By Liz Corry

November. The time of year the field team finally succumb to the ‘great’ British weather, unpack their thermals, wrap up in woolly garments, and pretty much live in waterproofs round the clock.

Unless it is November 2015. In which case we also need sunglasses, factor 15, and the agility skills of a border collie to be able to escape our woolly confinements when the sun comes out and the wind vanishes.

There have been days when the team have had to abandon tracking for health and safety reasons. Jersey’s Met Office issued several weather warnings this month with gale force winds reaching above 50mph. Visibility has been poor due to the constant drizzle and mist spreading across from sea to shore. Sorel Point lighthouse might not be as majestic as Corbiere, but it still serves its purpose as an aid for navigation for getting back to our cars! Yet other days have been t-shirt weather (until the sun goes down and hyperthermia sets in). The choughs have been equally unpredictable in their behaviour as a result of the weather leading to four very eventful weeks.

Checking for blockages in Ormer’s trachea.

At the start of the month Ormer showed signs of having a gapeworm infection. Not surprising since Dusty was treated for it the week before.

We caught up Ormer exactly the same way as we did for Dusty and injected him with a wormer. Once again the medication was quick to act and within a day Ormer was his normal self.

With that mini-drama dealt with the team turned their attention to trying to understand why the choughs were spending so much time these days on the west side of Mourier Valley. Watching them endlessly fly around for fun gives you one clue.

They also like to shelter in the Devil’s Hole and look for insects where the soil layer is exposed on the rock face. Anyone familiar with this area will appreciate the leg work needed for the radio-trackers to head down to the hole to pick up a signal only to have to walk back up when the birds switch to the headland minutes later!

Is there a better bounty of insects to be found at Devils Hole compared to Sorel? After watching Noir feeding on a beetle by a clump of gorse the other day it seems hard to believe the rock face has better to offer. Thanks to Piers Sangan and the Insects of the Channel Islands Facebook Group for identifying Noir‘s choice of snack as being a minotaur beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus).

Noir snacking on a beetle. Photo by Liz Corry

The choughs’ jollies on the other side of the valley came to an abrupt halt mid-November when the gales returned and the wind chill factor was Baltic. The birds were struggling to stay grounded and any flight required brute strength and persistence.

One morning whilst the group were over at Devils Hole we noticed Bean and Dusty sat on the rock face not moving whilst everyone was searching for food. At the 11am aviary feed there were twenty-one birds feeding in the aviary. Dusty was missing. Jen returned to Devils Hole to find Dusty sat in the same place looking miserable. We assumed that for whatever reason he didn’t have enough strength to battle the gales across to the aviary with everyone else.

Jen took over a target board and placed it on the headland opposite the rock face. She placed a bowl of food on the target, blew the whistle, and called Dusty to the food. To her surprise he not only responded, but shot up in the air and over to the aviary. This behaviour appeared promising; however he never actually went in to feed and disappeared shortly after…along with Bean. By the afternoon aviary feed Dusty was still missing. Bean materialised in the field next to the aviary and just sat crouched down looking miserable whilst everyone else ate. We tried taking the food closer, but she flew to the nearest rabbit hole and sat in it sheltering from the wind. Bean had made it back into the aviary by roost time but there was no sign of Dusty.

The next day Dusty was spotted back at Devils Hole sat on the cliff face whilst the rest of the group were flying around. Bean was still looking miserable and not eating very much throughout the day. The weather was still horrendous and wasn’t set to change for a few days.

Checking Bean’s body condition showed she was quite thin. Photo by Liz Corry

With Bean’s condition deteriorating we decided to lock her in one section of the aviary so she could have respite from the cold wind and a food bowl all to herself. We knew she had lost weight. It wasn’t until we had her in the hand that it became apparent just how thin she was.

Feacal samples were submitted to the lab. Ultimately all she needed was a bit of TLC and a hearty meal. We increased the amount for food for all the birds as clearly they were having to burn a lot of calories to fly in the wind and stay warm. Once Bean was reunited with the group they stayed close together, including Dusty, and remained on the Sorel side of the valley. Until the next day!

