Spring is here and seabirds are returning to their nests in the Channel Islands. This year there are increasing opportunities to watch these birds from wherever you are through nest cameras and video links.
Puffins on Burhou
The Alderney Wildlife Trust plans to have several webcams that stream 24 hours a day. This year again two cameras are focused on Burhou’s Atlantic puffin colony but viewers can often see storm-petrels, gulls and even the occasional rabbit!
The AWT webcams are available for everyone to watch and can be found on the LIVE Website. You can also keep up to date on all the activity and see the latest highlight clips on the LIVE Facebookpage. Highlights from previous years can be seen on the websites too (this is one below).
In 2015 there will hopefully be two further cameras keeping us up to date with our seabirds.
Shag nest on Jethou
The seabird web camera was installed on Jethou on 17th March 2015. This was only possible with the support of Jethou Island staff who transported the equipment over to the island including camera, solar panel, car battery, support structure and weights. The south-west coast of Jethou Island was chosen for the site to install the camera as shags were known have nested in this area before. A suitable shag nest in the early stages of construction was chosen (no eggs yet) and installation was carried out by two seabird volunteers in 1½ hours. The exact positioning of the web camera may require adjusting but the first image of an adult bird on the nest was taken that day. The development and plans of this seabird camera can be seen here
The Jethou camera does not yet provide a live feed but takes an image every five minutes. However, the IT gurus put together a YouTube film (see example below) of each day’s clips joined together as a short film which can be accessed here. If possible, a live web camera may be installed in future – if sponsorship can be arranged.
If the Jethou camera continues to be as successful as it appears to be so far, plans will be developed for a similar web camera on the Humps, the small islets off the north coast of Herm, which also are an important seabird breeding area. Everyone is very grateful for the continued support of Jethou Island in this and other seabird initiatives.
Gannets
This year AWT will be reinstalling Gannetcam, which was trialled in 2014. If all goes to plan this camera will give an insight into the dramatic lifecycle of Alderney’s largest breeding seabird, the northern gannet. In the meantime you can watch videos of previous years activities (below) at the gannet nests (and other local wildlife) here
How are Jersey’s garden birds faring? Not all that well it seems. The results of this year’s Great Garden Bird Watch show some genuine causes for concern in our bird populations. Don’t forget, the majority of the bird species that are recorded during this survey are those that have adapted well to people and, we had assumed, to our modern way of life. These are generally the birds that we feed and enjoy to have around us.
The good news this year is that at least the weather over the count weekend was better than in 2014. This year we received 315 completed survey forms and although the weather was still pretty poor it could only have been better than last year’s gales.
House sparrow. Jersey Garden Bird Watch 2002-2015
The Top 10 bird species recorded was pretty consistent with previous years’ counts. Again house sparrow topped the poll, recorded at 225 of the households that reported. With 1,637 sparrows counted, that’s 5.2 sparrows per garden in the survey. House sparrow has declined alarmingly in Jersey over the last 25 years and this is reflected in our 14 years of garden counts. However, despite the overall decline since 2002 there may be some cause for optimism as the last few years have shown a slight increase in numbers. St Saviour, St Helier and St Lawrence have the most sparrows which suggests that in Jersey at least sparrows can still be found in a town.
Starling. Jersey Garden Bird Watch 2002-2015
Chaffinch was the second most recorded species, spread nicely across the Island, and starling the third with most reported from St Saviour and St Brelade. We have dealt before on overall reductions in starling numbers and that this can be further seen in the survey since 2002 is a stark reminder of just what is happening to this formerly abundant bird. Following the starling in the Top 10 were blackbird, wood pigeon, great tit, magpie, blue tit, collared dove and…….herring gull. Robin only came in 11th which may be a surprise. However, at least the robin population appears relatively stable with an average of 1.2 per garden.
