Rangers from both the National Trust for Jersey and the States of Jersey will be getting together on 31st July to remember rangers from around the world who have put their lives on the line to protect the planet’s natural environment and the wildlife that lives there.
Rangers in Jersey don’t face the same dangers that some of their counterparts do around the world, but the dedicated rangers from the States of Jersey and the National Trust for Jersey provide a valuable and sometimes forgotten service in keeping Jersey’s countryside beautiful and protecting the Island’s wildlife. So, if you think that the natural places in Jersey, or elsewhere in the world, are looking good, remember the hard-working people who make sure they do so.
The European Union’s Birds Directive – often believed to be one of the world’s most progressive and successful set of nature conservation laws – has had a huge impact in protecting Europe’s most threatened bird species, according to new research published this month.
“We analysed information on all bird species breeding across the European Union”, said Dr Fiona Sanderson, RSPB scientist and lead author of the paper. “Our findings confirm that species with the highest level of protection under the Birds Directive [listed in Annex I]… are more likely to have increasing populations, and that these results are most apparent in countries that have been members of the European Union for longer.”
While this may sound natural, the study, published in the journal Conservation Letters, noted that as a result of stronger conservation measures, a majority of Annex I species (like Dalmatian pelican, common crane, white-tailed eagle and white-headed duck) are now improving their populations more than other threatened species that are not on that list. This could point to a need to better implement protection projects for species across the other annexes as well, whose situation may not originally have been considered as dire.
The globally threatened Dalmatian pelican was driven nearly to extinction in Europe in the 20th century due to loss of habitat, degradation, persecution and collision with power lines. However, thanks to the directives, more than 2,500 breeding pairs are now in existence, five times the number of a few decades ago.
White-headed duck was just as threatened. There were only 22 left in 1977 because of wetland destruction and persecution, but thanks to strong protection of their habitat and other conservation measures, there are now more than 2,000 in the wild.
Bird species listed in the other annexes are not as lucky. For example, black-tailed godwit, despite being part of Annex II, continues to see a rapid decline in population and is listed as ‘threatened’ in Europe and ‘Endangered’ in the EU27. In Europe, the population size has decreased by an estimated 30-49% over three generations, while the EU27 has seen a 50-79% decline.
“Our research proves that, in an era of unprecedented climate change and habitat loss, those threatened birds protected by the Birds Directive are more likely to prosper”, Dr Paul Donald, the RSPB’s principal conservation scientist, said.
The research was published just days after the closure on 26 July of a public consultation on the future of the European Union’s nature laws. The European Commission is currently reviewing the Birds and Habitats Directives, looking into their effectiveness. More than 500,000 people signed and 120 NGOs supported the online campaign against this review in the largest public response to any consultation published by the European Commission.
“At a time when the benefits of EU membership are increasingly questioned, this research shows that, at least for nature, the EU is making a huge positive difference,” said BirdLife Europe’s Head of EU Policy, Ariel Brunner. “It would make no sense for the European Commission to demolish legislation proven to work and which enjoys a massive level of support among citizens.”
Download and read the paper Assessing the performance of EU nature legislation in protecting target bird species in an era of climate change here
This week Liz and Glyn talked to Charlie Moores about Birds On The Edge and the excitement of Dusty joining the chough population at Sorel. Charlie, who hosts Talking Naturally, has long been a keen supporter of Birds On The Edge and recorded our conversation for a podcast which you can listen to as well.
Talking Naturally podcasts can be accessed on the Rare Bird Alert website and you can see that Birds On The Edge is in some pretty illustrious company there. You can listen to the interview directly through the RBA website here, through SoundCloud here or download the podcast through iTunes here. We will add the full interview to our own audio section soon.
Please listen to the full interview, Liz and Glyn are the third conversation on the podcast after the RSPB’s Senior Investigations Officer, Mark Thomas, talks about what goes into protecting some of Britain’s rarest birds from disturbance and wildlife criminals such as egg collectors and Tim Mackrill, Reserve Officer for the Lincolnshire & Rutland Wildlife Trust, talks about the Osprey Project which recently celebrated the hatching of its 100th chick.
The Department of the Environment has co-ordinated the Jersey Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (JBMS) for the last ten years, depending on a team of unpaid volunteers who count butterflies each week throughout the spring and summer at 38 locations across Jersey. The 10 year butterfly report has now been published online and is available to download here
The scheme is one of the ways Jersey meets its international environmental obligations, butterflies are environmental bellwethers and in line with countries around the world, the Department of the Environment monitors Jersey’s butterfly population to detect changes to the environment.
What happens to Jersey’s butterfly data?
The JBMS raw data are collected and collated by the Department, copies being passed on to the Jersey Biodiversity Centre, Société Jersiaise, the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, Butterfly Conservation and the EU Environment Agency. The Island has 40 monitored sites (which is more than several European countries) and punches well above its weight. JBMS data are used in local, national and international analyses such as the European Grassland Indicator Butterfly Scheme. The results are analysed annually and after 10 years of continuous monitoring the data obtained enough statistical significance to undergo a more thorough analysis, the results of which are presented in the new report.
What does the JBMS tell us about the island’s environment?
The JBMS 10 year results suggest that Jersey’s butterflies respond quickly to changes in the environment so are thus an excellent indicator of changes in the island’s terrestrial habitats and climate. The results suggest that there has been an overall decline in Jersey’s butterflies since 2004, especially on agricultural and urban sites, but that managed semi-natural sites are mostly doing well. Now that these and other issues have been highlighted by the JBMS, it may be possible to help mitigate and reverse any declines in species and habitat quality through government policy and changes in land management practice.
