Surveys at Lindisfarne NNR

Our surveys have began in earnest for the 2013 season, carried out by our tireless Reserve volunteers and staff. Some more information about our surveys:

UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: Involves weekly butterfly surveys on our fixed transect, set up in the 1970s, allowing us to build up a picture of the Reserve's common butterfly populations over time. The Reserve's star butterfly species are the dark green fritillary, the island being the most important site for this species in the North East, and the grayling.

WeBS - The Wetland Bird Survey is carried out monthly on the Reserve, this is our longest-running survey and gives us a broad picture of how bird numbers are doing here. It involves a coordinated count of all wildfowl and other wetland birds across the whole Reserve - no mean feat considering this is almost 4000 hectares! The Reserve volunteers kindly give up their time every month to help carry out this vital survey.

BBS: The Breeding Bird Survey began on the Reserve in 2009 - this involves twice-yearly counts at the beginning and end of the breeding season along a fixed transect route, recording the birds seen and heard. This should be carried out early in the morning when birds are most active, making for a very enjoyable couple of hours.

Vegetation: We have a number of fixed quadrats across the Reserve, these help us monitor changes in vegetation in the same spot over a long time period. These are useful in telling us how grazing is affecting the plant species composition.

Mammals: Reserve staff will be continuing the small mammal surveys that began in Spring 2009. So far, these have confirmed the presence of field vole, woodmouse, common shrew, pygmy shrew and water shrew on the island. Longworth traps containing bait were used - these were very time-consuming, requiring checking every 4 hours even in the early hours of the morning! Reserve staff also worked with with Berwick Wildlife Group to survey small mammals on the dunes of the adjacent coast - this will show if there are any differences between mammal populations on the mainland and Holy Island.

Field vole found on the Snook during the small mammal surveys, 2009 (V. Carnell)

Woodmouse found in hedgerow near the village, 2009 (V. Carnell)

We are hoping to build up a picture of as many different species on the Reserve as possible and any important population changes over the years. Results from all our surveys can be combined - for example we can examine pellets from our resident owls to find out what they are eating, then see if this relates to population changes detected through the small mammal surveys. 

18th June: Beached birds examination

Beached birds are sometimes washed up on the shores of the Reserve and if any are found in good condition they are brought back to the Reserve base. Daniel M Turner, Northeast England Beached Birds Survey group coordinator, kindly came to pick up some Puffins, Guillemots and a Fulmar last week.

Daniel writes:
On 10th March 2013 volunteer surveyor George Moody found the corpse of a Fulmar on Lindisfarne. Analysis at the Dove Marine Laboratory (Newcastle University) showed this was an adult male with no feather oiling and fully grown flight and tail feathers in good condition. Head, bill, wing and leg measurements were recorded before an internal examination was carried out by Dr Jan Andries van Franeker from The Netherlands (Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies). This helped to reveal the bird’s sex and age and showed starvation was the final cause of death. The stomach contents will be analysed in Holland.

BBC film crew (from left: producer, cameraman and presenter) with Dr Franeker at Dove Marine lab, 11th June. Filming for a new series of Inside Out, to be shown in Autumn 2013. (Photo by Daniel M Turner)

The North East Beached Bird Survey group, a keen group of Northeast volunteers, has been involved in the ‘Save the North Sea’ (SNS) Fulmar project since 2003. Lindisfarne resident  George Moody has regularly surveyed the island’s shoreline for the past ten years finding nine Fulmar corpses suitable for full analysis in that time. The SNS Fulmar project involves all North Sea fringing countries – Dr Franeker is the international coordinator. Analysis of 796 North Sea Fulmar corpses found in the period 2007-2011 has shown that 95% contained plastic in the stomach – on average 33 pieces weighing 0.38 grams (Van Franeker & The SNS Fulmar Study Group, 2013). Stomach analysis of 65 Northeast England birds, found between 2003 and 2011, has shown that birds in our region are carrying increasing levels of plastic litter. The SNS Fulmar project is long term and serves to monitor North Sea pollution and seek improvement. 

Dark phase Fulmar found in March, died due to problems with it's plumage (Photo by Daniel M Turner)

The NEBBS group webpage may be found at: http://www.nhsn.ncl.ac.uk/news/cms/beached-bird-surveys/
For further information on the international project, including the option to download Dr Franeker's report, visit: www.wageningenur.nl/plastics-fulmars

Many thanks to Dan Turner for his kind help, photographs and information.

The ingestion of plastic by seabirds and other marine animals is just one reason why it is irresponsible to litter or dump debris into the sea. Seals and birds are sometimes found tangled in plastic, rope or fishing nets around the Reserve's shores. We carry out regular litter picks on the Reserve beaches which is very important for removing these materials to keep our protected shorebirds and animals safe.

