Brand new netting
Last year, the Government of Jersey Country Enhancement Scheme provided funds for us to purchase new netting for the Sorel enclosure. Durrell’s Site Services team were tasked with erecting it before the fledging season and did a sterling job; not only replacing the netting but also some of the inner wooden framework. In just over a week, they managed to replace the lot! The last job left is to replace the front wooden framework and hatches at the end of the flight, and this will be done after the summer.

Aviary construction in process by Durrell’s Site Services team (Ben and Kieran). Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Plemont pair
The pair of choughs which nest at Plemont (Minty & Rey) were visited by the team on 22^nd April. Rey (the female) was sat on the nest, so we knew from first glimpses that she was already likely to be incubating. When Minty arrived at the nest, she shuffled to the side allowing Minty to feed something other than her! This was a great indicator that they had chicks in the nest. Our next visit was not until early May. We had received some reports from Jersey residents about a pair of choughs chasing and/or mobbing ravens at Plemont and did not fill the team with confidence. Last year, when they were seen chasing off other birds – they had lost their chicks, likely due to predation. On our next visit to the nest, the team witnessed the pair chasing a raven in flight along the beach! Shortly after, they were then both seen going to the nest, where they were greeted by five noisy chicks of approximately 10 days old! With this many chicks to feed, they will be a very busy pair this year!

Minty standing over his five hungry chicks! Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

New feeder stands
One of our outer feeding stands fell apart in one of last year’s storms. With other stands beginning to show the test of time, the Durrell Site Services team kindly made new ones. While they were reconstructing the aviary framework and fitting the new netting, they brought the new feeding stands to the aviary to be used where necessary. The first stand to be erected was the outermost stand which stands in one of the sheep fields; thankfully no sheep were in this field while the stand was being dug in. Once the stand was up, the choughs spent no time flying over to check it out!

It was not long before the choughs came to investigate the new stand. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Initial Ronez quarry visit
Before the initial visit to the quarry, the team did not know what to expect regarding breeding pairs and nest locations. Generally, the choughs will nest in the same spot every year. However, since the passing of Green & Chickay, the breeding pairs this year have had a ‘jig around’. Green’s previous partner (Pyrrho) has paired up with Danny and Chickay’s partner Dusty has paired up with Archirondel. The team were not sure if these new pairings would find a new nesting place as a pair or if they would continue using their previously used nesting spots. From our limited observations, we found that both nest locations remained active this year.

So why do we carry out a quarry walk around? It gives the team the opportunity to look at accessible nests to gauge when chicks will need to be ringed at the nest. When going for the quarry walk around on the16^th May, five healthy and hungry chicks were seen in two nests – all the other nests were inaccessible without hiring equipment.

What else did we see on our initial quarry visit? Well, Red & Dingle’s nesting spot had a lovely nest in the nest box, although there were no signs of any other activity apart from a lot of footprints in the dust around the inner building. Kevin & Wally were seen to have three chicks in their nest, and they were judged to be approximately 10 days old. Trevor & Noirmont had two chicks at least a week ahead from Kevin & Wally’s nest. We also glanced into Dusty & Archirondel’s as well as Lee & Cauvette’s nests. Both had built nests however it was unclear whether they had anything inside. Judging by the approximate ages of the chicks we had seen and our own observations, we selected an appropriate date to ring chicks.

Kevin and Wally’s chicks at the initial quarry walking visit. Photograph by Tobias Carabet.

What we do at Ronez
Two members of the Durrell chough field team, a licensed ringer, and this year, a PhD student studying the choughs, all attended Ronez quarry on 25^th May to ring the ‘choughlets’ at the nests. Quarry manager, Tobias Carabet gave up his time to enable us access to the nests around the site using a hired cherry picker. The chough team are given a special license to disturb, handle and ring the choughs in Jersey. This allowed us to examine the chicks in the hand, gather morphometric information and put identifying rings on their legs. For 2024, the chicks are being named after cheeses. Their year colour ring will be black, and another colour above will be their individual identifying ring. After being processed, they were placed back into their nests, to be fed by their impatiently waiting parents. The team carry out this task every breeding season and the breeding pairs are used to ‘what is happening’ when we arrive.

How the chough beaks are measured. Photograph by Harriet Whitford.

