, which Walker Simpson also saw on Mew.
The 1st May brought another 6 Willow Warblers (these are tail enders, as even the majority of the females would be in by now), but one was a male of the northern race "acredula". This version is almost devoid of yellow, even on the supercilium. It breeds eastwards from Scandanavia. It was my bird of the day but for Patrick, it was the young male Sparrowhawk caught in the NW Garden. A Sedge Warbler was ringed but two old birds arrived, ringed in 1999 and 1997, to take up their old territories. Two Greenland Wheatears showed up too and at least 40 Swallows passed through. The sea was glassy and the weather noticeably warm.
On the 2nd, there was a broad spectrum of migrants, including the almost normal 4 Willow Warblers, 4 Whitethroats (2 ringed), 4 Swallows out of 40 passing, 4 Wrens (where are they coming from?), 3 Goldfinches, 3 Sedge Warblers, 2 Meadow Pipits, 2 more Stock Doves and a Starling. Also seen were a Grasshopper Warbler, a Wheatear and a nice male Whinchat, which try as we may, we failed to entice into either net or trap. A Puffin joined the Black Guillemots in the Mew Sound.
Saturday, 3rd quickly descended into a windy and then wet day so little of interest was caught. Patrick and Phil went home and were replaced by the Kealy, Honan, Donnelly, Humphreys and McKee families. During the heavy rain, Tom Kealy and Chris Honan found two Yellow Wagtails (a considerable rarity on Copeland) flitting about on the western slopes. We all came out in the rain to get soaked and to have splendid views of the very bright male, and later on, after a spell of absence, the other more average male. Even in the rain, 2 Moorhens and 4 Linnets were ringed from the gully trap. Next morning, the cooler coloured Yellow Wagtail bounced twice out of the pond net, much to our disappointment. However ringing was varied with a sprinkling of the usual fare, plus a Redwing and a Song Thrush. The day descended badly into heavy rain and strong winds even touching gale force for a time, but cleared in the late afternoon, by which time a Cuckoo had arrived and was soon caught after a great effort by Tom and Chris in the mid NW Garden net. It was a lovely male, and was well photographed.
Monday 5th started fine and a Spotted Flycatcher appeared, an early one by our standards. The weather had changed to a strong westerly with bright skies and rather cold, so we were concerned that we might be marooned. However, Philip came out in the RIB at the appointed time and removed us all to the mainland in two goes, rather a relief as several of the party had become sick and more succumbed when home. That Philip found a relatively smooth pathway through the big seas was very impressive. None of the previous boats that have serviced the observatory would have come out for us in the conditions of that day.
By the end of my 9 days, only just over 100 birds had been ringed, but they were of some quality or special interest. There had been at least one good sighting or catch almost every day, so everyone was well pleased. Our total of Stock Doves ringed this year has now reached 12, so future recoveries are quite likely. 13 new Wrens were mysterious, and almost 40 Linnets were handled, many of them retraps from both 2002 and 2001. Four new Mallards were really brilliant birds to have in the hand.
Pat studied the jetty on site with both Tom and Larry and the details and practicalities are becoming clearer. Larry did lots of maintenance and repair jobs over the weekend. We used to wonder how we would do without him when he moved to Co Kildare, but luckily we still have him! He did a full check of both cookers, fixing the popping grill, and diagnosing the non-ignition problem in one of the cookers, advising on the replacement part needed. He installed a new tap to allow the gas lighting system to be isolated from the cookers. I am preparing a list of other recommendations of his on various matters for the committee.
Ian McKee began the path mowing programme, but was hampered by wet weather. He was pleasantly surprised at how the rabbit population had recovered and had managed to get the paths well grazed over the winter.
