A new and experimental project was launched today offering an unrivalled insight into the lifecycle of Britain’s largest native seabird, the northern gannet. The project entitled ‘Track a Gannet’, or T.A.G. for short, is jointly run by Britain’s smallest Wildlife Trust, the Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the University of Liverpool, and has enabled gannets to be put under surveillance using the 3G mobile network. The project is unique in that:
T.A.G is the first time 3G live tracking has been used on seabirds and is a world first for ‘real time’ tracking of a seabird being available to the general public
T.A.G is delivering daily discoveries into the vital importance of the English Channel to these birds as they fish over vast areas. The maximum track for a single trip recorded since the tags were enabled on the 8th June is in excess of 800km
For the first time real time tracking has been combined with a live streaming webcam here
Data collected from the tags will be vitally important in understanding the potential impacts of off-shore developments in the English Channel and will be used to respond to a variety of development issues
Alderney’s gannet populations are the most southerly in the British Isles. Northern gannets are identified as an ‘Amber listed’ in the Birds of Conservation Concern 3 (Joint Nature Conservation Committee), and perhaps one of the most charismatic of British breeding seabirds.
The technology
The tracking is done by fitting prototype GPS tags which have been developed by the BTO and the Universities of East Anglia and Lisbon and transmit data in near real time. The devices were attached to the tail feathers of 20 northern gannets by a team from the AWT, BTO and University of Liverpool, and connect the birds with any 3G enabled mobile network they come into contact with, at which time the tags download the track of where the birds have been. The tags transmit the flight paths of the gannets to the website which updates every time a bird comes within range of the European 3G network. The website offers the most ‘real time’ form of monitoring ever attempted on birds at sea.
Watching the nesting gannet colony LIVE online
The same webpage also has a live streaming GannetCam webcam which is situated on the Ortac gannet colony. The webcam enables both scientists and the public to get a much more detailed glimpse into the birds’ behaviour within their colony. In fact, several of the birds with tags on are nesting in front of the camera and can, therefore, be followed live both through the transmitters and the camera. If tags survive until the chicks have left our waters it is hoped that the project will yield the first live streaming data from gannets heading to their wintering grounds.
Protecting the gannets for the future
Alderney hosts a number of important seabird colonies in the English Channel and with six wind and three tidal developments proposed in waters surrounding the island under consideration by UK, French and Alderney governments, the Alderney Wildlife Trust is increasingly concerned about the need to understand and protect its seabirds.
Our vision for ‘Living Seas’ includes ensuring development in our seas is ecologically sustainable and it is only with increased knowledge of the marine environment that this can be fully achieved.
T.A.G. is an AWT co-ordinated project which has been jointly supported by the University of Liverpool, the Alderney Commission for Renewable Energy (ACRE), local businesses and members of the general public who have sponsored and named birds themselves. See list of tag sponsors including our own Action For Wildlife on the website here
T.A.G.
The T.A.G. page is now live so you can start seeing the birds and their tracks. It is likely that the website will be modified soon so we only see the last three days of tracks (data from when the tags went on will be stored). Another eight tags to replace the ones that failed will go on to birds shortly to increase the data set.
The merry month of May held true to its poetic title this year and bore witness to the return of breeding choughs in the wilds of Jersey. After the flourish of nest building activity and copulating in April we noticed a change in the adults’ behaviour. Mauve and Blue were often absent or late to the feeds at the aviary. Their respective partners White and Green would be there, hurriedly eat, and then fly off towards the nesting sites. For those of us monitoring the nest sites it was quite tricky to see what was happening. Why? Because they decided to nest in Ronez Quarry!
We could only watch the birds as they flew back and forth between Sorel and the quarry and calculate how much time was being spent at the nest site. This is actually quite useful because as, breeding behaviour changes, so does time allocation at the nest.
Green and Blue head back to the aviary for food whilst White flies back to see Mauve in the quarry…maybe. Photo by Liz Corry
We know patterns of time allocation from breeding behaviour in UK choughs, especially Cornwall where nest monitoring is carried out every year as a form of protection as well as research. The female incubates the eggs and is fed by the male on the nest with the odd flight during the day to stretch her wings and get more food. Once those eggs hatch there isn’t much difference in behaviour as she spends the first week or two brooding the chicks. After which point the chicks are bigger and require much more food so both parents go out and forage.
White foraging alone at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry
At the start of May we observed the males frequently making solo flights between the nest sites and headland. Combined with the females’ absence along the clifftops it suggested they were incubating!
The really interesting behaviour was watching the male feed at the aviary when we added the supplementary diet. He would then fly back to the nest site, seconds later the female would emerge and then fly together to the aviary. It was as if she was waiting for him to confirm that dinner was ready so she didn’t have to waste energy flying back in case we weren’t there.