What we saw at Ronez
While the majority of chicks were around 20 days old, we had a few pairs who were a few weeks behind! A total of 12 chicks were seen at the quarry this year, only nine of which were ringed as three were too young. There were two nests which were not accessed in the quarry: those belonging to Dusty & Archirondel and Danny & Pyrrhos. To date, we are uncertain as to whether either pair have produced offspring. Red & Dingle’s nest was beautifully made much like every year, however, there was nothing inside! Dingle has also been seen spending a lot of time with Iris, so this might be a new pairing in the making.

Charlotte and Tobias accessing nests in the cherry picker. Photograph by Harriet Whitford.

Breeding pair Lee & Cauvette had three chicks this year – one of which was smaller than all the others. This did not surprise us as we had recently sent our Veterinary Department a faecal sample after Lee was looking a bit ropey a few days before our ringing event. The faecal result suggested coccidia. Coccidia is parasitic and affects the gastrointestinal tract where it reproduces; it is then excreted and spread through faeces. Choughs generally carry a low level of coccidia in their system, but it can be heightened during breeding season when stress levels are higher. Lee has since perked up and we are hopeful that all three chicks will survive. Percy & Icho had two chicks who were the oldest chicks seen on our ringing visit. The larger of the two weighed in at 285g! Kevin & Wally had only two chicks in the nest which surprised us as there had originally been three. The larger chick weighed in at 275g, but the other chick weighed only 225g! Bo & Flieur had three of the youngest chicks and due to their small size, processing was limited. Trevor & Noir had two chicks in their nest, both approximately 25 days old. All in all, a successful ringing visit.

PhD student (Sam) assisting the Durrell chough field team (Charlotte & Harriet) at Ronez. Photograph by Cris Sellares.

Plemont pair
It is very clear to see from the team’s observations at Plemont that this pair started their season at least a week ahead of the oldest chicks we saw at the quarry. Throughout the weeks of observations, we did unfortunately find one of the chicks deceased directly below their nest missing a head! The chick was taken for a post-mortem as it looked quite fresh and upon so, was acknowledged to have died from impact. It is likely that it was pushed out the nest and scavenged by a predator after its fall. Thankfully all four of the remaining chicks still looked happy and healthy, and at least two of the chicks were seen fledging by 1^st June.

Plemont chicks almost fully grown and getting harder for adults to feed & fend off! Photograph by Paul Pestana.

Table 1, A list of breeding pairs, where they nest and the number of chicks we’ve seen at the end of May.

New and young pairings
New breeding pairs Dusty & Archirondel, Danny & Pyrrho and Vicq & Pinel’s nesting knowledge is still unknown to the team. Excitingly though, all three pairs have indicated nesting and incubating behaviour from our observations so we will patiently wait for chicks to arrive at the aviary! We have three suspected younger pairs in the flock (Aspen & Jaune, Sallow & Portelet and Alder and Wally Jnr) which have been seen arriving together for the supplementary feed every day prior to the breeding season. All three of these pairs consist of males from last year’s wild hatches (2023), which means they might not be sexually mature; it can take between 1-3 years for choughs to reach maturity. However, younger males that pair with older females have been known to produce chicks in the past therefore these three new pairs could have breeding potential this year. We will keep a watchful eye over these pairs but it’s already evident by observations that at least one or two of the pairs could be incubating. The team will ‘watch this space’ in the hope for a fruitful breeding season.

Danny & Pyrrho’s family portrait. Photography by Charlotte Dean.

An impatient wait
June arrived and the chough team seemed to be waiting impatiently for the first batch of chicks to arrive at the aviary. We knew they had left their nests but there was no sign of them at Sorel. Minty & Rey were the first to bring two of their healthy chicks to the aviary. Arriving on12^th June, this was the latest we have seen chicks arrive in a few years! The second pair to arrive were Danny & Pyrrho on 21^st June, with two chicks. This is the very first breeding attempt for this pair and we are delighted they have been successful! They were closely followed by Kevin & Wally with two on the 22^nd. Much to our surprise, Percy & Icho brought their two chicks later (24^th June); this pair had one of the oldest chicks on the quarry ringing visit. Trevor & Noirmont brought two chicks to the aviary on 25^th. Lee & Cauvette as well as Vicq & Pinel both brought two chicks to the aviary on the 26^th. And lastly, Bo and Flieur arrived on 29^th with two of their chicks. So that’s 16 chicks seen at the aviary so far! It’s safe to say that the supplementary feed has become a bit noisier!

A glimpse into the chick chaos at the aviary. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.