Category Archives: Blog

Chough report: January 2015

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Photo by Harriet ClarkBy Harriet Clark

Choughs sifting through dead bracken in search of insects. Photo by Jennifer Garbutt

Choughs sifting through dead bracken in search of insects. Photo by Jennifer Garbutt

January was another relatively quiet month for the choughs, partly due to the many wet and windy days on the north coast. The team continued with the radio-tracking study as usual, but often found the birds weathering the storm in the shelter of the aviary or quarry buildings. Therefore, occasions when the birds were found foraging in a new field or section of cliff were met with glee by the tracking team. Whilst the birds did not travel any further afield this month, they continued finding new areas to investigate, including the dirt bike track, dry stone walls and the edges of ploughed agricultural fields close to the coast.

New student Daniel practising colour ring re-sighting as the choughs probe in the aviary field. Photo by Harriet Clark.

New student Daniel practising colour ring re-sighting as the choughs probe in the aviary field. Photo by Harriet Clark.

The start of the New Year saw us welcoming a new member to the chough team, Daniel Loveard. Daniel is an environmental conservation student at Bangor University, and is spending his placement year gaining practical experience in bird conservation and developing his field skills. Just weeks before arriving in Jersey he was volunteering on a parrot conservation project in the Caribbean, so the wintery conditions at Sorel were undoubtedly a bit of a shock! He spent his first few days learning how to radio-track and identify the individual birds by their colour rings. This was particularly tricky when there is the added challenge of trying to hold your binoculars steady in the wind! Details and information on how to apply for a placement on the chough project can be found here.

In December the flock of Manx loaghtan sheep at Sorel were confined to the aviary field due to several of the younger sheep falling ill. Fortunately the flock recovered well, and the older stock was released back onto the north coast in January. Since then the sheep seem to have grown quite attached to the tracking team, greeting them as they arrive in the morning, following them as they radio track the choughs, and showing great interest in the contents of the insect pitfall traps! Photo by Harriet Clark (2)

Daniel and companions radio tracking the choughs. Photo by Harriet Clark

Daniel and companions radio tracking the choughs. Photo by Harriet Clark

The sheep certainly provide company during long days up on the cliff tops, but more importantly play a vital role in the Birds On The Edge project, as they help open up scrub landscape and increase biodiversity. Their extensive grazing determines the structure and floral composition of the vegetation, so we are very grateful to local botanist Anne Haden for carrying out surveys across the site to record the diversity of plants present. Anne maps the plants found at the eight randomly selected pitfall trap sites, and submits her records to the Jersey Biodiversity Centre. A personal favourite so far is the unassuming looking but aptly named Sheep Sorrel!

Handsome Green; the mud stains on his beak are evidence of many hours spent probing for insects. Photo by Jennifer Garbutt.

Handsome Green; the mud stains on his beak are evidence of many hours spent probing for insects. Photo by Jennifer Garbutt.

Towards the end of the month we fitted one of the oldest birds with a new radio transmitter. All of the birds carried transmitters before they were released in 2014; however, the sub-adult group moulted in June losing their transmitters in the process. We did not see a need to reattach them once their tail feathers had grown back, as the group was relatively predictable in their movements and returned to the aviary on a daily basis allowing us to easily keep an eye on them. However, with spring approaching, the oldest pairs may break away from the group and start looking for nesting territories.

Choughs reach sexual maturity at three-four years old, so four year old Green is the male most likely to set up a territory and there appears to be a strong pair bond between him and four year old female Blue. So, with high hopes for the breeding season, we decided to fit Green with a radio transmitter, enabling us to closely monitor the pair’s behaviour and track their movements. On a dry but very cold day, armed with plenty of hand warmers, we caught Green up in the aviary and fitted him with a new transmitter. This also provided us with the first opportunity to check his condition in the hand since he was released eight months ago and obtain a blood sample to screen for any potential health issues. He appeared the picture of health and is maintaining his weight well. We also replaced his colour ring which had faded, making identifying him at a distance or in poor light considerably easier. Fingers crossed we will have some nesting activity to monitor in the coming months! The dry stone walls bordering the conservation fields at Sorel seemed to be a popular foraging spot for the choughs this month. Photo by Harriet Clark.

Operation Hungry Gap – Jersey birds require desperate measures in desperate times

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Linnet 3. Photo by Mick DrydenBy Cris Sellarés

Feeling cold? A bit hungry? Then you can probably empathise with the thousands of small birds out there struggling to survive the winter. You probably put some food too in your garden to help them, and it’s a good thing you did, for at a time when their calorie requirements increase in order to keep warm, it is also a time when there is less food available in the form of insects, seeds and fruits.