Greenfinch. Jersey Garden Bird Watch 2002-2015
Great tit (blue) and blue tit (red). Jersey Garden Bird Watch 2002-2015
What of the other ‘typical’ garden birds? Well, both great and blue tit numbers show slow declines while the blackbird population does look pretty stable (1.9 birds per reporting household in 2015) despite them having such a good year in the UK. This might suggest that, while big numbers of blackbirds fly into Jersey in winter, these immigrants don’t turn up in our gardens. Sadly, greenfinch numbers are, as predicted, very poor with now around one quarter of the number recorded per garden compared to 2002. The only consolation we can see in the trend of the greenfinch is that it may have levelled off and that it seems that those that do live here don’t go into gardens in winter as much as they once did.
Wood pigeon. Jersey Garden Bird Watch 2002-2015
Are any of our garden birds actually doing ok? Well, while you might not be surprised that magpie numbers stay the same year on year (around 1.5 per garden) only really wood pigeon and blackcap have gone up in numbers. Neither should be a surprise, the pigeons are rather obvious (and they can be bullies) and their increases much noted and the blackcap’s change in wintering habits widely reported. So, all in all, it’s not really very good. We do still have quite a few birds in our gardens, which is nice, but overall they may not be faring very well. And what does that say about our lives that the birds in our gardens are declining?
As in previous years we are excited to see what comes out in the ‘others’ columns of the report sheets when they come in. That red squirrels are widely recorded, although most seem to be in St Brelade and St Lawrence, is not a big surprise but it’s nice to hear too of toads and newts. This year several early bees made it onto the forms as well as marsh harriers, including three in a hedge in one site, buzzards, a very bold little egret and a grey wagtail that was the first recorded by the house owners in 46 years of occupancy. We even had three cirl buntings reported. But that was from Grouville where all our cirl buntings are!
Once again, as organisers on behalf of Action for Wildlife, Birds On The Edge and the JEP we are very grateful to everyone who sends in their counts. Here’s hoping for further improvements in the weather during next year’s count and for better news about all our birds!
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.
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 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 showing 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 recorded 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.
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.
Brent geese must be amongst the best known birds in the Channel Islands. Up to 1,500 may winter in Jersey with smaller numbers in Guernsey, Herm and Alderney each year. The main reason that these geese come to our shores is because there are beds of the highly vulnerable eel-grass, one of the birds’ most important food sources here. However, despite spending around eight months with us, how much do we really know about these little, approachable geese? For one thing, how many Channel Islanders actually know that our islands are almost unique in annually hosting populations of two very distinctly different brent geese?
Dark-bellied brent geese (Branta bernicla bernicla) return to us each year in September from the Russian arctic. They breed up in the wilds of the Asian tundra but spend their winter in much tamer environments of British and French beaches, harbours and, at times, farmers’ fields and even golf courses. It is often hard to imagine that the calm little geese we see in winter are the same birds that disperse across a hostile arctic wilderness each spring.
Earlier in the 20th Century, dark-bellied brent geese were quiet rare. The numbers we see now (over 200,000 worldwide) are testament to a successful global conservation campaign. The population began to rise when UK and France banned hunting in 1954 and 1966 respectively. However, things really changed when the flocks migrating through Denmark were given legal protection in 1972. Safe in their breeding grounds, their wintering areas and on their migration stopovers in between, this endearing little goose quickly recovered.
In winter, we see these Russian visitors collecting in our quiet bays and beaches or flocking inland on the high tide in a handful of places (most still roost out to sea). Over recent years, many geese have been given coloured plastic rings by researchers that are easy for birdwatchers to see allowing us to keep an eye on the birds’ activities. These ringing studies, some geese have been caught locally, some in the Netherlands and some in the arctic, show us how long the birds might live, how productive their breeding seasons are (did you know their breeding success is linked to the abundance of lemmings?) and, most importantly, how they distribute themselves along our coastline. Perhaps the most important discovery has been that individual geese return to the same bay or stretch of beach each year and don’t visit other bays. This means that loss of one site might mean the total loss of that site’s geese. They won’t just go to another bay. Put simply, they’ll probably die.