In dedication
The butterfly report is dedicated to two of Jersey’s foremost naturalists. Margaret Long and Joan Banks were instrumental in setting up the Jersey Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. They had tested a similar scheme in the 1990s and in 2004 used the data from this to establish butterfly transects around the island. They also provided background knowledge on Jersey’s butterflies and continued to support the scheme for many years. Without them the Jersey Butterfly Monitoring Scheme would have been much harder to get off the ground. We remain very grateful for all their help and support. Margaret kindly helped Birds On The Edge with the development of this website.
Birds On The Edge reported last year on the bird species that have been recorded throughout the Channel Islands (Just how many birds are there in the Channel Islands?). Well, each year the full list gets updated by bird groups in each of the islands and is now complete up to the end of 2014.
Besides including new species, we try to update the local status of each one to reflect just how they are faring. This is not always a nice job as so many species are declining so it’s always good to provide positive news. With European storm petrel remaining a rather enigmatic bird in Jersey (do they ever breed, hidden away somewhere?) we received a possible answer as to just where all the birds we see at sea and, occasionally, ring on the north coast might be coming from. In 2006 we said that storm petrels breed on Burhou (Alderney) once in large numbers but now scarce but annual. At the end of 2010 we revised this and added that there may be 150+ pairs. However, in 2012 we further changed this to say that there might only be 40+ pairs on Burhou. Well, now, following an analysis of ringing studies on Burhou we have revised the figure once more – to 1,000 or more pairs! True, this represents a better understanding of the birds rather than a definite increase, but it does give us something better to go on with the support for this bird and increase further the international importance of Burhou!
Of new species, Jersey fared best with the only bird new to the Channel Islands, a Caspian tern seen briefly over St Ouen’s Pond on 25th April. Jersey also recorded its very first great spotted cuckoo in March and a paddyfield warbler in September – both species already on Guernsey’s list. A great bustard was a remarkable sight in Alderney in November – this bird, the first recorded in the Channel Islands to leave the islands alive – was from the reintroduction project in England. The bustard stayed for five days giving some great views.
Alderney recorded only its third ever garganey, Guernsey its third subalpine warbler and fourth Kumlien’s gull and Jersey its fifth red-rumped swallow. An unconfirmed report of two spoonbill in April would constitute only Sark’s second record of this increasing bird if accepted. Black-winged stilt were seen in both Jersey and Guernsey, while Guernsey further increased its grip on visits by red-breasted flycatcher and rose-coloured starling while Jersey did likewise with tree sparrow. Another Jersey highlight, of course, was the presence of a free-flying flock of red-billed chough! I must, however, reiterate that although 329 species have now been recorded in Jersey to Guernsey’s 325 there is no competiveness between the islands at all.
We have an apology to make to our faithful readers. We have not been entirely honest with you over the past month. In May we reported that there were two nests in the quarry and that Mauve and White’s nest had not produced any chicks. What we didn’t tell you is that, in the same week of visiting their nest, we also took a sneak peek into Green and Blue’s nest.
Looking at potential chough nest sites in the quarry. Photo by Liz Corry
On 12th May we were taken to the nest site by Matthew Sharpe, (then Assistant Quarry Manager) of Ronez quarry. The position of the nest and its careful concealment meant that there was no way we could see into it.
We knew from the female’s daily routine that she was incubating. Not wanting to disturb her we patiently waited. The incubation period is about 19 days from the last egg being laid. We could only guess a start date for laying and allowed a couple of days error either side. Add to that a few more days post-hatch so we don’t spook mum and risk the nest being abandoned.
We had a long wait.
Accessing the nest required a scissor lift or cherry picker to be brought into the quarry. Site foreman Kevin Gray very kindly and efficiently juggled their work schedule to allow their pre-made plans to hire in the machinery to coinincide with our availability to check the nest.
On the 29th, with hard hat, high vis, safety specs, and a 1001 butterflies in the stomach I went up to find out exactly what Green and Blue had been up to over the past three weeks.
Green and Blue’s nest. Photo by Liz Corry
The first thing I saw was a very cleverly constructed nest, exactly how you woud expect a wild chough pair to build one.
Watchful parents. Photo by Liz Corry
Very proud of Green and Blue, who were watching on from above, my journey upwards in the cherry picker continued (at a comical pace) until I was level with the top of the nest.
It was a very proud moment as I gingerly peered in and said hello to a little naked chough chick.
The first sighting of Green and Blue’s chick. Photo by Liz Corry
From our experience with the captive choughs at the Wildlife Park we judged the chick to be about 4-5 days old. It is slightly tricky to judge as you are comparing hand-fed to parent-fed chicks housed in different conditions. However, the lack of emerging pin-feathers allowed for fairly accurate dating. All chough chicks hatch with a bit of ‘fluff’ on them, as can be seen in the photo above, but these are not the feathers.
Whilst this might seem like the perfect time to celebrate we had to be cautious. It takes about 42 days from hatch to the point of flying. In the last week or so before that flight the chick will be ‘bouldering’ around. This could be quite a tricky feat in an active quarry building especially when the nest is built on an overhanging steel girdle. There were potential hazards inside not to mention those outside. What if something happened to the parent(s)? Will there be adequate food for a chick?
Harriet with the free-living choughs waiting for their supplementary feed. Photo by Liz Corry
The latter was easy to control. Our supplementary feeding at the aviary meant the parents knew when and where to get food for the chick even if wild supplies dried up (quite literally as the weather gets hotter and the ground becomes harder). We can’t control what happens to the parents when they are out and about. We simply monitor their behaviour and look out for any signs of problems. Ronez helped where they could by keeping an eye on the parents and nest in the quarry.
Even lunchtimes became occupied with nest watches. Photo by Liz Corry.
When the chick was approxiately three-weeks old we paid another visit to the nest. This time to give the chick leg rings, take morphometric measurements, and get a blood sample for sexing. This is the best age to do this as the chicks are almost fully grown but not at risk of jumping out of the nest in panic. Licensed ringer Dave Buxton accompanied myself and Harriet into the quarry. This time Ronez had arranged the use of a scissior lift. We knew from the parents’ behaviour that they had still been taking food to the nest and as soon as we were underneath we could hear the chick calling away.
