How do lichens and sheep get on together? Lichens are a great indicator of the quality of the air around us. Lichens like to grow where the air is pollution free, hence the profusion of lichens around the Jersey coast. They are formed from a fungus living in mutual association with an algae and are able to live on different surfaces like soil, wood or rock.
The short turf at Sorel has been opened up by the sheep and the habitat allows a range of lichens to grow between the grasses. Common lichens to be seen on the soil up here include Cladonia furcata and Cladonia fimbriata. Cladonias sometimes have friuting bodies that are cupshaped and easily identifiable in the field.
Open heaths provide an excellent habitat for some of the more unusual Cladonias, the heathers are being encouraged to return to Sorel to create more heathland. The National Trust has fenced off some heathers to encourage them to self seed.
Lichens growing on rock can be seen near the cliffs at Sorel, including the very common sea ivory Ramalina siliquosa. There are several varieties of Ramalina on the rocks, careful study reveals some strands are flatter and some bear fruiting bodies. Also on the rocks are flat patches of crustose lichens that are firmly embedded on the rock and are very slow growing.
There are not many trees at Sorel; however, the blackthorn and hawthorn bushes provide branches and twigs that are covered in lichens. Especially the very common Xanthoria parietina that gives rise to the expression ‘yellow trees’. Close examination of Xanthoria parietina shows lots of round fruiting bodies often called ‘jam tarts’ by lichenologists. This lichen grows well in nitrogen rich air, hence the increase in Jersey due to the rise in nitrogen in the air from farming activities. So, yes, lichens, like choughs, do appreciate those sheep making it a better place for them at Sorel.
Radio-tracking took an interesting turn this month. Photo by Liz Corry
For the past two months some of the choughs have been making infrequent visits to Crabbé in the morning and the odd trip further west to Les Landes. In December they decided that breakfast at Crabbé would become part of their daily routine. More specifically they were finding breakfast at the shooting range! Highly entertaining for the radio-tracking team as you can imagine: and certainly not featured in the project’s risk assessment!
The rifle range at Crabbé is perfect foraging habitat for choughs (as long as they avoid the targets). Photo by Liz Corry.
The short grass at the gun range and low level of disturbance provides perfect habitat for insects the choughs love to eat. Photo by Liz Corry.
The choughs also love to fly up and down Les Vaux de Lecq next to the gun range. The narrow valley running up from Grève de Lecq beach has an interesting effect on the prevailing winds.
The top of the hill at Le Câtel de Lecq hill provides a perfect look out point for when the choughs start flying around the cliffs at Rouge Nez. It is also another site were the Manx Loaghtan sheep are kept to manage the land. Possibly another reason why the choughs are attracted to this end of the Island, showing further the importance of these sheep.
View from the top of Le Câtel de Lecq looking inland towards Les Vaux de Lecq. Photo by Liz Corry.
Manx Loaghtan sheep at Câtel surprised to see a radio-tracker first thing in the morning. Photo by Liz Corry.
Rouge Nez and Petit Grève taken from Câtel. Photo by Liz Corry
The victorious moment that staff beat the choughs to Crabbé and watched a group of 14 fly in from Devil’s Hole. Photo by Liz Corry.
Which way will they go next? Photo by Liz Corry
We are all wondering where is next on the chough’s travel itinerary? Please keep sending in your reports of sightings as the birds are always trying to outsmart us!
End of year catch-up
At the start of December Noirmont (or Noir for short) was sporting a slightly longer bill than the rest of the flock. The bill on a chough is constantly growing much like our nails. Mechanical wear whilst feeding, preening, pecking etc., generally mediates the growth rate so you wouldn’t notice. For some reason Noir’s was not being worn down at a sufficient rate and was very noticeable.
Noir’s overgrown bill. Photo by Liz Corry.
The upper mandible had started to cross over with the lower which reduced her ability to forage for wild insects and will have limited her food intake. The simple solution was to catch her up and give her a quick trim as you can see in the video below
The flexible part of Noir’s transmitter antennae mysteriously snapped off. Photo by Liz Corry.