I have to say this behaviour was most prominent between Green and Blue. White and Mauve did something similar, but alas White’s young mind would often wander and he would easily be distracted on the flight back if he bumped into another chough, especially Black, the female he was still courting. Mauve had to put a lot of effort in and was often seen at the aviary begging frantically for food from either White or the team.
We decided to increase the amount of food we were supplying since everything was being eaten and the females were obviously needing to maintain their energy stores. The juveniles on the other hand just thought Christmas had come early and revelled in the extra food. We do exactly the same for captive birds at the Park if they are polishing off their food. Our consideration for Sorel, however, is whether this means there is enough food and/or sufficient foraging habitat for choughs during the breeding season. We don’t want the choughs to become reliant on the food we give them. At the same time the fact that we have choughs incubating in the wild for the first time in a century means we would not want to risk starving the birds.
The pattern of behaviour with the breeding pairs continued for three weeks; choughs incubate for 19-21 days. Then change was in the air. On 22nd May, I received a call from the Quarry, one of their staff reported hearing a ‘cheeping’ noise from Mauve’s nest! We had already paid a visit to the quarry to see exactly where the nest sites were, so we knew that it would not be possible to visually confirm chicks without disturbing the nest. Instead we had to rely on behavioural patterns again. Over the next 48 hours we started seeing Mauve spending more and more time away from the nest site. Due to the Bank Holiday weekend we were not able to access the nest until the Tuesday by which time we were confident that Mauve had abandoned.
White and Mauve at the aviary after their nest failed. Photo by Liz Corry
With assistance from Ronez staff I climbed up and checked in the nest hoping to find something to indicate what had happened. It was spotless.
Impressive engineering from Mauve and White led to one of the first wild chough nests in Jersey in a century. Photo by Liz Corry.
Our choughs have used fibre glass insulation found in the quarry as well as sheep’s wool to line their nests. Photo by Liz Corry.
A perfect nest with twigs, sheep’s wool, and fibre glass insulation (apologies Ronez for any damage to property).
On a more positive note Green and Blue continued as normal and we wait anxiously. I can only hope that the fact their pair bonding is stronger and they are that little bit older means they will have more success.
Dingle and Red
We mentioned last month that Dingle had paired up with Red and started nest building. They are still a pair but never really got anywhere with a nest. Having spoken to quarry staff it appears we had four females trying to nest in various places around the quarry. Moving twigs from site to site with only two finally feeling happy with their choice. This is an amazing achievement for their first year breeding and first year living free in Jersey. It bodes well for the 2016 breeding season.
News from the Wildlife Park
Back at the Park we had a much clearer idea of what was happening. On 1st May a very punctual chick emerged from the egg that was being artificially incubated. We hand-reared it for the first five days feeding it from 6am until 11pm using the same methods as last year. This time round we were faced with the problem of rearing a chough in isolation. Last year having four chicks together meant they would be socialised and learn from each other exactly what a chough looks and sounds like. With a single chough the chances of imprinting are much higher.
Senior keeper Catherine Francescon feeding the day old chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Staff gently clean chick’s bill after feed. Photo by Liz Corry
We decided to try foster-rearing using Gianna as mum. This was not without its own risks. What is she didn’t take to the chick? Would she know what to do? Would she be able to feed it enough since she had no partner to feed her in the nest? The answer to the latter was easy. We became her partner. We would go in and feed her and if needs be feed the chick as well, but, ideally, she would do it to feel sufficiently bonded with the chick. The first question was the tough one and there was only one way to find out.
When the chick was five days old we moved it in with Gianna. I went in to feed and preen (tickle) her then swiftly switched her egg for a chick. What happened next melted the heart, she went to the nest box as I pretended to leave. I didn’t want to disturb her so walked to the other side of the aviary and watched carefully. She went to sit back on the ‘egg’ then hesitated, looked down puzzled, looked outside (I won’t say ‘at me’ as that is far too romanticised), then very carefully sat down and brooded the chick. The clip below was taken at a later date when Gianna was more confident.
I sat by the safety porch out of sight but still inside in case things turned nasty. It was silent for exactly 28 minutes, then movement.
Gianna removing a feacal sac produced by the chick. Photo by Liz Corry
Heart in mouth I watched, half expecting to see a bill appear with a chick dangling down. Instead it was a faecal sac belonging to the chick. Gianna flew out and across to the opposite corner of the aviary, deposited the faeces, cleaned her bill, then flew back to the nest. Now maybe this is something only a bird keeper can appreciate, but this was one of the most satisfying sights to see.
The next hurdle was seeing if she would feed it. It wasn’t a smooth start. Gianna knew it needed to be fed, she knew exactly what call to make to encourage the chick to beg, but she couldn’t quite work out how she got the food from her bill into the chick’s. It took three feeding attempts throughout the morning as she teased the chick with food overhead. To be fair, a single chough chick in a nest wobbles around a lot when its begging making it a very fast moving target. By the fourth feed something switched on and she figured out what to do.