Once again with parents watching, I went up to the nest, this time to remove the chick so we could process it on the ground in a calm and safe environment. It was amazing to see the size difference between our hand-reared chick and this one. This chick was 70g heavier! We felt shamed as surrogate parents, but it is to be expected as chough parents are bound to be better feeders.
David Buxton rings Dusty at Ronez Quarry. 16-6-2015. Photo by Liz Corry
We will not know the sex until the DNA results come back from the lab, although we have started placing in-house bets based on weight and leg length. Regardless, the team at Ronez have already taken this chick to heart and proudly named it Dusty.
Dusty was returned to the nest as soon as possible and we quickly left the area so the parents could return to see that their chick was fine. Quarry staff fitted a hammock-style tarpauline underneath the nest to act as a safety net in case the chick was to fall out. Each day they would check the site at the start and end of their working day to make sure Dusty was ok.
Then on 2nd July I received an urgent text message from Harriet to call her as soon as I could. Two days after we lost our foster chick ‘Special K’ on the operating table I naturally feared the worst.
After a quick chat, and strict instructions never to leave me hanging like that again, my fear subsided and I rushed over to Sorel. Dusty was out!
Without us knowing, Dusty had left the nest-building and moved to the tallest building it could find. The parents were the give-away as they flew to feed it and then spent several hours trying to coax Dusty back down so they could roost in the safety and familiar home of the ‘crusher’ (that is the actual working name of the building!).
Like all toddlers Dusty was intent on ignoring its parents and stayed put. It will probably take a week or so of short practice flights before Dusty spreads its wings further. We fully expect Green and Blue to bring Dusty to the aviary and teach it about the supplementary food as well as how to probe for wild insects. We will be there every step of the way and as ever will keep you posted on its progress…we promise.
Thank you to everyone at Ronez whose support throughout the project has helped tremendously. We would also like to thank Paradise Park, all our colleagues in the Birds On The Edge project and all of the students and volunteers over the last two years as without them Green and Blue would not be flying free and have the resources they need to successfully breed in the wild. This is the first successful breeding attempt by choughs in the Channel Islands since the 1920s. With the continued help of the team and the people of Jersey we hope we can truely see the red-billed chough return to its full glory in the years to come.
Celebrations and commiserations this month as the chough breeding season begins to wind down. We have only managed to produce two chicks this year through the captive breeding programme at Durrell. It doesn’t mean that we have had to work any less, however, to ensure that these chicks make it to fledging.
Hand-rearing Gwinny’s chick
Gwinny’s chick is being hand-reared by Durrell staff. Photo by Liz Corry
The chick we began hand-rearing in May continued to grow and develop with relative ease. We had a few stressful days trying to keep the chick from overheating. Corvid chicks are prone to overheating when developing in the nest. We had been carefully controlling temperature within the brooder and maintaining a constant room temperature. The problems started when the weather outside improved. Late afternoon to early evening is when the sun is shining directly on the incubation room window. For a couple of days at the start of June the temperature in the brooder was being pushed up 2-4°C higher than it should have been and the chick would pant excessively. Much like the perils of keeping dogs in hot cars the chick could have easily died. Of course we wouldn’t let that happen.
A makeshift net curtain was put up to shade the chick in the evening and the windows were opened. As this was happening out of hours, open windows posed a security risk, so we stayed with the chick in between the two affected feed times whilst doing our best to cool it down.
Hand-reared chick in the rearing room. Photo by Liz Corry
Fortunately this situation did not last long and a couple of days later, at 17 days old, the chick was large enough to move out of the brooder and into our rearing room.
Here we had to make sure the room conditions best prepared the chick for the imminent move to the release aviary.
Heating was turned off and skylight windows were gradually opened to allow for a breeze to blow through the room. Not quite cliff top conditions, but at least the outdoors will not come as too much of a shock.
There was some preparation to do at the aviary before the chick moved in. The doors and hatches to section 1B (where the rearing box is) were closed a few days before. This allowed the free-living choughs to sort out their new living arrangements. Eight of the juveniles roost in the aviary and we know from droppings that some use section 1B. There are plenty of other options within the aviary, they just need to decide amongst themselves who was going to go where. It also allowed us to check there were no rodent issues to compromise the chick’s success.
We also spent two days strimming, chopping, mowing, and bracken bashing. Basically any job that was going to create lots of noise and disturbance we wanted out-of-the-way once the chick moved in. At least until it had fledged and was more comfortable in the aviary.
Choughs forage around the outside of the aviary looking for insects amongst the recently strimmed grass. Photo by Liz Corry.
With these tasks out-of-the-way we picked a day when we had plenty of staff around and the vets were available to examine the chick. On 22nd June we took the chick to the Vet Centre to have a routine health-check and blood samples taken. We also added plastic leg rings and implanted a transponder. A DNA sample was taken and sent off to discover the sex of the chick.
Vet, Alberto Barbon, examining the chick’s eyes…or is it the other way around? Photo by Liz Corry
A transponder microchip being implanted into the chough for indentification purposes. Photo by Liz Corry
The one thing we had not planned for was the torrential downpour which lasted most of the day. The chick was fine, being kept in either a pet carrier or sheltered in the aviary. We didn’t fare too well, even with waterproofs, giving up by lunchtime. The chick seemed to adjust easily regardless of weather and took food from the tweezers straight away. When the adults arrived for their food it was a little intimidated. By the afternoon it was calling in response to the adults calling. The video below includes a clip taken on a smartphone the day the chick moved in. The adults are outside on the netting calling and looking in to try to see where the noise was coming from.
The next couple of days the weather switched to being really nice. This time too nice and the chick was overheating again. We might name the chick ‘Goldilocks’ depending on the DNA results. Temperatures in the nest box were averaging 21°C, 2-3 degrees higher than the chick was used to. We removed one of the corotherm panels on the side of the aviary next to the box to allow the wind to get through which helped a lot.