Whilst we had Noir in the hand we took a look at her radio transmitter. Somehow the flexible antennae, visible in flight, had broken off the day before.
We thought a closer look might shed some light on how this had happened. It didn’t.
We thought the manufacturers might know. They didn’t.
It will remain a mystery. All that matters is that she is ok and the transmitter is still working.
Noir wasn’t the only bird we caught up that day. Since we had the group locked in to catch Noir we took the opportunity to look at a few others we had on our ‘watch list’.
Lee also had transmitter issues…he had lost it!
First thing on 7th December his radio signal had been beeping away from the direction of the aviary suggesting he was having breakfast over there. Except he wasn’t. Lee was over at Crabbé frolicking around with his friends. Was he trying to evade us on purpose like some sort of rebellious teenager?
The transmitter was found in the aviary in a known roosting-spot. It was still attached to the central tail feather which is glued to the body of the transmitter. At the end of October we noticed that Lee‘s central tail feather had twisted round almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the other eleven tail feathers.
The tip of Lee’s dropped feather, with transmitter still attached, shows a new feather starting to grow in. Photo by Liz Corry
Regardless of the reason, the weight of the transmitter on the feather more than likely played a part in the feather eventually coming out.
Closer examination showed that a new feather had started growing through at the base a few weeks prior to the transmitter dropping.
We are still following Lee’s movements it just means a little more groundwork for us. In flight you can see the gap in his tail feathers. On the ground we have to wait until we can see his leg rings which isn’t always easy depending on the terrain.
Lee at Les Vaux de Lecq clearly showing his identifying leg rings but missing his tail-mounted transmitter. Photo by Liz Corry.
Ormer, Dusty, and Bean were caught up to check on how they are progressing after their treatment for nematodes and general malaise. They all seemed ok and we were able to get accurate body weights from them; all relatively reasonable considering the time of year.
Chough in a bag; obtaining a body weight for Ormer. Photo by Liz Corry
Blue was given a replacement blue leg ring for the one she lost in summer. Photo by Liz Corry.
Last on the list of things to do whilst all 22 choughs were locked inside was to replace the plastic leg ring Blue lost in summer.
She has been quite busy over the last few months being a new mum. We didn’t want to interfere before and she has been easy to identify through her behaviour.
Lessons learnt this month
After several roost-checks we now know that twenty of the choughs roost at the aviary each night. White and Mauve prefer to have a bit of privacy and remain faithful to their roost-site down in the quarry.
Mental note for next year: don’t place the Christmas wreath directly underneath an external roost box!
Christmas wreath at the chough aviary. Photo by Liz Corry.
The choughs inspect the Christmas tree but refuse to perch on it. Photo by Liz Corry
The Christmas tree does get used – by a local kestrel. Photo by Liz Corry
In an attempt to get into the spirit of the festive period the aviary was adorned with the Christmas wreath (above), gold pine cones for enrichment treats, and a tree! Budget was tight so an actual Christmas tree was out of the question. Bear in mind the inquisitive nature of corvids we had to think about choking hazards and non-toxic materials so fake snow and tinsel was ruled out. We kept it au naturel with the hope of getting a festive Christmas card out of it. The weather was against us, as it was with most activities this month, which meant background options were limited to light rain or heavy rain. We also blamed the weather for tipping the tree over. Until we spotted the local kestrel perched on top!
Christmas Day itself was no different from any other day. Staff handed out a Christmas dinner of mealworms and boiled egg to the choughs. It might not sound like your typical family Christmas meal, but I’m sure a few of you out there will relate to the chaos that followed around the dinner table.
And in other news…
Part of our job involves keeping a daily diary about the birds’ health and activities as we do with all the animals we look after at Durrell. Daily reports, which can include medical records, genetic history, and biological data, are submitted to a global database to help improve species management and breeding programmes. Picture then, if you will, the expression of our animal records administrator as she transcribes the following from the keeper:
“Wednesday 9th December.A few of the choughs were seen warily following a grey heron walking down the aviary field, but were scared away when it turned round to face them.”
Sun beginning to set over the release aviary on the last day of 2015. Photo by Liz Corry.