The Cowslip near the east jetty, has now thrown up several inflorescences and is well protected by mesh installed by the Galbraiths. Pat McKee discovered another plant about 90 metres west of the pub in the middle of a clump of Red Campion. It was a smaller plant and its sole scape is bearing only about 6 florets. However, in the next 3 weeks it will probably throw up more. This second discovery supports my hypothesis that this species has been a native on our island but has not been noticed before. Either it has just emerged from the seed bank, or it has been present vegetatively, rarely able to flower due to the presence of normally heavy rabbit grazing. This applies to many other species on the island. Indeed, over the last fortnight, it has been noticed that the Primrose plants (now 5) have been having their flowers but not their leaves eaten, and this has also applied to the path west from the pub where the only the flower stalks remain above the leaves of the Lesser Celandine. Even if it had managed to occasionally flower, it could have escaped detection due to the lack of botanists. Only 4 have been regulars on Copeland and 3 of them have never visited the island at this time of year.
Breeding bird survey of Big Copeland (3rd May 2003)
Big Copeland will form part of a soon to be established Copeland Islands ASSI. An ASSI is an 'Area of Special Scientific Interest' - a Government designation which recognises the biological or geological importance of sites and affords them both official recognition and a level of protection. Over recent years we have been surveying the substantial Arctic Tern colony and trying to establish how many Manx Shearwaters breed there. This year, with help from the Environment and Heritage Service for the cost of boat trips, we will make extra visits to survey all of the Island's breeding birds.
The first trip took place on Saturday 3rd May when nine volunteers: Denis Weir, Willie McDowell, Wilton Farrelly, Debbie Nelson, George Henderson, Kerry Leonard, Peter French, Kay Milton and John Stewart landed on the Island at 08:00 am. We split into four groups and set off to count 'everything that flew'. Hopes were high that we'd locate some Mediterranean Gulls. The first successful breeding in Northern Ireland was confirmed here last year. Sadly, we were disappointed, but although nothing of particular rarity turned up during the morning, we did get some very substantial counts of the local breeding birds.
The combined counts for whole island are listed below. Except where noted in the table, the counts are of individuals rather than pairs. In some cases (e.g. Oystercatcher) not all the birds will be breeding, while birds such as Turnstone are on their migration north.
| Species | Count | Species | Count |
| Shelduck | 43 | Sandwich tern | 5 |
| Mallard | 99 | Common tern | 6 |
| Tufted duck | 4 | Arctic tern | 5 |
| Eider | 235 | Black guillemot | 5 |
| Red-breasted merganser | 1 | Stock dove | 78 |
| Fulmar | 22 | Skylark | 1 |
| Shag | 26 | Swallow | 10 |
| Buzzard | 5 | Meadow pipit | 18 |
| Water rail | 7 territories | Pied wagtail | 1 |
| Moorhen | 5 | Wren | 16 territories |
| Oystercatcher | 218 | Robin | 1 |
| Ringed plover | 9 | Wheatear | 9 |
| Lapwing | 29 | Blackbird | 13 territories |
| Purple sandpiper | 1 | Song thrush | 1 |
| Dunlin | 4 | Sedge warbler | 6 territories |
| Snipe | 1 | Whitethroat | 1 |
| Whimbrel | 2 | Magpie | 17 |
| Curlew | 3 | Jackdaw | 34 |
| Redshank | 1 | Rook | 2 |
| Turnstone | 15 | Hooded crow | 16 |
| Black-headed gull | 572 | Raven | 2 + 4 young in nest |
| Common gull | 598 | Starling | 10 |
| Lesser black-backed gull | 367 | Chafffinch | 2 |
| Herring gull | 411 | Greenfinch | 1 |
| Great black-backed gull | 4 | Linnet | 3 |
| Reed bunting | 9 |
News from the Island (18th March 2003)
A small party made an early day trip to the Island on Sunday 16th March. They were out to measure up Gavney Jetty for the manufacture and installation of a new metal 'superstructure' of the type on Big Copeland.
During the day they saw a Wheatear and caught a Chiffchaff, two Goldcrests (out of 12 present) and two Meadow Pipits (out of 30). Four Skylarks were also seen and two Chaffinches and four Goldfinches. Forty Lesser Black-backed Gulls were already present around the two Islands and there were 52 Black Guillemots in the sound early in the day.
More success with grant aid (12th March 2003)
We have just discovered that an application to the Awards for All scheme has been accepted. We have been awarded a grant of £2,000 towards the construction of a new jetty at Gavney and to waymark paths for visitors.