The adults have found their own way to cool off this month using the sheep water bowsers in the field next door, or flying around the quarry where the temperatures were cooler.
Choughs post-bathe using the water pans left out for the sheep. Photo by Liz Corry
Water bowsers left out for the sheep are used by the choughs as well. Photo by Liz Corry
The underlying issue was that the chick was stressed by the whole situation. Anything additional, like it being too hot, would feel amplified for the chick. Last year the four chicks we moved in had each other to look to for reassurance. As one person described it “remember what your first day of school was like”. The chick can hear the intimidating ‘big kids’ next door and sometimes see them. We appear with food for reassurance then disappear (we don’t want it imprinting on us).
The hand-reared chick fledged in the release aviary at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry
Feed times instantly doubled in length. The chick would eat a few bites then get distracted by noises outside of the aviary. During this time it would take food from the tweezers but then spit it back out. It meant it wasn’t eating as much as it had been back at the park and it’s body weight was fluctuating daily.
Captive-reared chough chick exploring outside of the nest box (top right corner). Photo by Liz Corry
When the chick started ‘bouldering’ out of the nest it became even harder to feed with all the new things for it to explore.
If it wandered too far from the nest, most notably onto the top step of the ladder, it would stay there until Harriet or myself guided it back up with the promise of food.
The captive-reared chick investigating its new home. Photo by Liz Corry.
By July the chick should be flying around with confidence and eating for itself.
We are hoping to receive a group of parent-reared chicks from Paradise Park who can then be socialised with our chick.
We will assess nearer the time whether this chick is suitable for release. If it ends up being too dependent on staff we might not release it and find an alternative role for it back at the park.
Gianna and ‘Special K’ the foster chick
Day old chough chick. Photo by Liz Corry
In May we gave Gianna, our tame chough, a chick that we had hand-reared for the first five days after hatching.
Our intentions being that this would be less demanding for staff time compared to hand-rearing.
More importantly the chick gets to be raised by an actual chough and less human contact.
As this was the first time we had attempted foster-rearing, the only surviving egg of Tristan and Issy, and if a successful release candidate to be name something beginning with ‘K’ we decided to give the unsexed chick the nickname ‘Special K’.
Gianna proved to be an attentive first time parent doing everything a mother chough should.
Staff provided Gianna with a regular supply of food from 07:30 until 19:00, sometimes feeding her in the nest as the male would. As always, we ‘preened’ Gianna, but never Special K as that was Gianna’s job. At two weeks old we switched from daily weighing to every few days as it became too much of a disturbance. The chick had become more alert and reactive.
On 30th May I noticed Special K looking a little unsteady in the nest. I took it out to weigh and instantly saw to my dismay that it’s right leg was bent. Until now the twigs in the nest had blocked our view of the chick’s legs when sat in the nest. When we had handled it there was nothing to suggest there was a problem although we don’t spend long with the chick when weighing to avoid prolonged human contact.
A deformity in the right leg of the chough chick Special K causes it to walk with a limp. Photo by Liz Corry.
The weekend duty vet was called out to examine the chick. There were two possible reasons either the chick had sustained a fracture in the nest and healed incorrectly or, more worryingly, it was metabolic bone disease (MBD) where bones are weakened.
MBD can be induced by inappropriate nutrient levels in the diet namely lack of calcium and/or vitamin D3.
Gianna had been feeding the chick a lot of waxmoths. Her favourite food, but not necessarily one packed with the right nutrients.
A blood sample from Special K was sent away to look at calcium and protein levels amongst other things. The results did not ring any alarm bells although we had to bear in mind the sample was taken after the bones had changed and would not necessarily reflect what was happening in the blood prior to this.
Special K, the foster chick out of the nest but not yet at the stage where it can fly. Photo by Liz Corry
The aviary they are housed in came into question as it is quite shaded in the mornings but full exposed by late afternoon. Lack of exposure to sufficient ultraviolet light can also cause MBD.
For a species which nests in caves and crevices you would expect UV levels to be lower in general compared to say a gull nesting on a chimney top. We were not too sure if UV levels would be a contributing factor.
Out of curiosity we took UV and lux (illuminance) readings at three different locations in the aviary and one in the overspill car park (no shade) over a five-day period. We did find that levels inside the nest box were low or zero compared to elsewhere. However, we don’t have data for wild nest sites or other captive breeding aviaries for comparison so we cannot read too much into this.
One way we would know whether it was MBD or a fracture would be to X-ray. We decided to wait until the chick was independent of Gianna to do this. Any intervention resulting from the X-ray would be better managed at this stage in its life rather than earlier. If it proved to be a fracture it might be possible to reset the bones in which case 5-6 weeks of post-operative care would be required.
Gianna feeding her six week old foster chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Special K was returned to Gianna and stayed in the nest until it started bouldering, i.e. jumping in and out of the nest, on the 10th June. Special K’s mobility issues meant it took the chick a few days longer than normal to pluck up the courage and skill to get out of the nest.
We aided it by providing a shelf (B & Q’s finest budget pine) to the front of the nest.This way it didn’t have to leap far.
Once it was out it wasn’t long before it was taking short flights and keepers would find it above their heads hanging out on the safety-porch roof.
The bald patch of skin on the chick’s throat is due to Gianna feather plucking. Photo by Liz Corry
It started feeding for itself around 47 days of age. You could sense Gianna was beginning to feel bored and superfluous. She started preening keepers’ hair and demanding more of our attention. Rather worryingly she started feather plucking the chick under the bill. We tried to provide enrichment, otherwise known as distractions, but to little effect. Any other bird would readily take to them. Gianna either ignored or, in the case of the insect culture we spread out for her to probe through, she tidied it all up and dumped it in the corner of the aviary!