With 2015 at an end and Birds On The Edge experiencing another successful year we would like to take the opportunity to thank all the staff and supporters who have worked on all the projects this year. Without you none of this would happen.
The Birds of Guernsey by Tony Bisson, Roy Carré and Mike Cunningham went on sale on 21st October selling 1,000 copies very quickly. A further 1,500 copies were ordered to ensure that there would be enough stocks leading up to Christmas.
Tony Bisson has been recording birds since the 1950’s and has produced a printed list approximately every 13 years. Mike and Roy were looking for an outlet for their extraordinary photographs, taken within the Bailiwick, and so managed to talk Tony into helping them produce this book as they felt sure the list of recorded sightings would provide a more scientific and authoritative publication.
Tony became interested in Guernsey’s birdlife as a teenager back in the 1950s little knowing then that it would become a lifetime passion. His first A List of the Birds of Guernsey was published In 1976 and updated versions were published in 1989 and 2002. He hopes that this latest comprehensive list of the Island’s birds will be a useful source of information for people who already enjoy this wonderful hobby and perhaps more importantly stimulate an interest in others to become involved.
Tony believes that, as human activity in the island intensifies, it is essential that more of us become aware of the detrimental effect it has on our birds and do our utmost to protect them and their precarious environment. It is important that we as birdwatchers and photographers set a good example to others in this respect and it is, therefore, considered appropriate to include a code of conduct for birdwatchers and photographers in this book.
This new book’s list, a revision and update of the 2002 list, includes records to 30th September 2015. It has relied heavily on the ornithological reports published in the Société Guernesiaise’s annual Transactions by Mark Lawlor (2002–2014). Further information came from Guernsey Birds, the invaluable website maintained by Phil Atkinson, Mark Lawlor and Jamie Hooper, on behalf of the Ornithological Section of La Société.
The book lists species recorded in the geographical area of Guernsey, including Lihou, Herm, Jethou and the associated islets, rocks and waters. The status of each of the species has been indicated with reference to the main island of Guernsey unless stated otherwise in the text. All species which have been recorded in an apparently natural state, plus species which although introduced or escaped have developed a self-sustaining population, are included (exceptions are red-legged and grey partridge as there is doubt they have ever had self-supporting populations). A total of 322 species are listed, although 91 have been noted on ten or fewer occasions and are considered vagrants. There are currently probably 73 breeding species in Guernsey and at least 104 species have been recorded as breeding at one time or another.
The Birds of Guernsey is illustrated with 175 stunning colour photographs, all taken locally by Roy and Mike. Jersey readers will be pleased to be reminded what snowy owl and desert wheatear look like!
The new book is now available at selective outlets at a price of £12.50. The authors are hoping to raise a substantial sum of money for bird conservancy projects and you can help maximise this by purchasing your copy direct from one of them rather than through the retail outlets. All enquiries should initially be directed to Mike (details can be foundhere).
Dung beetles belong to the group of insects called the Scarabaeoidea, which include dung beetles, chafer and stag beetles. There are just over one hundred species in the UK, of which over half are dung beetles. The National Recording Scheme for Scarabaeiodea has existed for many years, and has mostly been a data collection point and identification support to the recording community. As part of the on-going Species Status Project by Natural England in collaboration with Buglife, a review of the scarce and threatened dung beetles and chafers is currently in progress (to be published next year). This project highlighted the lack of modern records for many rare species and areas of the UK that were severely under recorded. This prompted us, Darren Mann (Head of Life Collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History), Steve Lane, Ceri Watkins and myself (Sally-Ann Spence) to go out look for beetles in under-recorded areas and to re-survey sites where rare species were previously known. Together we set up the Dung beetle UK Mapping Project – affectionately abbreviated to DUMP and drawn attention to our project using the Twitter hashtags #dungathon and #dungisfun.
In addition to the fieldwork, we are examining museum collections to extract data for the historic distribution of species. We have put out a call to the beetle recording community, and data mined Irecord and Ispot. All of this data is building better distribution maps, informing habitat preferences and providing other ecological data for the UK dung beetle species. The end result will be a dataset of dung beetle information, including identification, distribution maps, ecology and species conservation status. This will be made available via The British Beetles website and will include an on-line recording system using Irecord.