So, that’s good for your robins, blackbirds, blue tits and the sparrows (the last of which unfortunately are on the Jersey Red List and need all the help they can get). But, what about the other birds that won’t come to your garden, the ones traditionally associated with farmland?

Farmland birds such as the skylark, linnet and meadow pipit are suffering amongst the steepest declines of all birds across Europe, and their continuing survival is in jeopardy due to lack of food in the agricultural land they inhabit. In the past, spilt grain from less effective machinery, stubble fields left until the spring and land rotation would have kept them going, but these features are not so common in modern farming. Even without their traditional food sources, these birds won’t, however, unfortunately, be venturing into a garden to take advantage of your generosity.

In order to help these birds survive the winter, conservationists work with farmers to plant winter bird crops, and aim to provide the birds with seeds and cereals from November until March-April, when invertebrates and other natural sources of food start to re-appear (read more here and here). But even then, a bad combination of a long winter and a cold spring might leave a ‘hungry gap’, when birds struggle to find food anywhere.

In Jersey, this ‘hungry gap’ really lives up to its dreadful name and occurs as early as February, as even the most co-operative, wildlife-loving farmer that has grown winter bird crops, needs to plough his fields in the New Year to plant potatoes. This means that all the resources for the birds disappear suddenly and at the worst of times – about now. Its around now too that many other fields around the Island disappear under polythene offering even less hope in these fields for birds to find much-needed food.

La Coupe 7

So, how do you feed the birds out in the farmland? The solution is to feed them yourself, by hand, like you would do in your garden but on a much larger scale. This involves pouring big quantities of food at a designated site, at regular intervals throughout the winter. The type of food we use is typically a high-energy, husk-free mixture of seeds and grains in quantities varying between 20-60kg, put down once or twice a week, usually by a dry track next to a suitable hedge.

Birds On The Edge has been pioneering farmland feeding stations in the Island for the last two years and learning how to best manage them. Last year we implemented a feeding station at the conservation area of Sorel, and this year we have tried them at another three sites with positive results.

These feeding stations are located at existing conservation sites with winter crops, so that the birds don’t have to travel far to find the new food when the fields are ploughed. We start feeding in early January before ploughing so that birds get used to feeding from the site, and will put out food then until mid to late-April. We move the spot where the food is put down regularly, to prevent build up of grain that may attract pests. However, so far, all the food has disappeared within a couple of days.

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Farmland feeding stations have been tried and tested in England with positive results, and farmers get subsidies from Natural England to manage stations on their land. Here the Jersey Ecology Fund sponsored our very own ‘Operation Hungry Gap’ in 2014, and a private donor recently funded it for 2015. The other difference between here and England is that, whilst farmers usually put down grain from the back of their pick-ups or tractors, here we do it by hand and shoulder!

This might seem like a last-resort solution, but as farmland birds continue to decline across Europe and the Channel Islands, any measure that can help them make it through the winter could mean the difference between starving to death or surviving to see another spring full of possibilities.

The full report on the 2014 Operation Hungry Gap can be downloaded here

Evidence of the need for a network of conservation fields

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABy Cris Sellarés

Two fields with winter bird crops planted out by Steven Baudains from J&S Growers near Les Landes, are, at the end of February, still filling up with birds that are probably now coming from other conservation sites on the Island, where the fields have already been ploughed. Since January the numbers of birds in the Les Landes fields have increased from average flock counts of around 100 birds to 400-600 birds. Most of the birds are chaffinches, with many linnets and reed buntings, goldfinches, greenfinches, and even the odd brambling. There are also lots of meadow pipits and stock doves, and raptors such as sparrowhawks, marsh harriers and even a common buzzard, an uncommon sight in the north-west, keeping an eye on them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd just to confirm our suspicion that the birds are flocking in from other areas in Jersey no longer suitable, we ‘re-trapped’ a reed bunting caught first in the reedbeds at St Ouen’s Pond, where the buntings roost up for the night. This male bunting was re-trapped earlier this winter in conservation fields with bird-crops immediately behind the Pond, where good numbers of reed buntings have been counted this winter.

The most interesting bit is that, as those fields by the pond were ploughed during the first week of February, this bird and probably others have found their way to the fields at Les Landes, which is where it was re-trapped again on the 15th of February.

So much information carried by such a tiny thing! A great example too of the valuable data that can be gathered through ringing birds like this bunting. The bunting further shows the importance of having a network of conservation fields that can support the birds in this ‘hungry gap’ when many of the fields that they have needed to survive begin to get ploughed up.