On 30th June the chick was taken to the Vet Department to have X-rays taken. They clearly show the bone deformity along the tarsus which cause the right foot to bend inwards. This could be operated on to straighten the foot and avoid pressure sores and other problems developing in the future. The X-ray revealed a second problem; the femur was also abnormal to such as degree that it would not be possible to fix. This deformity would mean that once the foot was straightened the right leg would be slightly shorter than the left. This would put the chick at a disadvantage on the ground in terms of mobility, but not necessarily impact on its feeding and flying capabilities.
Vet nurse Mel Frost monitoring the chick’s respiratory rate. Photo by Liz Corry
Once vet nurse, Mel Frost, had prepped the bird for the operation the vet, Alberto Barbon, began to operate on the tarsus. In simple terms the bone had to be broken and then reset using pins to hold it in place. These then stay in place for three weeks until the bone has fused together.
What I am about to describe might seem fairly gruesome to those of a sensitive nature. I have seen my fair share of operations, but as a surrogate ‘parent’ looking on even I found it a challenge. That being said it is astonishing what can be achieved through modern veterinary practice and as an observer you become transfixed.
Any operation in which a small bird is anaesthetised carries a risk. With this particular procedure there was another hazard. To break the bone internally the vet risks damaging tendons and nerves with the scalpel. Externally it is a lot cleaner with regards to infection risk, but the break might not be clean and could fragment. The vet opted for the latter and with precision and strength (and courage!) snapped the bone.
Vet Alberto Barbon and vet student Ben Howitt operating on the chough chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Pins were inserted by pushing through the skin at calculated points along the bone. Again this required a lot of precision and concentration. In total four pins were inserted along the length of the bone.
Inserting pins into the tarsus bone. Photo by Liz Corry
These were then braced either side with another pin and each join wired then glued together. Finally the ends of the pins were trimmed so the frame was less cumbersome to the chick once it was up and mobile.
The metal framework was wired and glued then trimmed to size before a protective gauze covering is applied. Photo by Liz Corry
Throughout this the vet nurse had paid close attention to heart rate and breathing rate. Painkillers were being administered and a precautionary antibiotic given. To the chick that is! Vet and staff had to grin and bear.
The positioning of the foot was corrected once the metal framework was in place. Photo by Liz Corry
Two hours in and the vet had reached the stage where he just need to bandage the framework to protect the chick. The vet nurse started to bring Special K around, out of the anaesthetic. Suddenly the chick’s responses changed and staff jumped into emergency mode. The chick had stopped breathing and heart rate had dropped. An avian form of CPR was started and adrenaline administered as a final attempt to restart the heart. Despite every effort Special K did not recover and sadly pronounced dead on the operating table.
Everybody involved was understandably devastated. It had seemed so promising with preparations underway to set up a vet centre cage for it’s post-op recovery just as the news broke. Having been hand-reared and foster-reared by staff for two months the loss of Special K had a greater impact than simply one less chough to release.
We now know via the post-mortem that Special K was a female.
Special K will always have a special place in our hearts. Photo by Liz Corry
Teaching Through Nature
For a second year running we participated in Alderney Wildlife Trust’s Teaching Though Nature programme. This is an exciting cross-curricular education project offering schools the opportunity to bring nature into their classrooms.
Using the dramatic lives of seabirds and Alderney’s wildlife, this project links directly to the Keystage 1 & 2 curriculum, and is an effective way of teaching science and literacy skills, and promoting pupil creativity and confidence.
For two weeks at the start of June Durrell took over with daily blogs and live webchats about the choughs, Birds On The Edge, and other species Durrell works with. Questions came flooding in; what do choughs eat?, how many choughs do you have?, what is the deadliest bird? We also had lots of lovely feedback and have hopefully helped spur on the next generation of conservationists.
Summer time shenanigans
With summer finally arriving there were changes in the air at Sorel. Some quite literally. The sheep have been sheared to lose their winter coat. Aaron and Ewen rounded them into the aviary field and spent four days working their way through the flock. The streamlined brown sheep are now back out on the cliffs and making new friends.
Three of te raven family with the seep at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry
The fledged raven family have been spending a lot of time at Sorel in amongst the sheep, patrolling the field edges for food, and generally just hanging out on the cliffs. Considering the size difference, the choughs were probably pushing their luck when they mobbed one for being in their air space. Other than that they have been living happily side by side. The peregrines have been out and about. Thankfully no encounters with the choughs…yet.
With the warmer weather and calmer winds the choughs have largely ignored everything else going on at Sorel and simply concentrated on having fun. Flying high, tumbling, and playing on the thermals.
If you ever wanted to know why the collective noun for choughs is a chattering, here is why…
If a conservation initiative like Birds On The Edge aims to restore bird populations and stop them from further declines, it is important that we keep our eyes on the target. Even when you are busy restoring habitats, planting winter bird crops, clearing bracken and introducing grazing flocks, unless you monitor how the birds are actually doing, you can’t just assume that things will work out, just because they work well elsewhere.
In short, doing the conservation work itself is only half of the job. Any project needs to put in place systems to measure its progress, not only to find out whether techniques actually work but also when to stop, evaluate and adjust. Real-time feedback allows us to adapt the techniques that we use, saving a great amount of work, time and money.
Thankfully some local initiatives have been monitoring birds in Jersey for quite a while. The Ornithology Section of the Société Jersiaise collects bird records all year round and publishes an annual bird report summarizing each species’ year. During spring, our local representative of the BTO co-ordinates a team of volunteers that survey randomly selected squares twice in a 6-week period and record all breeding birds and their activity. The BTO then publishes a nationwide analysis and report on general trends based on everybody’s input. On top of that, every year the BTO organizes a nationwide census for a different species, in which Jersey’s ornithologists also participate. Last year it was the peregrine falcon, this year it’s the turn of the house martin.
