Donation box installed at Northumberland migrant hot-spot

A new donations box has been installed at the Vicarage garden on Holy Island to allow visiting birders to the Northumberland hot-spot to show their appreciation of the rarities and more regular migrants it attracts.

The old box, installed in 2019, eventually succumbed to wind, rain and rust after five years of raising funds for the upkeep the island's parish church, St Mary's, which dates back to the Anglo-Saxon era.

With its priory and castle, the island is regarded by many birders as the region's best birding locality. The island is, of course, also regarded as the cradle of Christianity in the north and was the scene of the first Viking raid on England in 793. The island is also famed for the Lindisfarne Gospels and its associations with saints, including Aidan and Cuthbert. The church remains a destination for pilgrims for across the world.

Ian Black (left) and Ian Kerr set up the new donations box at the vicar's garden on Holy Island, Northumberland (Max Whitby).

 

Regular rarities

The nearby garden has a mouth-watering bird list, particularly of rare spring and autumn migrants, and no visit to the island and the surrounding Lindisfarne NNR can be regarded as complete without it being checked.

The garden regular attracts Yellow-browed Warblers in September and October and parties of Goldcrests can occasionally attract Firecrests. But over the years the garden's sycamores, willows and shrubs have also pulled in many much rarer species including Pallas's, Arctic, Radde's, Dusky, subalpine, Greenish and Icterine Warblers. Other scarce migrants, such as Red-backed and Great Grey Shrikes, Common Rosefinch and Hawfinch are also on the garden list.

The site also hosted Northumberland's one and only Eastern Black Redstart in 2011 and has also held Red-flanked Bluetail, much to the annoyance of aggressive European Robins. More unusual species for a garden include European Nightjar and Common Kingfisher.

The garden also attracts large numbers of common migrants and on one wet day last October there were spectacular counts of more 3,500 Redwings per hour passing overhead towards the mainland.

The garden is private but the stone wall along its southern edge, where the box is fixed, is at ideal leaning height for binoculars, giving birders a great view.

The garden provides the best cover in the south west corner of the island, often picking up northbound visitors in spring and southbound migrants in autumn. Autumn birds tend to filter across the island, often ending up in the garden before making the short hop to the mainland across the mud and sand flats of the reserve.

Icterine Warbler is one of the many scarcities to have been seen in the garden over the years (Frank Golding).

 

Raising funds for the church

The vicar, Canon Dr Sarah Hills, said that the old box had been a tremendous help in fundraising for the church which, like all old buildings, was in constant need of repair.

"We want everyone to go on enjoying the garden and its birds and we're always grateful when visitors help out with a donation," she said.

The original box was installed by island birder Ian Kerr and Max Whitby, head of NatureGuides, publishers of Birds of Holy Island and, recently, Plants of Holy Island by Chris and Hazel Metherell.

The new box, hopefully more weather-resistant, was installed by Ian and Max with assistance from friend and island neighbour, Ian Black.

The third hardback and expanded and updated edition of Birds of Holy Island is due out this summer, with the island species list now standing at 353. A new feature of the third edition will be colour plates of typical island species, including Common Eider and Short-eared Owl, by award-winning artist Chris Rose, who regularly visits the island.