Pale-bellied brent geese (Branta bernicla hrota), the other brent goose present in the Channel Islands over the winter, arrive rather later, in November each year, and are much less numerous. These, as their name suggests, and as can be seen in the photographs, have much paler bellies than their Russian counterparts. Juvenile upper-wings have a barred appearance when the bird is at rest, compared with the more uniform back of adults. Up to 150 can be observed in Jersey, concentrated in St. Aubin’s Bay (look out for them at West Park or by St Aubin’s Harbour), but only a handful has been recorded in the other islands.
Similar ringing studies to those for the dark-bellied brent geese have shown that there are two distinct flyway populations of pale-bellied brent geese, one which breeds in Svalbard and North-eastern Greenland, the other in arctic Canada. The latter population, to which our birds have been shown to belong, currently numbers around 40,000 birds, and has been subject to intensive study by the Irish Brent Goose Research Group and their Icelandic collaborators. When they arrive in Jersey, the geese have undertaken an amazing annual migration, travelling from the breeding grounds over the Greenland Ice-cap, then staging in western Iceland before an onward flight to Ireland, where an amazing 75% of birds gather initially at a single site, Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Peak numbers generally occur there in early October, following which the geese move on, as the eel-grass which attracts them there gets depleted. About 90% of these pale-bellied brent geese will disperse to within the bays all around Ireland for the rest of the winter, but others will travel further, to spend the rest of the winter in Western Britain, Normandy, and here in Jersey. Jersey is, therefore, particularly special as it is near the southern limit of the flyway range, as shown by the re-sighting of marked birds.
The resightings of the pale-bellieds further demonstrate just how site-faithful these geese can be. An example is 3XYY (see photo), which was ringed near Reykjavik in Iceland in May 2006 and has appeared at St. Aubin’s Bay every winter since then. Another is PUWR, seen every winter but one since being ringed in west Iceland in May 2010, passing through Jersey en route to Régnéville in Normandy.
Both these geese are back this winter.
Whilst the numbers of geese in this population have approximately doubled over the past 10-15 years, they can experience low reproduction in years when conditions in the arctic are inclement, as the suitable weather window of time for successful breeding can be very narrow. This was particularly evident after summer 2013, when birds returned to the wintering areas with virtually no young. Birds are highly dispersed whilst breeding, and nests are liable to predation. Brent geese tend to congregate, often in very large flocks, during passage and the winter. The fact that such a high proportion of the flyway population gathers together at a single site in autumn also renders the geese potentially significantly vulnerable to a major problem with their main food source there (eel-grass), and to contagious disease. This year again, very few young birds have been seen in Jersey while, in contrast, the dark-bellied birds appear to have had a very good year.
So, next time you see a flock of this most maritime species of goose, take a good look and see whether you can spot any of these amazing little pale-bellied brent geese, and marvel.
Interestingly, to complete the record, a third brent goose, the black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) lives in the Pacific. This goose too occasionally, but not annually, visits the Channel Islands usually in the flocks of dark-bellied brent, presumably having joined them in the Russian far east.
Read Graham McElwaine’s blog on monitoring brent geese from their breeding grounds (watch out for those polar bears), to the winter beaches here.
The Jersey toad or crapaud has long been associated with the Island and Jersey Islanders – Jersey is the only one of the Channel Islands with any species of toad. Decades have passed, however, since toads have been present in “scarce credible” numbers “crawling over the rocks like an army” (as quoted by Frances Le Sueur).