The Farmland Monitoring Scheme set up in 2005 and co-ordinated by Dr Glyn Young at Durrell, collects data from 22 transects walked by volunteers every fortnight throughout the year. So far it has collected date from over 3,200 individual site counts as it celebrates the first 10 years of work (watch out on the website for a full report). Other annual surveys organized locally include the Jersey Garden Bird Watch, organised by Action for Wildlife and Birds On The Edge, and various wader, geese and raptor counts which help create a picture of long-term trends of the most well-known species.
In 2013, Birds On The Edge started its own ‘breeding birds survey’, partly to complement these schemes, and partly to fill a gap which was relevant to the project, that is to focus survey efforts on Jersey’s most threatened coastal and farmland birds. This survey pays special attention to endangered species found in the areas of work (north-west and western coasts to start with), such as the stonechat, skylark, lapwing and turtle dove, plus Island-wide species whose status is uncertain such as the kestrel and the starling. The survey also includes other species whose populations seem stable, such as the raven or the peregrine falcon, yet are considered highly vulnerable due to only a small number of breeding pairs.
We are pleased to publish now the report of the 2014 survey (download a copy here). Over the two years of the survey to date, we have found high enough numbers of certain species such as the meadow pipit, linnet, Dartford warbler and common whitethroat, for example, to make it difficult to monitor each breeding pair. This suggests that any changes in the population trends will be, and already are, reliably picked up by long-term monitoring schemes such as the Farmland Monitoring Scheme.
The majority of resources were placed instead in monitoring the breeding success of our smaller bird populations. Over the course of two years we have seen an increase in the number of stonechat pairs, going from two to six and we have seen the cirl buntings, which returned in 2011, increase to two pairs. The breeding success of one of our most threatened birds, however, the turtle dove, proved difficult to confirm in 2014, although a single pair was seen nest-building. Skylarks seemed also to follow the negative trend of the last few years while lapwings remain at very low numbers, and are not able to reverse their decline of the last few years. In contrast, other small populations, such as that of the raven and the peregrine, do seem more stable at 3-5 breeding pairs.
The 2014 report also recommends a few new species to be included in this year’s (2015) survey, like the sedge warbler and the sand martin, and reminds us to keep a close eye on species that are suffering declines in the UK, such as the kestrel and the common starling, as their present trend in Jersey is anything but clear.
Results from one year to the next have to be taken with much caution and interpreted in the wider context of long-term trends and habitat changes. Having said that, it is important to continue monitoring the small populations that we have in Jersey as they are very vulnerable to rapid extinction events, and any acute dip in the population or any new threat (a disease, a new predator, changes in habitat) will be detected early and might allow us to take action before its too late.
This report was made with the help of many local birdwatchers, local enthusiasts, work colleagues, and the Ornithology Section of the Société Jersiaise. Please download a copy of the 2014 report here
A new and experimental project was launched today offering an unrivalled insight into the lifecycle of Britain’s largest native seabird, the northern gannet. The project entitled ‘Track a Gannet’, or T.A.G. for short, is jointly run by Britain’s smallest Wildlife Trust, the Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the University of Liverpool, and has enabled gannets to be put under surveillance using the 3G mobile network. The project is unique in that:
T.A.G is the first time 3G live tracking has been used on seabirds and is a world first for ‘real time’ tracking of a seabird being available to the general public
T.A.G is delivering daily discoveries into the vital importance of the English Channel to these birds as they fish over vast areas. The maximum track for a single trip recorded since the tags were enabled on the 8th June is in excess of 800km
For the first time real time tracking has been combined with a live streaming webcam here
Data collected from the tags will be vitally important in understanding the potential impacts of off-shore developments in the English Channel and will be used to respond to a variety of development issues
Alderney’s gannet populations are the most southerly in the British Isles. Northern gannets are identified as an ‘Amber listed’ in the Birds of Conservation Concern 3 (Joint Nature Conservation Committee), and perhaps one of the most charismatic of British breeding seabirds.
The technology
The tracking is done by fitting prototype GPS tags which have been developed by the BTO and the Universities of East Anglia and Lisbon and transmit data in near real time. The devices were attached to the tail feathers of 20 northern gannets by a team from the AWT, BTO and University of Liverpool, and connect the birds with any 3G enabled mobile network they come into contact with, at which time the tags download the track of where the birds have been. The tags transmit the flight paths of the gannets to the website which updates every time a bird comes within range of the European 3G network. The website offers the most ‘real time’ form of monitoring ever attempted on birds at sea.
Watching the nesting gannet colony LIVE online
The same webpage also has a live streaming GannetCam webcam which is situated on the Ortac gannet colony. The webcam enables both scientists and the public to get a much more detailed glimpse into the birds’ behaviour within their colony. In fact, several of the birds with tags on are nesting in front of the camera and can, therefore, be followed live both through the transmitters and the camera. If tags survive until the chicks have left our waters it is hoped that the project will yield the first live streaming data from gannets heading to their wintering grounds.
Protecting the gannets for the future
Alderney hosts a number of important seabird colonies in the English Channel and with six wind and three tidal developments proposed in waters surrounding the island under consideration by UK, French and Alderney governments, the Alderney Wildlife Trust is increasingly concerned about the need to understand and protect its seabirds.
Our vision for ‘Living Seas’ includes ensuring development in our seas is ecologically sustainable and it is only with increased knowledge of the marine environment that this can be fully achieved.
T.A.G. is an AWT co-ordinated project which has been jointly supported by the University of Liverpool, the Alderney Commission for Renewable Energy (ACRE), local businesses and members of the general public who have sponsored and named birds themselves. See list of tag sponsors including our own Action For Wildlife on the website here
T.A.G.
The T.A.G. page is now live so you can start seeing the birds and their tracks. It is likely that the website will be modified soon so we only see the last three days of tracks (data from when the tags went on will be stored). Another eight tags to replace the ones that failed will go on to birds shortly to increase the data set.