Just as our stress levels were being lowered Lee and Noir went off the radar. This was obviously worrying what with Dusty and Bean’s fiasco and the bad weather continuing. Jen and Nicci tracked a group of choughs flying from the quarry and off west beyond Devils Hole early morning. Whilst trying to work out who was left behind a report came in of a sighting at Les Landes Racecourse again. Jen jumped in the car and went off to investigate.

Les Landes Racecourse backing onto Grosnez. Photo by Liz Corry.

Typically the group had left the area and disbanded. Eleven choughs had been at Les Landes with nine of those last seen heading off down the west coast over L’Étacq.

Chough hide and seek. Photo by Liz Corry.

Calmly assuming that the birds would return for their 11am aviary feed as they always do Jen returned to Sorel. They did indeed return, but Lee and Noir were still missing and absent at roost.

A search began the next day covering the areas were the group had been spotted.

Applying artistic license, some of the following photos were taken using filters to emphasise how bad the weather was without risking the camera’s longevity.

The search lasted all morning.

Grosnez. Photo by Liz Corry

Grosnez castle. Photo by Liz Corry

The Pinacle southwest of Les Landes Racecourse and north of L’Etacq. Photo by Liz Corry

Not a chough… Dartford warbler at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry

View from Corbiere across St Ouen’s Bay to L’Etacq in the north. Photo by Liz Corry

Not choughs…stonechat and linnet at Plemont regeneration area. Photo by Liz Corry.

Just before giving up one last place was checked. Edit that. Double checked. From Ronez loop road the radio antennae was directed towards the quarry. The faintest of beeps emitted from the receiver! Cutting a 26 hour story short…Lee and Noir had somehow found themselves in the workshop building at the bottom of the quarry. Where they perched affected whether the signal was being blocked or not. Mixed feelings (from both parties) of confusion, relief, embarrassment, and glee when tracker and choughs were reunited .

Quarry site foreman Kevin trying to figure out why Lee and Noir won’t leave the workshop. Photo by Liz Corry

Lee and Noir in the quarry workshop. Photo by Liz Corry

Trying to find a suitable spot to target feed. Photo by Liz Corry

The only question now was how to get them out. It took a few attempts at target feeding and another night in the building to think about it.

The next morning the weather was the complete opposite; sunny, calm, dry(ish). The rest of the flock decided to spend the day at Ronez, something they haven’t done in a long time. This probably helped as the two in the building could hear them calling. Lee plucked up the courage to leave by 10am.

Noir took a bit more encouragement. This time when I visited her she started wing-begging when I spoke to her and offered food. Yes I talked to her. No I didn’t expect her to talk back, although in her own way she did. Still unsure about flying down and out of the entrance I blew the whistle to attract the other choughs. A very loud White and his partner Mauve flew in from the back entrance and chatted to Noir for a minute before all three left the building and re-joined the flock.

Noir and Lee returning to the aviary with the flock after two nights in the quarry. Photo by Liz Corry.

By the afternoon feed all 22 choughs were back together and eating at the aviary.

And that is how our November came to a close.

What could possibly happen in December?

Jinx

Display aviary at Durrell re-opens. Photo by Liz Corry

One thing that did go as planned this month was the move of the choughs at Durrell back into their flocking aviary on display at the park.

The repair work to the netting was completed last month. There is still a bit of DIY to do and it needs a bit of replanting after the digging required for the new structural supports.

The important thing is that the birds are together, as they would be in the wild. They get to have a mental break from the breeding season. And the prima donna Gianna gets to see her public.

Gianna having bathed, preens her feathers. Photo by Liz Corry

By Liz Corry

Jersey’s free-living chough population now stands (and flies) at twenty-two individuals since the release of the captive-reared chicks in September. So how have they been coping with life on the north coast?

The Jersey flock probing for insects on the grazed and at Sorel. Photo by Tim Morley.

Arguments around the dinner table. Photo by Liz Corry.