In 2004, while with the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, I began a three-year PhD study on Jersey toads, investigating their ecology, populations and genetics – as well as anything else that might account for observed reductions in numbers on the Island. I found that they behaved very differently to toads in England and parts of France, breeding much earlier and using different (much smaller) ponds on average. A central reason for the toads’ decline in Jersey has probably been the shift away from traditional agricultural reservoirs to mobile stock watering tanks, coupled with the fact that demands on the Island’s water supply are heavier so any ponds dry up more quickly in the summer. Jersey toads are now almost completely dependent on Islanders’ garden ponds and occur mainly in parts of Jersey where people have suitable clusters of ornamental ponds in which they can breed. This also makes them susceptible to road mortality and isolation from nearby populations when new developments occur and/or roads are constructed.
I was asked by an old colleague if I had any genetic samples from Jersey as a new species of toad (Bufo spinosus) had been described that was found in parts of nearby France as far north as the Contentin Peninsula. With no expectation of anything other than contributing to an ongoing study, I sent off some “old” genetic samples from my PhD research to Pim Arntzen at the Naturalis Institute in the Netherlands, where much work on the conservation genetics of European amphibians is carried out…. Some while later, the news arrived that the samples had proved “interesting” and that a morphological study was needed to establish what species the Jersey crapaud really was! So, in Spring 2013, I returned to Jersey and, with the help of Department of the Environment staff, took measurements of toads from various parts of the Island…. all on the day before the dramatic snowfalls of that year that Islanders will certainly remember. Those morphological data were also sent to Naturalis and analysed along with data from the earlier DNA.
Fast forward to October 2014 and Pim, mine and colleagues’ paper revealing the Jersey crapaud as a new species for the British Isles was published in the Herpetological Journal. Toads in Jersey are indeed Bufo spinosus, a species that split from the usual “common” toad (Bufo bufo) some nine million years ago with the rising of the Pyrenees. The species evolved in Iberia and has since spread south into North Africa and north through Western France as far as Jersey – but nowhere else in the British Isles. So Jersey toads share more of their history with toads from Algeria and Spain than they do with English toads!
Bufo spinosus grows bigger than B. bufo, irrespective of latitude, and has evolved to take advantage of smaller ponds that dry out over summer (as are found in Iberia, for example) in dryer, often open habitats. B. bufo prefers large, deep permanent lakes and woodland areas. So when toads arrived in prehistoric Jersey and encountered dune slacks and maritime heaths, they would probably have been perfectly at home. Only recently have larger water bodies such as reservoirs become much of a feature in the Jersey landscape.
The ability of Jersey’s B. spinosus to adapt to smaller breeding ponds and open landscapes has probably been a factor in allowing them to use Islanders’ ornamental ponds for breeding. Armed with this new knowledge, we can better make decisions to help conserve the crapaud in Jersey and ensure that it is still around to be associated with many more generations of Jerseymen!
Download the paper A new vertebrate species native to the British Isles: Bufo spinosus Daudin, 1803 in Jersey here
Following the very successful Inter-Island Meeting, Birds On The Edge invited Vic Froome to contribute with news of concerns facing birds and the environment in the Bailiwick of Guernsey and to highlight the important Channel Islands conservation work being undertaken in the ‘northern isles’.
In his first posting here, Vic highlights some of his favourite groups of birds and habitats in the Bailiwick and the challenges his islands face.
Marine birds and other wildlife
Gannets have been studied on the Alderney colonies of Ortac and the Garden Rocks (Les Etacs) since 1947, the longest regular annual ringing of this species in the British Isles. The gannet population is currently estimated at more than 7,500 pairs and, while still increasing, is not without its constant threats, notably through discarded plastic, ropes and netting that often leads to horrible deaths in the colony.
Gulls too have been studied around our coasts for years and a new ringing station on Guernsey’s Refuse Tip has been in place for six years in association with the North Thames Gull Group (the London canon ringing group), and us Islanders. Large plastic, numbered, rings are fitted on the gulls that one can read by eye, binoculars, or telescopes. To date, 7,000 herring gulls, 3,000 lesser black-backed and 400 great black-backed gulls have been ringed.
100,000 gull sightings have been returned to Paul Veron making this a quite stunning project in the Channel Islands or anywhere.