The merry month of May held true to its poetic title this year and bore witness to the return of breeding choughs in the wilds of Jersey. After the flourish of nest building activity and copulating in April we noticed a change in the adults’ behaviour. Mauve and Blue were often absent or late to the feeds at the aviary. Their respective partners White and Green would be there, hurriedly eat, and then fly off towards the nesting sites. For those of us monitoring the nest sites it was quite tricky to see what was happening. Why? Because they decided to nest in Ronez Quarry!
We could only watch the birds as they flew back and forth between Sorel and the quarry and calculate how much time was being spent at the nest site. This is actually quite useful because as, breeding behaviour changes, so does time allocation at the nest.
Green and Blue head back to the aviary for food whilst White flies back to see Mauve in the quarry…maybe. Photo by Liz Corry
We know patterns of time allocation from breeding behaviour in UK choughs, especially Cornwall where nest monitoring is carried out every year as a form of protection as well as research. The female incubates the eggs and is fed by the male on the nest with the odd flight during the day to stretch her wings and get more food. Once those eggs hatch there isn’t much difference in behaviour as she spends the first week or two brooding the chicks. After which point the chicks are bigger and require much more food so both parents go out and forage.
White foraging alone at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry
At the start of May we observed the males frequently making solo flights between the nest sites and headland. Combined with the females’ absence along the clifftops it suggested they were incubating!
The really interesting behaviour was watching the male feed at the aviary when we added the supplementary diet. He would then fly back to the nest site, seconds later the female would emerge and then fly together to the aviary. It was as if she was waiting for him to confirm that dinner was ready so she didn’t have to waste energy flying back in case we weren’t there.
I have to say this behaviour was most prominent between Green and Blue. White and Mauve did something similar, but alas White’s young mind would often wander and he would easily be distracted on the flight back if he bumped into another chough, especially Black, the female he was still courting. Mauve had to put a lot of effort in and was often seen at the aviary begging frantically for food from either White or the team.
We decided to increase the amount of food we were supplying since everything was being eaten and the females were obviously needing to maintain their energy stores. The juveniles on the other hand just thought Christmas had come early and revelled in the extra food. We do exactly the same for captive birds at the Park if they are polishing off their food. Our consideration for Sorel, however, is whether this means there is enough food and/or sufficient foraging habitat for choughs during the breeding season. We don’t want the choughs to become reliant on the food we give them. At the same time the fact that we have choughs incubating in the wild for the first time in a century means we would not want to risk starving the birds.
The pattern of behaviour with the breeding pairs continued for three weeks; choughs incubate for 19-21 days. Then change was in the air. On 22nd May, I received a call from the Quarry, one of their staff reported hearing a ‘cheeping’ noise from Mauve’s nest! We had already paid a visit to the quarry to see exactly where the nest sites were, so we knew that it would not be possible to visually confirm chicks without disturbing the nest. Instead we had to rely on behavioural patterns again. Over the next 48 hours we started seeing Mauve spending more and more time away from the nest site. Due to the Bank Holiday weekend we were not able to access the nest until the Tuesday by which time we were confident that Mauve had abandoned.
White and Mauve at the aviary after their nest failed. Photo by Liz Corry
With assistance from Ronez staff I climbed up and checked in the nest hoping to find something to indicate what had happened. It was spotless.
Impressive engineering from Mauve and White led to one of the first wild chough nests in Jersey in a century. Photo by Liz Corry.
Our choughs have used fibre glass insulation found in the quarry as well as sheep’s wool to line their nests. Photo by Liz Corry.
A perfect nest with twigs, sheep’s wool, and fibre glass insulation (apologies Ronez for any damage to property).
On a more positive note Green and Blue continued as normal and we wait anxiously. I can only hope that the fact their pair bonding is stronger and they are that little bit older means they will have more success.
Dingle and Red
We mentioned last month that Dingle had paired up with Red and started nest building. They are still a pair but never really got anywhere with a nest. Having spoken to quarry staff it appears we had four females trying to nest in various places around the quarry. Moving twigs from site to site with only two finally feeling happy with their choice. This is an amazing achievement for their first year breeding and first year living free in Jersey. It bodes well for the 2016 breeding season.
News from the Wildlife Park
Back at the Park we had a much clearer idea of what was happening. On 1st May a very punctual chick emerged from the egg that was being artificially incubated. We hand-reared it for the first five days feeding it from 6am until 11pm using the same methods as last year. This time round we were faced with the problem of rearing a chough in isolation. Last year having four chicks together meant they would be socialised and learn from each other exactly what a chough looks and sounds like. With a single chough the chances of imprinting are much higher.
Senior keeper Catherine Francescon feeding the day old chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Staff gently clean chick’s bill after feed. Photo by Liz Corry
We decided to try foster-rearing using Gianna as mum. This was not without its own risks. What is she didn’t take to the chick? Would she know what to do? Would she be able to feed it enough since she had no partner to feed her in the nest? The answer to the latter was easy. We became her partner. We would go in and feed her and if needs be feed the chick as well, but, ideally, she would do it to feel sufficiently bonded with the chick. The first question was the tough one and there was only one way to find out.
When the chick was five days old we moved it in with Gianna. I went in to feed and preen (tickle) her then swiftly switched her egg for a chick. What happened next melted the heart, she went to the nest box as I pretended to leave. I didn’t want to disturb her so walked to the other side of the aviary and watched carefully. She went to sit back on the ‘egg’ then hesitated, looked down puzzled, looked outside (I won’t say ‘at me’ as that is far too romanticised), then very carefully sat down and brooded the chick. The clip below was taken at a later date when Gianna was more confident.
I sat by the safety porch out of sight but still inside in case things turned nasty. It was silent for exactly 28 minutes, then movement.
