Thursday 30th June 2016: Lundy Island
An early start from Romansleigh to be at the harbour at Ilfracombe by 9am for the 10am ferry to Lundy. The Damien Hurst statue "Verity" stands impressively over the harbour. At 20.25m it was the tallest statue in the UK at the time it was erected and is on loan to the town for 20 years - from 2012.
From the ferry we saw Manx Shearwaters, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Kittiwake, Gannet and Fulmar. The crossing time was 2 hours.
Lundy is in the Bristol Channel, 19km off the Devon coast (the journey from Ilfracombe is much further) and is 5x1km in dimensions, oriented with North-South in the long dimension. The east coast is sheltered from the prevailing winds and can be good for migrant birds in spring and autumn. The coastal fringe is all sea-cliff with the plateau on top mostly grassland, grazed by introduced Soay sheep and Sika Deer. The West coast has auk colony involving Razorbill, Guillemot and Puffin and Manx Shearwaters and British Storm-petrel also breed here. The main attractions, however, are the Lundy Cabbage (Coincya wrightii) and the Golden Hair Lichen (Teloschistes flavicans). The cabbage was fairly easy to find on the path up from the harbour, but the lichen took quite a bit of searching for. |