On Alderney’s Burhou, nesting lesser black-backed gulls have been studied too for 20 years. This year this island has more than 1,300 pairs of lesser black-backeds, as well as good numbers of storm petrels and puffins. Shags and cormorants are also studied around our Islands, but it can be quite a messy job!
Sark, Herm, Jethou, and their islets, have puffin, razorbill, guillemot, fulmars, all the Channel Islands’ gull species and the only known colony of little egrets in the Bailiwick. The guillemot colony may even be increasing.
Rats are, unsurprisingly, present and represent a major threat to our seabird colonies. Following the success of rat eradication projects in the Isles of Scilly and on Lundy, we are now looking into a brown rat reduction plan. This problem is now so acute that some of the major islets are bare of breeding species, and we are sure that those well hidden species which nest in burrows are suffering as well.
One of my favourite birds is the kittiwake: they look magnificent when out in the big seas. This gull is synonymous with our oceans, but their food source is becoming worryingly depleted and declines in this delicate gull are being recorded throughout our area. Until recently easy to see, this lovely bird is now extinct as a breeding species in the Channel Islands.
Our seas around us have migration under the water as well with important numbers of cetaceans and fish. Dolphins, minke whales, seals, basking sharks, catfish and mullet are just a few we host.
The intertidal zone
Brent geese come back to our Islands for the autumn, winter and spring seasons. A major part of the diet of these geese is eel grass. Eel grass beds, like seaweeds, hold a habitat/world all of their own at high tides and many species live and breed here – a true paradise on their own.
Our Islands’ foreshore and intertidal zones have to be protected as they are so special. But, even locally, knowledge of these areas is poor and they are little studied or given publicity to educate the general public, government, and the media. Our Ramsar areas must be constantly researched and updated to alert us of any changes that are happening. We need much better information about our all our marine habitats before future electric generation plans come to fruition.
Wading birds
We, in Guernsey, have carried out 40 years of monthly beach wader counts for the BTO and collected a tremendous amount of scientific data. For me, these birds look beautiful, but sadly, through constant disturbance of many kinds, many species that we were famous for in Guernsey, winter visitors and breeding populations alike, are now EXTINCT, and we feel impotent to do anything about it.
Another problem of our coasts is “RECLAMATION” – this is often simply tarmac, where wildlife used to be. Now we see turnstones running around our harbours on tarmac where once they had beaches. We still have some shingle banks for now, special places that are very effective for coastal protection and breeding and feeding birds, flowers and other plants. These banks are a habitat of their own, and we have them here: let’s love them, and look after them.
Raptors
It is 45 years since DDT and other insecticides were sprayed all over the world but only now are we getting many of our raptors back. Peregrine, marsh harrier, buzzard, sparrowhawk and long-eared owl are nesting again in Guernsey. All we need now is to get our farming practices sorted to allow/encourage our winter visitors to come back: short-eared owls, merlins and hen harriers. Ground feeding birds will come too.
Our Island home
Let’s clean up our act and reduce waste: stop it from hitting our shores and littering our land. What more can we do to help our nature? Plant wild flowers in our gardens that have pollen, attract butterflies and give us, colours and seeds. Let’s plant fruit trees, wild and propagated. Let’s dig ponds for our birds, frogs and newts. You will be amazed at how much enjoyment you will get, and your “tick list” will go through the roof!
Swifts
Swifts are another bird that is suffering, this time it’s because of “OUR” clean and tidy lifestyle. They need places to nest and places to feed. Remember, those wildflowers you plant will attract insects and what do swift, swallows, and house martins eat? Those insects!
In August 2012 Birds On The Edge was delighted to announce the return to Jersey of a much missed resident, the cirl bunting. Unlike the chough, these songbirds came back without any assistance. That they are still here, perhaps, is, however, the result of a lot of hard work and dedication (see report from October 2012).
In July last year, we reported that the bunting pair had successfully raised at least one chick. So, are they still living here in Jersey? Are they hanging on?
