Country diary: Return of the Manx shearwaters – this island is their home | Tim Earl

Langness, Isle of Man: With their epic migrations, they are special birds, but especially so here, the place that coined the name A swallow recorded at the start of March, sand martins mid-month. This year, many harbingers of spring have come early due to the warming climate, so here on the island, the question was: would our Manx shearwaters return early too? Few places have birds named after them, but the Isle of Man is one (Sardinia another, for Sardinian warblers), the name granted in 1835 thanks to a large shearwater colony on the Calf of Man, an island off our south-west corner. That population was devastated by rats from a shipwreck, but after a rodent eradication programme by the Manx Wildlife Trust, numbers have rebounded to more than 1,500 breeding pairs. Last week I visited my regular haunt for connecting with these ghosts of the ocean – St Michael’s Isle on the Langness peninsula. With my back to the 17th-century fort, I scanned the waves with my telescope, watching for the Manxies’ distinctive sweeping flight. It wasn’t a long wait, maybe 30 minutes before the first outriders flashed into view. They were back. After a round trip of 10,000km from their wintering