Why we all need dung beetles
Dung beetles are considered key Ecosystem Service Providers within the livestock sector. They deliver many benefits to farmers including increased soil nutrients and general nutrient recycling. They improve the soil structure by increasing aeration and drainage which in turn increases rain water filtration through the soil which also leads to a reduced run-off of rainfall – research is also looking at their pasture reseeding capabilities, abilities to reduce anaerobic processes and decrease methane formation. We know the process of pasture reseeding can have detrimental effects on soil erosion too.
They reduce pest flies, gastrointestinal parasites and pasture fouling by carrying fly egg and larval eating mites with them as well as consuming the dung the maggots live in themselves. Research is on-going into their part in nitrogen and carbon recycling but we know they are incredibly important in keeping pastures green and healthy for livestock especially in the absence of non-organic artificial fertilisers. Our results mapping the dung beetle species in the UK (although the project is in its youth), are already showing an alarming trend in species rarity and even extinction. The three main reasons behind this are considered to be the use of anthelmintics (especially in wormers), soil disturbance and the disappearance of livestock from historic pastures due to a change in farming practices.
We take the opportunity of our survey visits to make farmers/livestock keepers aware of their dung beetles, the latest research, their economic benefits and how they might implement simple workable measures to ensure a healthy dung beetle population. We have received a fantastically positive response from all we have spoken to. Farmers are keen to preserve their dung beetles and we intend to gather more data about species and their population frequencies to enable more research into these incredibly important beetles.
We are at present unfunded (please contact if interested in helping to fund this vital project) so as individuals we are surveying the whole of the UK in our spare time, on family holidays or around other work. It is a huge labour of dung beetle devotion. We are obsessives and dung is a big part of our lives. The project is vast. Different species live in or under different dung in different stages of decomposition on different soils at different altitudes at different times of the year. Dung quality is important too. We have become connoisseurs of fine dung. Not adverse to feeling the texture or giving it a good sniff (you can tell a lot about an animals health by its dung), we will examine it and the soil underneath meticulously for beetles. All data is noted on the spot – the date, GPS location, soil type, weather conditions, temperature, elevation, dung type, pasture quality and time spent in that locality surveying.
Dung beetles in Jersey
On a recent trip to Jersey helping a colleague working on the Ice Age Project, I took the opportunity to contact the Roger Long of the Société Jersiaise to trace some historical specimens in their collection that I had become aware of through my research. Never to miss a chance I also managed to survey a few isolated locations and one of which was the area around Devils Hole. It was just awesome to encounter large areas of Minotaur beetle Typhaeus typhoeus burrows. These dung beetles like sheep and rabbit dung on light soils with short turf. The population in this area was extremely good and as it became dark the air hummed with them flying in on sheep dung. They fill their burrows with the dung for their larvae to feed on. The smaller Aphodius sphacelatus and Aphodius prodromus were also represented in good numbers. These Autumn emergence species feed in the dung itself. Excitingly I also found Aphodius affinis in this area. Another small dung beetle that feeds within the dung but is not found in the UK and is considered rare in France. It was also a first record for Jersey.
These dung beetles and their larvae are a vital part of food webs supporting many insectivorous birds and omnivorous mammals. The Minotaur beetles in particular are a important food resource for the choughs (see photo here) and it was excellent to see the sheep maintaining the right habitat for these beetles by their grazing behaviour and the dung they produced.
We hope to be back in Jersey in May 2016 to complete a whole Island dung beetle survey. This will provide a species list and population density records crucial for further research into Jersey’s precious ecosystems.
You can read about Sally-Ann’s Minibeast Mayhem – Educational Workshops here
Jersey’s Woodland Bat Project was created in September 2014 and Stage One was to erect 58 Kent bat boxes in five Jersey woodlands including Val de la Mare, St Lawrence (Waterworks) Valley, La Hague water filling station, Don Gaudin in St Peter’s Valley and St Catherines Woods. We also put up five Schwegler woodcrete boxes which are of a much tougher design, one per woodland. These boxes were all put up between October 2014 and May 2015. Importantly, with each box we placed a small shelf underneath the box to collect any droppings that any occupying bats may produce.