Thanks again to the many farmers involved in this project for planting out all those fields. Without this effort birds like this reed bunting and the brambling would have gone hungry this winter.

More on our birds in a changing environment

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Goldfinch. Photo by Mick DrydenRecently we saw how our partial migrant birds are changing their habits and no longer migrating down to the Mediterranean (here). Now, research by the BTO using detailed distribution maps of 122 species of bird further measures the ways that climate change could be affecting our local bird populations. Species distribution was found to be changing, but the range shifts detected could not be explained by any single climatic factor, indicating that the distribution changes for British birds are complex, multi-directional and species specific.

The BTO drew from breeding bird atlases developed two decades apart. Atlas data are collected in a standardised manner by thousands of volunteer bird surveyors, providing a unique barometer of the impacts of environmental change on this one component of British biodiversity.

Greylag geese. Photo by Mick DrydenFrom the early 1980s to the early 2000s, temperatures in spring and summer increased, which should have pushed some bird species to the northwest if this aspect of climate is key to their success, whilst higher temperatures in winter should have pushed them to the north and northeast. In contrast, if spring rainfall is critical to species, they should have been pushed to the west. Analyses looking at how bird distributions had actually changed over this period found that birds had indeed shifted to the north, on average by 13.5 km, which continued a trend seen in previous decades. However, more than a quarter of the species had also extended their ranges to the northwest and northeast, while almost half had retreated from southerly directions. The ranges of a few species such as greylag goose and great tit had extended in all directions while others like lesser spotted woodpecker and corn bunting had retreated from all directions. Overall the range shifts could not be explained by any single climatic factor, indicating that the distribution changes for British birds are complex, multi-directional and species specific.

Woodcock. Photo by Duncan WilsonAnother report published this month from Sweden shows that short distance migrants to this country had advanced their arrival to southern Sweden more over time than long-distance migrants. However, no such difference between long- and short-distance migrants could be seen in central Sweden suggesting that short distance migrants were either arriving in the south much earlier or even spending the winter there before moving further north. In long-distance migrants, the difference in first arrival between the historical and present-day dataset did not differ between southern and central Sweden. These results further establish that many short-distance migrants are becoming resident further north or shortening their migratory route, possibly due to climate change enabling more northerly wintering areas.According to annual first observation used in this study, this seems to be especially true for chaffinch, whooper swan, starling, and woodcock.

Cattle egret in Jersey. Photo by Mick Dryden

It is clear from this research that many of our birds are undergoing big changes in their patterns of migration and selection of wintering areas. A further change, the impact that the number of arriving species, like the egrets, new to particular areas will have on existing biodiversity is, however, not yet clear. As some of our bird species are not shifting their ranges as fast as others, or aren’t moving in the same direction, our bird communities of the future could be very different from those we know today. There is still much to learn if we are to manage the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on our wildlife, and studies such as these will help policymakers to adopt conservation and land management strategies that effectively assist species survival.

You can see the reports here:

Directionality of recent bird distribution shifts and climate change in Great Britain. Read abstract here

Change in spring arrival of migratory birds under an era of climate change, Swedish data from the last 140 years. Download paper here

Counting Jersey’s birds in 2014

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Red-backed shrike. Photo by Duncan Wilson

Once again our team of hardy, stalwart bird counters has gone out in whatever Jersey’s weather can throw at it to record birds across the Island. To give you some idea of the effort that the team put in in 2014, 540 data sheets were submitted from the 22 transects. That equates to around 50,000 bird sightings, recording more than 70,000 individual birds during the year. That’s a lot of birds counted. Especially as we don’t include herring gulls!

Highs and lows

Highest bird numbers are typically recorded from the St Ouen’s Pond transect because we often see large flocks of some species there. During the autumn migration almost any of the transects can get very busy as there may be an almost constant stream of wood pigeons, meadow pipits, swallows, chaffinches or redwings overhead. It is sometimes difficult to concentrate on those birds at ground or bush-level when the sky is full of finches; indeed, it is possible to lose interest in chaffinches some days! By contrast, mid-summer days with no migrants and resident birds moulting can seem very relaxed. That’s when I find butterfly numbers pencilled onto the forms.