17th June: Lost Buildings of Lindisfarne event a success

This Sunday local historian and our volunteer Reserve warden John Woodhurst gave the first of his walks/talks planned for this season. John writes:

"A warm bright sunny day and back on Lindisfarne telling people about the island's "lost buildings" for another year - great to be back! A good crowd out, this time with an international flavour thanks to Mr and Mrs Van der Graf, and I think all enjoyed hearing about a little known side of the island's history - 9th century Anglo-Saxon settlements, 19th century lime kilns and limestone quarries, not to mention an Edwardian 9-hole golf course!

Thanks to Laura our new full-time warden for assisting on the walk. I made a couple of new friends in Lowick and met an old pal's aunt - who said her nephew wanted to ask how my morris dancing was getting on - private joke - seriously I don't!

Another thing - whilst I'm at pains to point out on the walks that I do history and not flora and fauna I was really chuffed to identify northern marsh orchid, bird's foot trefoil and "wooly bears" as the caterpillar of the garden tiger moth for our audience - impressive for me!

Hope to see some of you on future walks."

Looking towards Snook House whilst hearing about the early settlements here

Thanks very much to John for such an informative and entertaining walk! It was a fantastic day and our group learned so much about the island's history and what life was life for the island community in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

John telling the group about a very well preserved stone cottage, previously hidden in the sands

John's next walk is "St Cuthbert - Lindisfarne's First Nature Warden" on Wednesday 14th July, and if you missed it this time he will be doing the next "Lost Buildings" walk on Sunday 28th July. See the Events page for more details. 

13th June: Hide improvements

Reserve staff and volunteers have been busy updating our hides and installing new information panels at our hides. This afternoon was spent painting one of our hides and installing our signs here - not a bad job for a sunny day:

Enjoying the view after giving the hide a good spring clean and coat of paint

The board illustrations were kindly done for us by the very talented artist John Steele and show the view you can see from the hides changing with the seasons. We also have bespoke information panels for the hides, giving more in-depth information about each site.

Bird identification panel at Budle Bay lay-by

We have some lovely new bird panels produced specially for this Reserve that have now been placed at key locations - this one is at Budle Bay, others have been installed at the at hides. One of our volunteer wardens took the majority of these amazing pictures on the site, making these panels that little bit more special.

We check our hides regularly, including the recording books in each one, so please leave any comments or sightings in the books when you visit. In our hides at Fenham-Le-Moor and the Lough we also have details of Reserve events and other information.

The best time to visit the hide overlooking Fenham Flats is on an incoming tide. Settling down to watch the birds come to you as they are pushed up the flats is an amazing spectacle, and using the hides ensures you can view the birds' normal behaviour without disturbing them.

5th June: Preparations for our grazers

The Reserve dunelands are being prepared for our Autumn/Winter grazing program, the cattle will arrive in late September and remain on the Reserve for the winter.

Cattle grazing in the duneland in a previous year

Reserve staff and volunteers have been preparing the cattle corral - fixing the fencing and repairing the posts - if we didn't do this the cattle would be more likely to demolish the fence and escape! There is still lots to do before the cattle can be moved in safely. Remember it is very important that dogs need to be kept under control on a short lead around the cattle and other livestock.

Using cattle and sheep to graze the rough/rank vegetation is much less harsh than cutting and creates amazing botanical diversity - this is especially important for the orchids the Reserve is well-known for. Many visitors to the Reserve who are stunned by the flora here may not realise this is the direct result of managed grazing.

Another great reason to have livestock grazing on the Reserve is that they help to control invasive species such as Pirri-pirri bur.

Two sheep in their Reserve enclosure during a previous winter

Upcoming Event: Sunday 16th June

1pm on Sunday 16th June sees the first Lost Buildings of Lindisfarne walk take place, kindly led by our volunteer Reserve warden John Woodhurst. It will be a unique chance to learn more about the forgotten buildings of the island.

Here are more details about this event from the Natural England press release:

"Local historian John Woodhurst will take us on a tour of the ‘lost buildings’ of Lindisfarne. Lumps and bumps in the ground reveal their fascinating stories, bringing to life the history of the area up to the current day and its vital role as a National Nature Reserve.
Starting at Chare Ends, the walk will take in the 19th century lime kilns, along with traces of other buildings related to the industry. Also in the vicinity is the site of an Edwardian nine-hole golf course! Looking across to the buildings on the Snook, we will then visit Green Shiel, a 9th century Anglo-Saxon settlement, before returning to the 19th century with a look at Ness End limestone quarry."

Please meet at Holy Island main car park, at Chare Ends. Be sure not to miss it, but places are limited so booking is essential for this event. All events are free. Please park at the County Council car park (charges apply).

A full list of our 2013 events and more information, including how to book a place on an event, can be found on the Events tab of our blog.

A previous walk being led around the dunes, a place full of forgotten history