The seven young captive-bred choughs have integrated well into the free-living flock. Social ‘pecking order’ was established relatively quickly with most of the bickering being between the juveniles and restricted to feed times at the aviary.

It also tends to be the boys more than the girls who squabble. Brothers Kevin and Lee always bicker at feeds, but spend the rest of the time preening each other. A true ‘bromance’?

Kevin waiting to see if Lee will share what he finds to eat (I doubt it!). Photo by Liz Corry.

They are quite competent at searching for wild insects. Bills buried deep in soil and sheep muck. Kevin and Lee even turned their attention to a fresh mole hill, pretty much levelling it in their quest for food.

Noir, a 2015 captive-reared chick, digging for insects. Photo by Liz Corry.

Ormer demonstrating why a chough needs such a long bill. Photo by Liz Corry.

As the cold, wet winter weather sets in the abundance of insects living in the soil decreases, which means the choughs’ wild food supply becomes limited. Like their neighbours in the UK they look for alternative food sources at this time of year to top up their calories.

Last winter the group showed a great deal of interest in the hawthorn berries around the aviary. This year was no different and the new chicks joined in with the foraging.

Choughs use the hawthorn trees around the aviary site as a vantage point to rest and preen as well as a food source in the autumnal months. Photo by Liz Corry.

Our flock have the benefit of sympathetic staff who can interpret their insistent chatter and stalking from above as “please can we have some more food in our bowls?”

Release aviary at sunset. Photo by Liz Corry.

After a busy day of hunting for insects the new choughs go to roost in the aviary along with the other juveniles. Prior to their release in September there were seven choughs roosting in the quarry, Dusty had left his parents and joined the aviary roost group.

This appeared to stay the same after the release.

The choughs continued to forage once the sun had set. Photo by Liz Corry.

However, when the clocks changed on 25th October field-staff made a new discovery: A clear sky and a bright, almost full, moon provided enough light for the choughs to carry on foraging near the aviary once the sun had set.

To be fair, their internal clocks may have been slightly skewed (with ours) making them think they had at least another hour before bed.

Flying in to roost. Photo by Liz Corry.

Suddenly the birds took to the air and headed straight for the aviary. At least one pair broke away and shot off to the quarry. Two others disappeared from view.

Had they sneaked into the aviary via the other side? Had they left for the quarry, but been missed in the melee of choughs flying around the aviary? All we knew was at least 18 roosted at the aviary; four more than normal.

We repeated our roost checks and also checked in with Ronez Quarry to see what information they could provide. We now know that White and Mauve still roost in the quarry. The remaining adults, Green, Blue (Mrs Green), Black, Red, and her young man Dingle, all roost at the aviary.

There have also been changes in where the choughs hang out during the day. Breakfast time is spent over at Devil’s Hole no longer near the heather regeneration area on the east side of Mourier Valley.

Foraging for breakfast at Le Marionneux (west side Mourier Valley). Photo by Liz Corry.

We knew of their visit to Les Landes last month thanks to public sightings. This month we have had several sightings of choughs flying around le Câtel Fort, Grève de Lecq, which is halfway between Les Landes and Sorel (as the chough flies). Many thanks to Keith Pyman for those reports. He was lucky enough to see them pretty much once a week throughout October flying over his house. We cannot physically get there in time to know where they go after that. Are they passing Grève de Lecq on the way to Les Landes? Are they just scoping out the cliffs at Petit Grève? All we know is that they are back at Sorel in time for their lunch feed acting all nonchalant.

Not every chough made the journey beyond Devil’s Hole in October. Sometimes it is just four birds, at other times it is a group of seven or fourteen. We cannot be sure which individuals travel without being there to see their leg rings. Even then it requires them to be on the ground not flying with their feet tucked in. The radio-tracked group of seven tend to favour staying at Mourier Valley. Again not having transmitters attached to the other 15 doesn’t help our chances of being able to identify those who wander off.

