Stay overnight on Lundy Island in late spring or early summer and chances are you will hear the eerie, cackling calls of one of Britain’s most mysterious birds, the Manx Shearwater.

Spending most of their lives at sea, travelling in winter as far as the coast of Brazil, shearwaters only come ashore to raise their single chick, returning to the nesting burrows under cover of darkness to avoid predators. Manx Shearwaters are masters of the wind and waves, but move clumsily on land and would be easy pickings for Great Black-backed Gulls in daylight hours.

The extraordinary story of Lundy’s Manx Shearwaters is revealed in the pages of a brand new book The Birds of Lundy penned by North Devon birdwatchers Tim Davis and Tim Jones and illustrated by renowned Devon artist Mike Langman.

The chick spends weeks underground – often in an old rabbit burrow – and is fed by its parents, gradually getting fatter and fatter until one night in early September its instincts tell it to venture outside. Too fat to fly, the chick waddles to the edge of the cliff and, with a none-too-elegant jump, flops into the water.

This month marks the fourth September in a row that young Manx Shearwaters have made their amazing leap into the unknown from Lundy’s cliff tops, but just a few years ago the birds’ future seemed bleak. The island’s huge rat population meant that few if any shearwater nests were successful, both eggs and chicks being eaten by the ubiquitous rodents.

Following a two-year eradication campaign Lundy is now ‘rat free’ and Manx Shearwaters have bred successfully since 2004. “This is a real conservation success story” says co-author Tim Jones. “The absence of rats should benefit other ground-nesting birds including Lundy’s famous Puffins, which also bred successfully this year.”

All proceeds from The Birds of Lundy, which is being published by the authors on behalf of the Devon Bird Watching & Preservation Society and the Lundy Field Society, are going to support conservation projects on the island.

All the details of how to order the book can be found at http://www.birdsoflundy.org.uk

This Press Release comes from Ian Farrell of the DBWPS Publishing Group. Email: info@devonbirds.org

Editors’ Notes:

The Birds of Lundy will be published on Saturday 29 September 2007. There will be an official launch and book-signing event from 11.00am to 1.00pm at R.M. Young Bookseller, 17 Broad Street, South Molton. The launch is open to the public and light refreshments will be provided.

The Birds of Lundy is being published in both softback and limited edition hardback versions, retailing at £18.95 and £35.00 respectively.

The book is illustrated with 20 colour photographs and over 100 black and white line-drawings.

The Birds of Lundy is published by the authors’ own imprint, Harpers Mill Publishing of Berrynarbor, on behalf of Devon Bird Watching & Preservation Society (also known as ‘Devon Birds’) and the Lundy Field Society. Both of these charitable organisations have supported the publication financially.

The Devon Bird Watching & Preservation Society (DBWPS) is the leading organisation devoted to the conservation of birds and their habitats across the county of Devon. It was founded in 1928 and has over 1200 members. For further details visit www.devonbirds.org

The Lundy Field Society (LFS): The LFS was founded in 1946 and is now a charity that has as its aims the study of Lundy, in particular its history, natural history and archaeology, and the conservation of its wildlife and antiquities. For more information visit http://www.lundy.org.uk/

Tim Davis and Tim Jones will be available for interview at the launch on 29 September. Alternatively, they can be contacted at info@birdsoflundy.org.uk