Wood pigeon leaving Noirmont. Photo by Mick Dryden

And the worst, the lowest count received? Awful weather, especially high winds, horizontal rain, thick sea-fog (think of a Jersey summer) can really dampen bird activity and counter enthusiasm. However, for sheer rubbish, Miranda’s count of 28 birds across the two Les Landes transects in late-August takes some beating! This count, surprisingly included a common redstart, three stonechats and five wheatears, which didn’t say much for the resident birds up there. Miranda did have to put up with an F5 wind and heavy rain though and other counters have reported F9 winds and thick fog from visits where the expletives written into the margins of the forms give a more realistic interpretation than the requested weather info.

Citizen science

Firecrest. 2014

Firecrest records from two eastern woodland sites in 2014

So, why do so many people get out there and count birds all year? What is the reward? Well, it has been suggested that we bury chocolate bars and soft drinks along the transects as a bribe. However, in fact, taking part in such a big project is reward in itself. In December we received the 3,000th completed recording form: one of Tim’s from Les Blanche Banques. In April 2015 we will have been collecting data from five sites for 10 years and we will celebrate by Firecrest. Photo by Mick Drydenshowing exactly what has been happening to many of birds (spoiler alert: it may not all be good news). Can you imagine the power of these results? This is citizen science at its most productive so we are indebted to Miranda and to Jess, Cris, Harriet, Harri, Sally, Neil and Ali, Tim, Tony, Jon, Jonny, Neil and Glyn and all the National Trust Rangers for the incredible effort they put in throughout the year.

A true birder’s reward and the one that got away

However, if you were to ask any of the counters if there was any other reward for getting out there to do the counts they would, no doubt, under bribery of those chocolate bars and soft-drinks, tell you that there was actually one, very un-scientific, reward. There is always that chance of seeing a bird that you weren’t expecting. Or that no one expected. 2014 was no exception and 10 new species increased the list to 170 Woodchat shrike. Photo by Harriet Whitfordrecorded on the transects. Some of these were at St Ouen’s Pond where, although we don’t count the birds of the open water (so no grebes), habitat not found elsewhere on the survey does throw up a few new species like the first jack snipe and grey plover records in 2014.

Real megas (a term us birders use I’m afraid), however, during the year did include a remarkable flock of 16 black-winged stilt that dropped in on the St Ouen’s Pond transect, a great white egret at Gorselands (Glyn hasn’t even seen a great white in Jersey yet), a juvenile red-backed shrike that was seen on two visits to St Ouen’s Pond, a woodchat shrike at Noirmont, cattle egrets at Les Landes and even a rook! Mind you, we missed the great-spotted cuckoo that literally stood on the transect the day after a count.

Black-winged stilt. Photo by Mick Dryden

When projects meet

We have been very fortunate that the cirl buntings had a very good year and at least one pair stayed on one of our transects all year. That makes keeping an eye on them easy. And the red-billed choughs? Well, we knew that they would eventually be recorded on at least one transect and were looking forward to records first from the Sorel transects and then from any of the others. Bets were placed! Well, at the end of the year we had recorded them at Les Creux, Crabbé and Grantez. They did visit the sites at St Ouen’s Pond, Gorselands and Les Landes too, but, disappointingly, not on count days.IMG_5185

JARG Day 2015: Habitat Conservation for Amphibians and Reptiles

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Grass snake in Jersey. Photo by Rob WardThis year’s Jersey Amphibian and Reptile Group (JARG) Day will be held on 14th February from 09:30 – 15:30 at the Frances Le Sueur Centre, St Ouen.

jargThis year the theme is Habitat Conservation for Amphibians and Reptiles and there will be talks from local and UK experts, followed by workshops and field work sessions about local amphibian and reptile identification and survey methods and protocols.

arc-logoThis annual event is open to everyone whether you are interested in learning more about local biodiversity; you are an existing volunteer recorder for JNARRS (Jersey National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme) or would like to learn about becoming a recorder for the first time.

JBP logoThis event is free to attend, however, booking is essential as places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

This year’s agenda

09.30 –10.00 Arrive (tea/coffee)

10.00 -10.30 Dr John Wilkinson, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (ARC): Introduction.

10.30 – 11.00 Peter Hill (ARC): Herpetofauna habitat management, how we do it in Wales.

11.00 – 11.30 Sally Dalman, Countryside Ranger, National Trust for Jersey: Relocation, relocation, relocation – How I became a lizard stalker for the summer.

11.30 – 12.00 John Buckley (ARC): Natterjack toad conservation – the long view plus An update on pool frog reintroduction programme.

12.00 – 12.30 Lunch

12.30 –13.00 Nina Cornish, States of Jersey: Jersey National Amphibian & Reptile Recording Scheme (JNARRS) 1st cycle results.