One thing we can be certain on is the health of our choughs. Our close daily monitoring allows us to know when something is wrong. When that something is Dusty, Jersey’s wild-born chick, our own stress levels tend to increase let alone the bird’s.

A fortnight into Nicola Cox starting her six-month student placement on the project she spotted Dusty occasionally open-mouthed breathing. This could be due to several different reasons most of which are mundane and fleeting.

We continued to monitor him closely and could see that his breathing was gradually becoming laboured and he started sneezing. We know this usually means one thing and a faecal sample from Dusty confirmed it. He had Syngamus, a gapeworm, and in quite high numbers. Thankfully this is very treatable, but it did mean we had to catch him up to worm him.

The easiest, least stressful way of doing this was to call all twenty-two choughs back to the aviary just before roost and lock them in. I held off giving them their afternoon feed until then to ensure they were all motivated enough to stay inside the aviary eating. First thing the following morning we went in and caught Dusty in hand-nets. Within minutes Dusty had been checked over by the Vet, given medication, and the whole group given access back outside. The choughs appeared unfazed and within a couple of days he had stopped sneezing and breathing normally. Quite an exciting and thankfully positive end to the month.

By Liz Corry

At the start of September the eight captive-reared chicks were released into Jersey. After their thirty-day quarantine and pre-release training they were finally ready to join the rest of the flock. As with the previous chicks released into Jersey we have named them alphabetically with a nod to their new home. We have four males and four females to introduce to the group. Kevin, named after Ronez’s site foreman who looked after Dusty in the quarry, Lee (Durrell), and (St) Mary are the eldest of the group, albeit only by a week or two. Noir, Ormer, and Pyrrho are three girls from the same clutch, and Q and Ronez are the youngest brothers. Each bird has its own colour ring and a radio transmitter attached to their tail feathers so we can monitor them closely after release.

The method for this release had to be tweaked to account for the fact we had  almost twice as many choughs living outside of the aviary. Attempting to call back and lock-in eight specific individuals from a group of twenty-three each night would be a practical nightmare (and most likely cause nervous breakdowns amongst staff). This time we simply let them out on the first night then planned to follow them like hawks, so to speak, and call them back for food as and when. We relied on the social intelligence of the choughs knowing that the outside group would act as mentors and, hopefully, ‘anchor’ the new birds to the aviary site.

‘Egg’ trying to demonstrate her social intelligence. Photo by Liz Corry

The hatches opened on the 7th and, in what now appears to be modus operandi for chick releases, the eight birds stayed firmly in the aviary. Eventually when the outside group were called down for food at the aviary, the newbies flew out to meet them, eat, and cause general pandemonium once they realised they were no longer confined to the aviary.

They also had several distractions to contend with in the form of low-flying light aircraft, a helicopter, and paragliders. Definitely a good day for flying then!

Over the course of the evening the newbies explored the sky above Sorel and the cliff tops. All bar Mary and Q who decided for personal reasons that observing from inside the aviary was a far better option. The other six carried on flying around past sunset clearly trying to decide on a suitable roosting spot on the cliffs instead of the aviary.

The next morning they were still out along the cliffs, very rarely going inland. Q had decided to leave the aviary but got ‘lost’ in doing so. He was probing one of the farmers’ fields at Sorel by himself, calling loudly and not getting any response from the other choughs.

Even Mary, 200m away in the aviary was ignoring him or maybe petrified into silence now she was the last bird remaining in the aviary. Mary made her way out by midday and joined Q, who had now joined the adult flock, and suddenly 23 choughs were swirling around the cliff tops.

The newbies still avoided the aviary even at feed times. On the second night they moved towards Sorel Point to find a better roost spot.

View of sunset from the second roost site. Two choughs are visible on the rocks in the bottom left corner. Photo by Liz Corry

Over the course of the next five days the newbies kept using this roost site, but one-by-one they returned during the day to join the others at the aviary.

All except Q and Ronez who for reasons known only to themselves decided the quarry looked a much better place to hangout in. They didn’t, however, hangout with the other choughs who use the quarry. Instead they went to the rock-face in the south-east corner and stayed there.

