Shearwaters In Action
Manx Shearwaters featured in the Oceans episode of the BBC TV documentary Wild Isles. See them in action.
Meet the UK’s mightiest finch, our smallest woodpecker and a beak-snapping flycatcher.
Lundy’s seabirds are on the up
More than 40,000 seabirds now call Lundy Island home!
5 min read
On this page
Lundy in numbers
The seabird success of Lundy is particularly amazing in a nature and climate emergency, but even more so when we consider that the island now has more than 25,000 Manx Shearwaters, up from 600 in 2001, and 1,335 Puffins, up from just 13 in 2000.
Where’s Lundy Island?
Lundy Island is located in the Bristol Channel in Devon. It’s owned by the National Trust, and managed by the Landmark Trust.
What happened?
In 1939, there were a staggering 80,000 seabirds on the island, including Manx Shearwaters, Puffins, Razorbills and Common Guillemots.
But the national census survey in 2000 showed a very different story. Only just over 7,000 birds remained, and Puffins were close to local extinction.
These declines were replicated in other colonies, too. Worldwide, Puffins face threats to both their nesting sites and their food supply, as they feed on sandeels, which are threatened due to rising sea temperatures. And Manx Shearwaters suffer from vulnerable nesting sites and lack of food sources on their migration journey.
Conservation in action
In 2002, a partnership of the RSPB, Natural England, the Landmark Trust and the National Trust formed to bring the seabirds back to Lundy. Evidence showed that rats were the biggest threat to seabirds on the island. Manx Shearwaters and Puffins nest on the ground, making their chicks easy prey for them.
The rats were introduced to the island accidentally on ships visiting the island, or from shipwrecks. But following a programme of careful conservation work, the island was finally declared completely rat-free in 2006.
Since then, the project team has worked hard to stop rats from returning to Lundy on boats. The team have also undertaken regular monitoring of the island to see how the seabirds are faring.
Success for seabirds
It’s been a massive success. More than 40,000 seabirds now call Lundy Island home. The island is now internationally-important for breeding birds, one of England’s largest seabird colonies, and home to 95% of England’s breeding Manx Shearwaters.
As the numbers of existing species on the island increases, then other rare birds are also attracted to the nesting colony. Storm Petrels first arrived here in 2014, but now more than 150 pairs breed on the island.
This shows that amidst global declines, localised conservation work can be really effective.
Paul St Pierre, RSPB Conservation Officer, said:
“Partnership projects like this show just how much potential there is to restore species and landscapes on an incredible scale. If we can restore over 30,000 birds to one small island in the Bristol Channel, just imagine how much could be achieved if everyone came together to restore nature right across the UK. Projects like this are achieved through decades of conservation science, expertise, funding and countless volunteer hours – everyone can play a part."
