Ornithological Visit to the Isle of Man

ORNITHOLOGICAL VISIT TO THE ISLE OF MAN

During the Easter holidays from 17th to 27th April, Mr. Craine took a party of five boys to the Isle of Man to do some bird trapping and ringing. The party consisted of D. E. Hudson, G. M. Barton, P. R. Harrison, N. C. P. Marsden and P. J. Schofield. We caught the 7-40 a.m. train from York and arrived in Liverpool just in time to catch the boat to Douglas. Although it was raining when we left Liverpool it had stopped when we arrived in the island. Mr. Craine met us at the boat and managed to fit into his Mini Countryman all five of us plus our luggage, and we were driven to Castletown.

The nearby peninsula of Langness was visited several times to see the ducks and waders. At high tide the latter could be watched from a short distance, using the car as a hide. Good views were had of all the common waders and we were also fortunate to see a black-tailed godwit, which is a rare visitor to the Isle of Man. Two nests of hooded crows were found as well as an early ringed plover's nest. Two coastal walks from Port Erin to Port St. Mary and from Port Soderick to Castletown were very enjoyable and we had good views of a fulmar colony, ravens and choughs. We were lucky to find a chough's nest on which the bird sat until we approached quite close. The nest was fortunately accessible and had four eggs.

On one of the days we made a trip around the island carrying a packed lunch with us. This was eaten at Maughold Head while we had excellent views of the many seabirds which nest there. These included the auks, i.e., razorbills, puffins, black and common guillemots, shags and kittiwakes. Leaving here we went to the most northerly point of the island and visited the Point of Ayre lighthouse. Along the Shingle beach were the usual waders with a small party of whimbrel, and offshore were sandwich terns, more auks and shags and four red-throated divers.

We did most of our trapping near the Silverburn, a small stream in Castletown. Mist nests were used and we were lucky to have such a sheltered area for our ringing, as the weather was rather windy during our stay. The ringing totals are given later. By the end of our holiday we were all fairly adept at extracting the birds from the nets and ringing them.

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are grateful to Mr. Craine and his sister, with whom we stayed, and hope that this may become an annual event.

Ringing totals: House Sparrow 64, Linnet 20, Willow Warbler 14, Blackbird 11, Swallow 11, Greenfinch 9, Starling 8, Sand Martin 5, Dunnock 3, Chaffinch 2, Chiffchaff 2, Blue Tit 1, Pied Wagtail 1, Wren 1, Meadow Pipit 1; 153 birds of 15 species.

List of birds recorded by the party on the Isle of Man: Red-throated Diver, Manx Shearwater, Fulmar, Gannet, Cormorant, Shag, Heron, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Mute Swan, Merlin, Kestrel, Partridge, Water Rail, Moorhen, Coot, Oyster Catcher, Lapwing, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Turnstone, Curlew, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit, Bartailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Knot, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Great Blackbacked Gull, Lesser Blackbacked Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Kittiwake, Arctic Tern, Sandwich Tern, Razorbill, Guillemot, Black Guillemot, Puffin, Stock Dove, Rock 20