Kent bat box
The Kent box tends to attract crevice-dwelling bats which include the pipistrelle species that we have in Jersey (see list of Jersey bats here). The object in Jersey was to provide more roosting opportunities for bats and to learn more about our woodland species of which there has been little research so far.
I obtained the relevant licencing from the Department of the Environment (see Jersey details here) and with a team of volunteers from the Jersey Bat Group we checked the boxes for signs of occupation during the last week of each month after April. Up until September there was no evidence of occupation. However………….
On 30th September I received several excited messages from Cassie, who monitors the Waterworks Valley sites, to say that there were bats in the inner crevice of one of our boxes, WW11. This is one of the higher boxes and lies in an area which has proved very rich in bats – we undertook some static echolocation monitoring in our woodlands during August.
I was out of the Island when Cassie made the discovery, but asked if some of the monitors could go down and do some echolocation recordings that night so we could get an idea of which species was in the box. It appears that there were three bats in the inner slot of the box. Echolocation recordings on emergence indicated that the bats were Nathusius’ pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii(see also Nathusius’ pipistrelle website) a migrating species which is relatively rare in the UK but has been recorded in Jersey many times since it was first recorded in 1987. There was also one dropping on the shelf which was collected for analysis.
Cassie kept me informed and the bats did not go away. On my arrival back to Jersey on 20th October I went down to Waterworks Valley and was delighted to find one bat in box WW11. I also looked at some of the nearby boxes and discovered a bat in the outer crevice of WW13. It looked like another pipistrelle but we will need to do some more monitoring to determine its exact species. As these boxes were put up in January it has taken only 8-9 months for two of them to be occupied. I think this is very encouraging for the rest of the project.
This winter we hope to put up some more Schwegler woodcrete boxes which are far longer-lived and which have had good results in other projects in the UK.
By Jenni Godber, Ramsar Officer for the Alderney Wildlife Trust (with a note by Cris Sellarés)
On the weekend of 17-19th July the Channel Island ringers (including Cris and Harriet from Birds On The Edge – see their notes below), led by Chris Mourant, joined forces with our small team from the Alderney Wildlife Trust for a weekend of storm petrel ringing on our small islet of Burhou. Until a few years ago Burhou was thought to home only 20+ breeding pairs of European storm petrel; however, these days the numbers are estimated to be over 1,000 breeding pairs! The European storm petrel is included in Annex 1 of the EU Birds Directive.
Once we had set up camp, in and around the small hut (which was built by the warden in the late 1980’s), the eight-strong team headed out to the eastern end of the 1km long island to set up the mist-nets. We used four 18m long mist-nets which we set up and furled in the early evening. It wasn’t until it was completely dark that we walked back to the nets to attempt our first catch of birds. Everyone had made ‘guestimates’ of when we would catch out first bird but nobody got it spot on as we landed our first bird at 22.25.
We had organised the group into extractors, runners and ringers to make sure there was a fast turnaround of the birds, a system that worked extremely well. As part of the extracting team, and having never seen a storm petrel in the hand, nothing could have prepared me for how tiny they were, especially their webbed feet, which just about covered the area of my index finger nail! Before we all knew it, it was 2am and we had caught close to 200 new birds and over 80 re-traps – most of which were birds caught and ringed last year as adults. This means we can use the re-trap data to confirm that the birds caught last year were most likely breeding adults and not wandering birds that had strayed off course! We all headed back to the hut elated and ready for another stint the following night.
After a busy day working our way through the lesser black-backed gull colony looking for rogue chicks missed on the previous weekend’s ringing trip, and after a much needed nap, the group headed out to set up nets for another night of storm petrel ringing. This time the decision was made to try the nets on the north-eastern end of the island, something that hadn’t been attempted since before 2008. The risk was worth taking as the birds started streaming in gradually from about 22.15. It was a lot steadier than the previous night where all the birds seemed to land within the first couple of hours! At 3am we decided to call it a night as we were all beginning to get tired and we wanted to give the birds a chance to get back to their chicks. It wasn’t until the morning and the numbers were calculated that we realised we had caught another 175+ new birds and over 60 re-traps.