Gianna removing a feacal sac produced by the chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Heart in mouth I watched, half expecting to see a bill appear with a chick dangling down. Instead it was a faecal sac belonging to the chick. Gianna flew out and across to the opposite corner of the aviary, deposited the faeces, cleaned her bill, then flew back to the nest. Now maybe this is something only a bird keeper can appreciate, but this was one of the most satisfying sights to see.
The next hurdle was seeing if she would feed it. It wasn’t a smooth start. Gianna knew it needed to be fed, she knew exactly what call to make to encourage the chick to beg, but she couldn’t quite work out how she got the food from her bill into the chick’s. It took three feeding attempts throughout the morning as she teased the chick with food overhead. To be fair, a single chough chick in a nest wobbles around a lot when its begging making it a very fast moving target. By the fourth feed something switched on and she figured out what to do.
We continued to support the chick by hand-feeding pinky mice and papaya, but since Gianna did such as great job we left her to it after a few days. We still went in six times a day from 7.30am until 7pm making sure she had enough supplies and, being Gianna, enough attention.
Gianna collecting inscts to feed to her foster chick. Photo by Liz Corry
The foster chick had daily weigh-ins for the first three weeks to monitor its progress. Photo by Liz Corry
It takes 41 days for a chough to fledge so pretty much the rest of May was spent just making sure the chick grew strong and healthy. Once this chick has fledged and is independent from Gianna it will be moved up to Sorel to take part in the 2015 release this summer.
Gianna keeping a watchful eye on her foster chick whilst making sure she is pampered properly at the same time. Photo by Liz Corry
Gianna’s foster chick was the only egg to hatch from Issy’s clutch of five. They re-made their nest but never got around to laying a second clutch for reasons unknown. The second egg being artificially incubated was the one rescued from Gwinny, or more accurately from the Dad who had an aversion to eggs. This pair also failed to lay a second clutch so it was really important that their egg survived.
The incubation period or this egg was an anxious one. It’s weight-loss graph suggested it wasn’t going to survive. Bird Staff worked hard to reduce humidity keeping the incubator and room as dry as possible. In the end a very delicate and nerve-wrecking procedure of drilling a small hole into the shell was carried out. This had the desired effect after which point it was a case of sit and wait. Not long past the due date the chick inside started to chip away at the shell and eventually emerged.
Gwinny’s chick being hand-reared by staff. Photo by Liz Corry
It has responded very well to life outside of the shell and is piling on the pounds in a good way. It now consumes about 20% of its body weight per feed, which equates to a lot of insects. As with the foster chick we hope this one will make it up to the release aviary this summer.
The video below was taken when Gwinny’s chick was only a few days old and had not opened its eyes yet. When the eye slits start to open we feed wearing a black glove and using orange tweezers. The iPod is used to playback the sound a female chough would make at the nest to announce she has food. It isn’t always necessary if the chick is already begging.
Guided chough tours now offered…by choughs. Photo by Harriet Clark.
Moulting begins
We started noticing moulted feathers in the aviary at the start of May. A few days later the choughs at the Park followed suit. For the Sorel choughs this meant that the remaining radio-transmitters started to drop off.
Their batteries are still active so we should be able to find them (unless they fall in the sea). If you are visiting Sorel and happen to find one please pick it up and contact one of the team we can refurbish them for the 2015 release.
Veterinary intervention
Durrell vet Alberto Barbon examining Mauve in the aviary. Photo by Harriet Clark
Digital microscope image of a chough faecal flotation The large dark oval shape in the top left of the image is a syngamus egg. Photo by Ann Thomasson
Shortly after Mauve abandoned her nest we noticed that she started looking a little run down and began sneezing and spluttering quite badly. She was caught up in the aviary and looked at by the Vet. Faecal samples showed she had nematodes and she was under weight. Highly likely to be stress-related, we kept her locked-in for a week and a treatment of Ivermectin. When she was looking better we released her back into the group.
Durrell’s Display Aviary
Thanks to a very kind private donor work can now begin on the renovation work for the display aviary at Durrell.
As you can see from the photos it isn’t an easy job and will take several weeks. Once ready we will once again be able to flock the choughs together over the non-breeding season.
Dismantling netting frame of chough display aviary. Photo by Glynn Bower
Work began this month nf repairing and redesigning the display aviary at Durrell. Photo by Glynn Bower.
And finally…
The Institute of Zoology held a symposium in May entitled ‘Health and disease in translocated wild animals’. Organised by Tony Sainsbury and John Ewen (ZSL), Katherine Walsh and Ian Carter (Natural England), and Matt Hartley (RSPB) the two-day symposium reviewed the impact of disease on species restoration through translocation, and considered lessons learned to guide effective planning and implementation of future translocation projects. Health management of conservation interventions was discussed, including methods of disease-risk analysis, evaluation of disease management alternatives, use of molecular tools to unravel disease risks, mitigation of diseases and methods for post-release health monitoring.
Day 2 of the symposium held at ZSL. Photo by Liz Corry
To kick off the second day Prof. Carl Jones, chief scientist at Durrell, talked about managing behaviour; appropriate socialisation and early learning to enhance survival using our choughs as a case study.
Bean, Dingle and company fulfilled their flagship role that day and brought the Birds On The Edge project to the attention of a international crowd. In a good way I might add!
Proceedings of the talks will eventually be published in EcoHealth and made available upon request.
World Ranger Day 2015
he majority of resources were placed instead in monitoring the breeding success of our smaller bird populations. Over the course of two years we have seen an increase in the number of stonechat pairs, going from two to six and we have seen the cirl buntings, which returned in 2011, increase to two pairs. The breeding success of one of our most threatened birds, however, the turtle dove, proved difficult to confirm in 2014, although a single pair was seen nest-building. Skylarks seemed also to follow the negative trend of the last few years while lapwings remain at very low numbers, and are not able to reverse their decline of the last few years. In contrast, other small populations, such as that of the raven and the peregrine, do seem more stable at 3-5 breeding pairs.