We managed to catapult food onto the quarry ledges. We had to battle with the wind. Sometimes it was calm but at other times you were fighting with the wind to merely stay upright.

Sadly for the youngest chough, Ronez, our efforts, and his, to stay alive on the ledges did not pay off. On the evening of the 13th both he and Q were left probing away near the fenceline at the Ronez loop road. The next morning there was only one chough visible. Ronez’s radio signal was loud and clear suggesting he was close by and not moving.

The unstable nature of the rock face prevents access to the site. He may well have been predated if he roosted on the ground. Feral ferrets have been seen by quarry staff and this particular area is very accessible to a predator who takes little heed about Health and Safety regulations. Just as likely he could have become weak without means of getting out and starved. Either way there was nothing we could do further and it is, sadly, part of the course.Q left the quarry shortly after that and rejoined the other choughs. They now roost in the aviary and return for food provided by staff. They are very good at probing for insects as well and have been spending their mornings at Devil’s Hole on the other side of the valley to Sorel.We have even had a report of a group of eight birds at Les Landes Racecourse. We know from photographs that two of the eight were juveniles from 2014. These birds flew to Les Landes last October to explore but didn’t spend much time there. It will be interesting to see where they decide to go this year.

Action for Wildlife Jersey

We can only follow the young, newly released and naïve, choughs as they discover their new surroundings and learn to survive in the wild because they have tail-mounted radio transmitters. Each of these transmitters has to be bought and, unfortunately, doesn’t have a very long life. If the birds don’t lose their transmitter the battery will run out. We are lucky to ever find the old transmitters and anyway we are only able to change the battery once before the transmitter can not be further modified. So, we need a lot of transmitters, and this is a big area of our annual budget and this year we are extremely grateful to Action for Wildlife Jersey for funding our 2015 transmitter needs. In fact, the funds so generously provided, also allowed us to buy a new electronic balance to weigh the birds up at Sorel and check on their health.

A VIP visitor to Sorel

On 30th September we were proud to introduce leading author and journalist Simon Barnes to the chough flock. Simon, author of such notable books as How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher and Birdwatching with Your Eyes Closed (see the full list of Simon’s books here) was in Jersey for the 2015 Jersey Festival of Words and took time out to see the Sorel birds and hear about Birds On The Edge and the work being done to restore our habitats and give local birds a chance to survive.

Congratulations, it’s a….? Photo by Liz Corry

The DNA sexing results for this year’s chough chicks hatched in Jersey finally arrived this week. Less contentious than the recent Labour leadership election and just as tense as any Jeremy Kyle show, we have had to wait several weeks for the samples to be processed before receiving that long anticipated email.

Durrell use MDS (Pty) Ltd, a molecular diagnostics laboratory, for finding out the gender of birds that cannot be distinguished simply by plumage colouration or size alone. This is essential information for a successful captive breeding programme. You don’t want to have to wait several years before finding out Mr and Mrs ‘critically endangered Tweety pie’ are not producing any chicks because they are actually Mr and Mr. It happens.

With the red-billed chough it has been shown that it is possible to identify sexes based on morphometric measurements, namely leg (tarsus) length and body weight. There can, however, be a fair amount of overlap leading to uncertainty. We took measurements when the chicks were just over three weeks old and had already formed our own opinions within the team. We just needed to wait for genetic proof.

We can now reveal that Dusty, the first chough chick to be born in the wild in Jersey in over 100 years is…a boy! This is great news for the Jersey population as it means that in the next few years the potential number of breeding pairs will increase. This year we had two pairs attempt to breed. In a few years time when Dusty matures we could be looking at eight pairs.

CeCe the female hand-reared chick in July 2015 before she returned to the wildlife park. Photo by Liz Corry.

We are also pleased to announce that CeCe, our hand-reared chick, is indeed female as we had suspected. She is far too sweet and innocent to be anything else. Unlike Dusty who seems to be turning into a bit of a bully.

You can find out more about their progress in the upcoming September report.