Cris and Harriet from Birds On The Edge, and also Channel Island ringers, joined the Burhou expedition this year. Cris says: “We welcomed this opportunity to practice our trapping, extracting and ringing skills, and to see how this kind of seabird research is organized. We eagerly set off to Guernsey to meet with Chris Mourant and his team. A small boat took us to Alderney, where AWT’s boat, Sula, was ready to carry us to Burhou. Once we landed and set camp, we started working under the instructions of Chris, during petrel ringing nights, and Paul Veron during the day on the gull chick colour-ringing project that he manages (see Paul’s project here).”
“As expected, we learnt a great deal that we take back with us, having seen how ringing is organized to study petrel and gull colonies. This will help our work in Jersey as we study our own colonies and carry out night ringing sessions at Plémont, where we often encounter storm petrels and Manx shearwaters.”
“With the puffin colony right next to our basecamp, the seals keeping a vigilant eye on us, and the great company of fellow researchers, it was difficult to think of leaving. At times, we might have even been overcome with enthusiasm, as we had to be dragged out of the bracken during the day, and again at 4am back to the hut, as we couldn’t see the time to stop looking for gull chicks, or to stop catching storm petrels. Apparently, rest is important on such intense operations – good thing the others were looking out for us”!
A huge thanks to the Channel Island ringers involved and to the Channel Island Ringing Scheme for giving permission for us to ring the storm petrels on Burhou. It was an experience the team certainly won’t be forgetting anytime soon!
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.
If you regularly wander around some of the Island’s woodlands, in particular those associated with water, you may see one or two additions to the trees.
Thanks to Jersey Water, National Trust for Jersey and the Department of the Environment for authorising us to use their land for our project.
We are using these nest boxes as a tool for discovering which species of bats inhabit our woodlands. We will be monitoring the boxes, which are of the Kent box design with two chambers (see details on the Kent box here), from April to October using non-invasive methods such as the collection of droppings for analysis, detection of echolocation, direct observation and emergence surveys. These boxes have a good record in the UK for bat occupation so we are hoping that some may be in use this spring/summer.
As well as providing additional roosts for our woodland bat species, we hope to expand local knowledge of the status, distribution, ecology and population trends of our woodland bat species through the monitoring of these supplementary roosts.
A full list of Jersey’s bat species can be seen here
This is a 5-year project during which time we will be expanding and diversifying the project to cover more of Jersey’s woodland. Full details of the project can be downloaded here
By Anne Haden
The short turf at Sorel has been opened up by the sheep and the habitat allows a range of lichens to grow between the grasses. Common lichens to be seen on the soil up here include Cladonia furcata and Cladonia fimbriata. Cladonias sometimes have friuting bodies that are cupshaped and easily identifiable in the field.
Lichens growing on rock can be seen near the cliffs at Sorel, including the very common sea ivory Ramalina siliquosa. There are several varieties of Ramalina on the rocks, careful study reveals some strands are flatter and some bear fruiting bodies. Also on the rocks are flat patches of crustose lichens that are firmly embedded on the rock and are very slow growing.
There are not many trees at Sorel; however, the blackthorn and hawthorn bushes provide branches and twigs that are covered in lichens. Especially the very common Xanthoria parietina that gives rise to the expression ‘yellow trees’. Close examination of Xanthoria parietina shows lots of round fruiting bodies often called ‘jam tarts’ by lichenologists. This lichen grows well in nitrogen rich air, hence the increase in Jersey due to the rise in nitrogen in the air from farming activities. So, yes, lichens, like choughs, do appreciate those sheep making it a better place for them at Sorel.
Museum of Natural History
These dung beetles and their larvae are a vital part of food webs supporting many insectivorous birds and omnivorous mammals. The Minotaur beetles in particular are a important food resource for the choughs (see photo