13.00 – 15.30 Dr John Wilkinson (ARC) will lead the workshops.

Workshops
                    Training in amphibian and reptile identification, habitat assessment,
survey methods, survey protocols, recording, health & safety etc.

For more details or to book a place please contact Julia Meldrum: Telephone: 441665 Email: j.meldrum@gov.je

Please note that the afternoon session will include field work, so please come prepared with suitable clothing and footwear for the weather conditions as we will go ahead come rain or shine!

Bufo bufo male2 JWW

Local birds increasingly likely to stay at home this winter

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Robin (3). Photo by Mick Dryden

Two technical reports just published confirm what local birdwatchers have long known: some of our migratory birds are staying much closer to home in winter these days.

Climate warming and other environmental changes seem to be causing a shift in the wintering grounds of European birds northwards. This was tested in two studies, one looking at numbers of some common northern-European songbirds including robins, chaffinches and wagtails that winter in Spain and one looking more specifically at robins. These birds are partial migrants, species where parts of the overall population are migratory while others remain in place, not like swallows or redstarts whose whole population migrates south. The studies looked at annual numbers reaching Spain using data from recoveries of ringed birds.

White wagtail. Photo by Regis PerdriatResults showed that the numbers of the study species from outside of Spain reaching there in winter has decreased since the 1980s and probably well before. This tendency had to be checked against the species’ overall population numbers in northern Europe to make sure the birds weren’t just getting rarer anyway, and, as they weren’t, this confirmed that these birds are moving less. An understanding of the species’ preferred diet did show some likely patterns since frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds, a group well adapted to tracking changes in food availability, showed sharper reductions in numbers reaching Spain in winter than the more insectivorous species. In addition, larger birds, such as thrushes, less affected by problems of winter temperatures, reduced their migratory movements to the south more than small birds. The results suggest a long-term rearrangement of migratory movements of European birds in which the Mediterranean basin is losing its traditional role as primary wintering ground for many of our birds.

Blackcap. Photo by Mick Dryden

The reduction in numbers of wintering migrant birds in Spain appears to have been taking place since at least the 1970s. However, this reduction may have been in progress earlier, since several partially migratory songbirds began to winter in northern Europe in the mid-twentieth century and earlier. The ability of wintering blackcaps, thrushes and, to a lesser extent, robins to move according to fruit resources is most often observed in their wintering grounds, where their abundances are regulated by the annual availability of fruits. The reported changes in the migratory behaviour of the blackcap, one frugivorous species for which foreign recoveries in Spain has declined despite the sharp increase in the European population, support this interpretation. This change of migratory schedules in blackcaps has been related to this species’ ability to adapt its migratory journeys to increasing food availability offered by urban areas in central Europe and warmer coastal areas like the Channel Islands. Why fly all the way to Spain if you can stay at home or move to someone’s garden?

Partial migratory birds possess the genetic variation required to change from partially migratory to resident in just a few generations, suggesting that, according to current predictions of global warming, such trends will continue to increase the number of sedentary populations in Europe and to reduce the number of overwintering birds in the Barn swallow in Jersey. 16 December 2014 (2). Photo by Mick DrydenMediterranean. In the Channel Islands we have seen big changes in our wintering birds over the last 25 or so years. Fieldfares hardly bother to come here now unless the weather turns really cold whereas the UK is full of them. In their place (but not necessarily in the same habitat) we see lots of chiffchaffs and blackcaps. Interestingly, as reported elsewhere in Europe, our wintering blackcaps are very much a bird of the garden where they hog the feeders rather than out in the wider countryside where they’ll later breed.

What of the true migrants? Well, although this winter we have had several swallows and a wheatear sticking around, these species are unlikely to change their habits very soon.

Read the paper abstracts:

Are European birds leaving traditional wintering grounds in the Mediterranean?

Has the Number of European Robins Erithacus rubecula Wintering in Spain Decreased?

Robin (4). Photo by Mick Dryden

 

 

Chough report: December 2014

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Bean 2By Harriet Clark

December was another quiet month for the choughs, and it seems, for now at least, their exploratory days are over. The birds rarely ventured further than half a kilometre from the aviary, apparently content probing for insects in the grazed fields near the aviary. The ten juveniles were at least a little more adventurous than the older six birds however, and for the first few weeks in December, could faithfully be found every morning, perched on the muddy cliffs at the mouth of Mourier Valley, digging furiously, doing what looked like some impressive excavation work!