The pair and another bird presumed to be their fledged chick were seen regularly at their east coast haunts into the winter. Often at the seed put out in special feeders by Richard Perchard (following advice from the RSPB Cirl Bunting Project) aimed at helping the buntings get through the winter when, through changes in land use, they might struggle. The feeders are topped up and cleaned every third day, or more frequently in bad weather.
While the eastern birds remained in the territory we were very surprised to find two males at Noirmont on 26th of October last year. These two, unexplained, males stayed around at Noirmont well into November before disappearing.
Cirl buntings are, at least in the UK, typified as being highly sedentary. Many only move a few kilometres in their whole life. While other populations in Europe are very migratory, all are dispersive – that is individuals may wander, often lengthy distances, away from the breeding areas. Dispersal like this is well known in most birds and often follows successful breeding seasons when numbers are high, or when food supplies may be low. Migrant birds have set breeding and wintering areas and, while they may look very much at home, are unlikely to be looking for somewhere new to breed (think of all those contented brent geese, they never hang around in spring). Dispersive birds, on the other hand, may well be looking for a new home and this is how most species spread out around the world. It’s how birds take up home on an island like ours.
We don’t know where the birds at Noirmont were from just like we don’t know where the breeding pair in the east came from. On 2nd January this year, a female was watched at one of the feeders and both she and a male were seen feeding there a week later. The pair was monitored, but not too closely for fear of disturbing these vulnerable birds, throughout the spring and everything looked good. Three birds were seen in July not very far from the pair. Another pair, another chick? Well, a definite chick was seen at the well-known site a few days later adding to the possibility of two pairs. In August it was confirmed that there were two pairs and both had young. Fourteen birds (four adults and 10 juveniles) were counted across the whole site on the 14th! Nine birds were seen again on 13th October.
Richard has seen up to three ‘pairs’ at the feeders this month but it is possible that these ‘pairs’ may include sibling juveniles sticking together.
Exactly how many buntings there are in Jersey remains a bit of mystery, but they are surviving and even thriving it seems. We could try to catch and mark them but this might easily upset these nervous birds and stop the recolonisation in its tracks. Disturbing them through visiting the site too often might also cause the birds to leave. What the increase does mean is that Richard might have to put more food out to help the growing flock through the winter!
Interestingly, a juvenile cirl bunting was seen at Noirmont on 20th October. One of ours leaving us, a new one coming in or one just passing through? Check up on the Jersey Birds website to see if any more turn up.
Jersey Airport is, as we have highlighted before, close to being the last site for breeding skylarks in the Channel Islands. One or two pairs still breed on the Blanche Banques but even at the Airport numbers are steadily declining.
On Wednesday, 18th June, we conducted our annual survey of the skylarks and meadow pipits at the Airport. This year’s survey was as hard a slog as ever. It is surprising how big an area we cover up and down each side of the runway, but it’s the walk through the longish grass, even when dry, that slows us down the most. The grass is left long deliberately so as to discourage birds like gulls, pigeons and crows from trying to forage or roost there and become a life-threatening hazard to the planes, their crew and passengers. Grass too long, on the other hand, can become a fire risk which would itself then be a major hazard. To get it just right, the Airport has to manage the grass sward very carefully. This, luckily, doesn’t seem to discourage the highly threatened skylark, a bird not considered to represent a risk.
Once again we received security clearance before we entered the grass area and we donned our high-visibility jackets. We always carry radios to keep in contact with the tower and we sit out incoming or departed planes. That’s another reason for going when the grass is dry!
The skylark team this year, again the stalwarts Tony Paintin, Hester Whitehead and Glyn Young, walked the grassy areas of the airport either side of the runway excluding a couple of sensitive areas that the team cannot enter for fear of upsetting some pretty sensitive equipment.
Skylarks are never very easy to count as some birds can stay put in the grass while others fly up and sing at us. We walk out in a line and record each lark and pipit. Whatever the failings in our technique are though, having used the same methodology since 2006, trends become obvious.