Chickay, Bean and co digging on their “favourite” cliff. Photo by Harriet Clark

Chickay, Bean and co digging on their “favourite” cliff. Photo by Harriet Clark

Quite what the birds were finding there is unclear, but our pitfall trapping showed that there were still plenty of insects about, including rove beetles, ground beetles, minotaur beetles, earthworms and leatherjackets. Leatherjackets (crane fly larvae) are known to be a favourite food item for choughs, and this is certainly evident with our birds as they excitedly, and rather comically, chase each other when one chances upon the prized invertebrate prey.

Unsurprisingly December brought more downpours, fog, gale force winds and hail, but I am thrilled to say that the choughs have battled through, all in good health. We only had one morning of heavy frost, and interestingly, early that day the birds were nowhere to be seen in the usual grazed fields.

Handfuls of leatherjackets to be found! Photo by Harriet Clark

Handfuls of leatherjackets to be found! Photo by Harriet Clark

We eventually tracked the flock to Mourier Valley, and found them foraging amongst the dead stands of bracken. We hadn’t observed the birds foraging there before, but closer inspection revealed the soil was very soft, and presumably easier to probe for insects in than the harder ground of the grazed fields. Will, Jennifer and I also adapted to the windier, wetter weather and located several “good” gorse bushes to huddle beneath or, in Jennifer’s case, lie flat on her back underneath, just to have a bit of a break from the pounding, relentless wind!

The flock flying over a frosty Mourier Valley. Photo by Will Campbell

The choughs weighing themselves in the aviary. Photo by Harriet Clark

The choughs weighing themselves in the aviary. Photo by Harriet Clark

December marked seven months of living free for the older birds, and three months for the juveniles. Faecal samples were submitted to the laboratory at Durrell as part of our continuous post-release health screening. The results were very encouraging and showed that the birds’ parasite load has decreased since their last screening in October. We also monitor their health by weighing them, and we now have a second set of scales so that when the weather allows we can weigh as many individuals as possible. Despite halving the quantity of dry mix and insects that we feed the choughs in October, regular weighing shows that the birds definitely aren’t suffering from lack of food, with several even putting on weight. This and their low levels of parasites, indicates the birds are clearly maintaining good body condition and are acclimatising well to their environment.

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Sorel is ideal habitat for minotaur beetles, which prefer short grazed turf and plenty of sheep dung for the larvae to feed on. Photo by Harriet Clark

The older choughs developed a new habit this month; during feeds they would collect several mealworms or a “beakful” of dry mix and fly out of the aviary, disappearing out of sight to a nearby field. At first we wondered whether they were simply taking their food away from the group to eat it in peace, but careful observation revealed that although sometimes they were eating it, other times they were digging a hole and hiding the food in there. Choughs caching mealworms has previously been observed by Eric Bignal in his study of supplementary feeding wild choughs in Islay (report published in British Wildlife), and the birds there were seen marking their caches with different objects such as feathers, to aid finding them later. Although we feed our choughs twice a day, they don’t receive a huge amount and it is quickly consumed, so perhaps the adults are caching food so that they have access to it later in the day.

Evidence of choughs at work. Photo by Will Campbell.

Evidence of choughs at work. Photo by Will Campbell.

At the beginning of the month we started to notice several muddy patches scattered randomly across the sheep grazed fields. We quickly discovered the culprits- the choughs of course. They seem to have developed a penchant for tearing up the grass, and we’ve observed the group many times this month energetically flinging clumps of grass into the air, no doubt searching for soil invertebrates to feed on.

Icho and three of the adults tearing up the grass in search of insects. Photo by Harriet Clark

Icho and three of the adults tearing up the grass in search of insects. Photo by Harriet Clark

The adult female Mauve, finally gave up pursuing her previous partner Green this month, focussing her attention instead on the two-year-old male White. We monitor the location and activity of the birds hourly throughout the day, and White and Mauve are almost always found foraging close together, often separate from the rest of the group. During supplementary feeds the pair also feed from the same dish, and regular roost checks throughout the month revealed that rather than returning to the aviary with the rest of the group at sunset, they roost together in the quarry. Fingers crossed we may now have two potential breeding pairs to keep an eye on in 2015!

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Regular visitors to Sorel will undoubtedly have noticed significantly fewer sheep out and about on the north coast towards the end of the month. Unfortunately several young sheep were taken ill and because it was not clear at first what the problem was, the flock was moved into the fenced-off aviary field for close monitoring and care by their shepherd Aaron Le Couteur (CS Conservation). Test results revealed the sheep had a gastro-intestinal problem, and, being a primitive breed, they have physiological differences so often respond differently to parasites compared to commercial sheep breeds. The flock has now been treated with a novel drug and are fortunately well on the road to recovery.

Choughs foraging alongside the sheep in the aviary field; wherever the sheep go, the choughs go too! Photo by Harriet Clark

We sadly said goodbye to Will at the end of December, after four months on the project. He started volunteering one week after the juveniles were released and has been following their progress ever since, spending many hours radio tracking the birds across the island and observing their antics on the cliff tops at Sorel. Will has been a huge help both in the field and in developing our invertebrate monitoring project. We wish him every success as he moves to England to pursue a career in wildlife conservation. You can read his brilliant piece about his time on the project here

Will recording the location of a foraging site commonly used by the juveniles. Photo by Harriet Clark

My time with the choughs – it’s not all sunshine on Jersey’s north coast

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IMG_2355

By Will Campbell

In October Adam wrote about his time with the choughs on the sunny north coast of Jersey. However, it’s not all sunshine and calm days on our coastline and here Will recounts his time following the choughs into a Jersey winter.

My toes are numb as I squeeze my way past gorse bushes and through muddy fields, arm and radio antenna outstretched, feverishly waiting for the reassuring ‘pip’ from the SIKA that indicates a nearby chough. Because, once you have found one chough (the ‘Judas chough’ as fellow volunteer Jenny calls them), you can be pretty sure that the others are nearby.

Radio receiver in fog. Photo by Liz CorryI trudge, stooping into the wind, to a high point and wave the antenna in every direction for what seems like the hundredth time. At last a faint ‘pip’ comes through the SIKA slung over my shoulder. I look anxiously ahead into the wind and rain but instead of the familiar acrobatics of a chough I see nothing but a thick sea mist. Dejectedly I trudge on, in the vague direction of the ‘pip’ in order to pinpoint their location.

It’s at times like these when some people might ask, ‘Why?’ And I tell them that although data collection isn’t easy, no matter how minute and irrelevant it may seem, it is absolutely necessary to build the bigger picture. A big part of my time with the choughs was spent radio tracking them – essentially finding out where they were and how far they were from their mates. Doing this up to eight times every day allows you to amass a huge amount of data, which can in turn help answer loads of questions in matters such as social sub-groups, home range, and even potential breeding pairs and nest sites come the spring.

IMG_5200Although I’ve painted a pretty grim picture at the start of this piece, I did in fact experience all four seasons in my four months up on the north coast, sometimes, it seemed, in the space of one day. At 8am I might be huddled with the sheep in what little shelter there was from the wind and rain, and by 11am I could be sunbathing in a field, cursing myself for forgetting my sun cream.

The most extreme weather I faced up at Sorel was during gale force 8/9 winds where simply walking from A to B was a challenge. Even the choughs were wisely sheltering in the aviary from the onslaught. Harriet and I noticed an upturned kayak in the sea and, fearing the worst, she called the Coastguard. It didn’t take long for a search plane to arrive and start scouring the sea. Luckily, it turned out the kayak had never been occupied and the plane turned back to what must have been a very bumpy landing.

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It was during the warmer half of my placement that the choughs decided to clock some air miles and check out what the rest of the Island had to offer. This left us frantically driving around the west of Island, but ‘as the chough flies’ is a much quicker way of getting around than ‘as the Skoda drives’. It was only due to the very welcome tip-offs from local bird-watchers that we were able to find the choughs down at Beauport probing amongst the cliffs; apparently oblivious to the panic and excitement they caused us. It was incredibly rewarding to see the previously captive birds exploring the island and always making it back to the aviary with impeccable timing to demand their lunch.

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The choughs seem to have an uncanny ‘spider sense’ when it comes to feeding time. The idea is that, once you have put out the dishes, you give a tinnitus-inducing blow of a whistle and the choughs appear in unison to merrily scoff all the food. The birds have been trained to the whistle to try and give us an element of control, for example if they need to be shut in the aviary. In practice, however, the choughs are canny little birds and seem to react to the subtlest of cues such as the gentle clinking of dishes, the opening of a door or even a Durrell jumper walking towards the aviary. The result is always the same. By the time you have put the dishes out and raised the whistle to your lips all 16 birds will be lined up along the exterior aviary shelf, begging with their wings open and squawking to express their irritation at having to wait for their dinner. During the afternoon feed, when insects are scattered and hidden in pine cones and under logs, you have the delight of witnessing an ‘Easter Egg Hunt’ as the birds frantically waddle around the aviary trying to be the first to find the delectable wax moth larvae.