This year, the best we can say is that things haven’t got any worse. We counted 26 larks, for the second consecutive year. Fewer birds were singing but maybe we shouldn’t read too much into that as only four were singing on our highest count (in 2011).
So, as we do each year, we look forward to next year’s count to see if things might have improved. 2014 has been a good year, seemingly, for many breeding songbirds.
Once again we are indebted to the airport authorities for allowing us to count the birds and for helping with security clearance and for providing radios and high-visibility vests etc.
With the increasing appreciation of the Island’s birdlife come new responsibilities. Social media further shares immediate opportunities to broadcast sightings and other information on our birds. It has considered, therefore, appropriate to put together a guide with simple steps on how to enjoy birdwatching and bird photography in a way that’s safe for oneself, others and the birds and habitats we are so admiring
This new code has been inspired from similar guidelines produced by the BTO, RSPB, and other birding and bird conservation organizations in the world. It has been created through a series of consultations between by Birds On The Edge and members of the Ornithology Section of the Société Jersiaise.
So, please consider what is best for the birds at all times. But please, always enjoy your birds! The new code can be downloaded here.
The States of Jersey Department of the Environment also have guidelines for visiting the Island’s SSI’s and these can be downloaded here.
Today, 197 of the world’s rarest birds are considered to be Critically Endangered (species facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild). In the Channel Islands we often hear a lot about these birds as several are the subject of conservation programmes run from Jersey’s Durrell; however, much less well known is that one of these extremely threatened species choses to spend a very important part of its year in the waters around our islands.
Only an estimated 9,000-13,000 adult Balearic shearwaters exist. This seabird breeds only in the Mediterranean’s Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Cabrera, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. It is then, rather surprising, perhaps, that, traditionally, after the breeding season, between late May and the end of July, the majority of the global population passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic, dispersing northwards to post-breeding grounds in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast, where they undergo their annual flight-feather moult
During some years, warmer than usual sea surface temperatures led to a northward shift, presumably following their fish prey. Birds were seen along the UK’s coastline and often in good numbers in the Channel Islands. Most individuals return to the Mediterranean in the autumn, with return passage beginning in September and peaking in October-November, although late individuals are still recorded passing Gibraltar between December and April.
In Jersey we typically saw a handful of Balearics during the year except in rare, exceptional years like 1985 when 603 were recorded. That was until recently. In 2009, 320 were recorded during the year and numbers have been steadily increasing since then: there were 845 in 2011, 3,181 in 2012 and 3,556 last year. This year, so far there have been “thousands” in our waters although they’ve been forming mixed flocks with non-breeding Manx shearwaters, northern birds that may have not been in good condition following the spring storms.
Big Balearic shearwaters flocks are being recorded from Guernsey too and birds are being encountered at sea throughout our area. What does this mean for the shearwater? Well, we may now be responsible the greater part of the population of a very rare bird for a significant part of its year. Each year, now. Our record, unfortunately, isn’t that good for the common species! Let’s make sure we look after the Balearic shearwater as the whole world may now be watching us!
You can download the International Species Action Plan for the Balearic shearwater and other action plans for European bird species here
Spring is here and seabirds are returning to their nests in the Channel Islands. This year there are increasing opportunities to watch these birds from wherever you are through nest cameras and video links.
The seabird web camera was installed on Jethou on 17th March 2015. This was only possible with the support of Jethou Island staff who transported the equipment over to the island including camera, solar panel, car battery, support structure and weights. The south-west coast of Jethou Island was chosen for the site to install the camera as shags were known have nested in this area before. A suitable shag nest in the early stages of construction was chosen (no eggs yet) and installation was carried out by two seabird volunteers in 1½ hours. The exact positioning of the web camera may require adjusting but the first image of an adult bird on the nest was taken that day. The development and plans of this seabird camera can be seen here