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Another ongoing study that I was involved with was a pitfall-trapping survey in order to gather information about the choughs’ available food sources. Unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to look into the other end (literally) and sift through chough poo to see what they were actually eating. As I have a weird fascination with invertebrates and had gained some experience in stream-dwelling bugs during my degree, I was appointed the authority on all things creepy and crawly and was instructed to create a pictorial guide to the invertebrates previously found at Sorel. This soon turned into an 80+-page monstrosity that I sincerely hope will be of use to the other volunteers and staff (other than to prop up their computer screens).

It was a challenge at first to identify the unique coloured rings around the legs of each bird, let alone remember which bird the rings belonged to. But after a while you can even guess which birds hang out together and, at the risk of anthropomorphizing our feathered friends, understand their individual characters. The love triangle between Dingle, Chickay and Caûvette (and Caûvette’s incessant whining) wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of EastEnders.

Although you shouldn’t choose amongst your children, Chickay is definitely my favourite. When you watch the choughs for as many hours as I have you see them do some pretty bizarre things. It always seemed to be Chickay that would hang upside-down from the aviary netting like a bat, groom a sheep or chase butterflies with her peculiar waddle.

Chickay. Photo by Liz Corry

Reluctantly, my time with the choughs has come to an end. It has been a great experience working on the reintroduction project, and to be part of such an important and exciting project in its infancy. All that is left to say is a big thank you to Liz, Harriet, Glyn, Jenny and everyone at Durrell for making my placement unforgettable. And, of course, thank you to the 16 choughs (you know who you are) that kept me company up on the cliffs. Oh, and thanks of course to the sheep for sharing their best spots to shelter from the rain. I sincerely hope that all the hard work, dedication and frostbite bears fruit once it comes to the breeding season!

Keep up the great work!

Red-billed chough and common buzzard. Sorel, Jersey. October 2014. Photo by Nick Parlett (4)

Effects of the 2014 storms becoming apparent in Wales

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Puffin 2 low res. Photo by Paul MarshallFrom BirdGuides

As we begin to see the first serious winter storms of the year around the British coastline, research in Wales is revealing the full consequences of last winter’s exceptional storm activity amongst our seabird populations. Dr Matt Wood, from the University of Gloucestershire, is helping to uncover the consequences for the thousands of puffins on Skomer Island, in Wales.

Around 50,000 dead seabirds, including puffins, guillemots and razorbills, were washed ashore in a severely emaciated state — they’d essentially starved as storm after storm prevented them from catching enough fish to eat. With unknown numbers dying out at sea, this was the biggest seabird wreck recorded in Europe. By the end of 2014’s breeding season, the numbers of adult puffins returning breed was down by 25% on the previous year: a quarter of the birds on Skomer and Skokholm islands in Pembrokeshire may have died before the season started, totalling around 5,000 individuals. Three guillemots ringed in Skomer were picked up dead on Jersey beaches.

Razorbill (2). Photo by Mick Dryden

Dr Wood commented: “Puffins typically live in large island colonies, seabird cities if you like. Now take a city like Cardiff and imagine what would happen if a quarter of people didn’t come back after the Christmas holidays; by mid-January things would be going seriously wrong, and it looks like that’s what happened to the puffins”.

Field assistant Ros Green found that Skomer puffins bred unusually late, their chicks hatching two weeks later than usual and being fed at only a third of the rate in 2013. As a result, breeding success dropped markedly by 25%, with only just over half of pairs raising a chick. It proved the worst year on record for puffins on Skomer, in the 43 years of the study (since 1972).

Dr Wood added: “The long-term seabird studies on Skomer are an amazing resource. One of the puffins that was still around until recently was first seen in 1973, the year I was born.

“With studies like this, with birds we know and study as individuals, we can understand how populations work in the detail we need to face the challenges of the future. Will more storms impact seabird populations? I’d say ‘probably, yes’, but it’ll take us years to get a true picture of what happened in 2014, and only long-term monitoring at key sites like Skomer can provide reliable answers to questions like that.”

Long-lived seabirds like puffins can take a gap year if times are tough, but Dr Wood believes that the numbers of birds washed up dead on beaches last winter are little cause for optimism. He concluded: “Seabird wrecks are not unprecedented, these are tough little birds that can usually cope with a storm, but forecasts of global climate change predict that these extreme storms will become bigger and more frequent. The effects of the recent seabird wreck will only become clear over the next five to ten years: long-term studies are vital to understand how the populations will cope in the future.”

The Skomer and Skokholm seabird reports are published online here

Puffin. Photo by Regis Perdriat