We continued to support the chick by hand-feeding pinky mice and papaya, but since Gianna did such as great job we left her to it after a few days. We still went in six times a day from 7.30am until 7pm making sure she had enough supplies and, being Gianna, enough attention.
Gianna collecting inscts to feed to her foster chick. Photo by Liz Corry
The foster chick had daily weigh-ins for the first three weeks to monitor its progress. Photo by Liz Corry
It takes 41 days for a chough to fledge so pretty much the rest of May was spent just making sure the chick grew strong and healthy. Once this chick has fledged and is independent from Gianna it will be moved up to Sorel to take part in the 2015 release this summer.
Gianna keeping a watchful eye on her foster chick whilst making sure she is pampered properly at the same time. Photo by Liz Corry
Gianna’s foster chick was the only egg to hatch from Issy’s clutch of five. They re-made their nest but never got around to laying a second clutch for reasons unknown. The second egg being artificially incubated was the one rescued from Gwinny, or more accurately from the Dad who had an aversion to eggs. This pair also failed to lay a second clutch so it was really important that their egg survived.
The incubation period or this egg was an anxious one. It’s weight-loss graph suggested it wasn’t going to survive. Bird Staff worked hard to reduce humidity keeping the incubator and room as dry as possible. In the end a very delicate and nerve-wrecking procedure of drilling a small hole into the shell was carried out. This had the desired effect after which point it was a case of sit and wait. Not long past the due date the chick inside started to chip away at the shell and eventually emerged.
Gwinny’s chick being hand-reared by staff. Photo by Liz Corry
It has responded very well to life outside of the shell and is piling on the pounds in a good way. It now consumes about 20% of its body weight per feed, which equates to a lot of insects. As with the foster chick we hope this one will make it up to the release aviary this summer.
The video below was taken when Gwinny’s chick was only a few days old and had not opened its eyes yet. When the eye slits start to open we feed wearing a black glove and using orange tweezers. The iPod is used to playback the sound a female chough would make at the nest to announce she has food. It isn’t always necessary if the chick is already begging.
Guided chough tours now offered…by choughs. Photo by Harriet Clark.
Moulting begins
We started noticing moulted feathers in the aviary at the start of May. A few days later the choughs at the Park followed suit. For the Sorel choughs this meant that the remaining radio-transmitters started to drop off.
Their batteries are still active so we should be able to find them (unless they fall in the sea). If you are visiting Sorel and happen to find one please pick it up and contact one of the team we can refurbish them for the 2015 release.
Veterinary intervention
Durrell vet Alberto Barbon examining Mauve in the aviary. Photo by Harriet Clark
Digital microscope image of a chough faecal flotation The large dark oval shape in the top left of the image is a syngamus egg. Photo by Ann Thomasson
Shortly after Mauve abandoned her nest we noticed that she started looking a little run down and began sneezing and spluttering quite badly. She was caught up in the aviary and looked at by the Vet. Faecal samples showed she had nematodes and she was under weight. Highly likely to be stress-related, we kept her locked-in for a week and a treatment of Ivermectin. When she was looking better we released her back into the group.
Durrell’s Display Aviary
Thanks to a very kind private donor work can now begin on the renovation work for the display aviary at Durrell.
As you can see from the photos it isn’t an easy job and will take several weeks. Once ready we will once again be able to flock the choughs together over the non-breeding season.
Dismantling netting frame of chough display aviary. Photo by Glynn Bower
Work began this month nf repairing and redesigning the display aviary at Durrell. Photo by Glynn Bower.
And finally…
The Institute of Zoology held a symposium in May entitled ‘Health and disease in translocated wild animals’. Organised by Tony Sainsbury and John Ewen (ZSL), Katherine Walsh and Ian Carter (Natural England), and Matt Hartley (RSPB) the two-day symposium reviewed the impact of disease on species restoration through translocation, and considered lessons learned to guide effective planning and implementation of future translocation projects. Health management of conservation interventions was discussed, including methods of disease-risk analysis, evaluation of disease management alternatives, use of molecular tools to unravel disease risks, mitigation of diseases and methods for post-release health monitoring.
Day 2 of the symposium held at ZSL. Photo by Liz Corry
To kick off the second day Prof. Carl Jones, chief scientist at Durrell, talked about managing behaviour; appropriate socialisation and early learning to enhance survival using our choughs as a case study.
Bean, Dingle and company fulfilled their flagship role that day and brought the Birds On The Edge project to the attention of a international crowd. In a good way I might add!
Proceedings of the talks will eventually be published in EcoHealth and made available upon request.
La Société Guernesiaise is to use its herd of six Guernsey steers to try to attract the skylark back to the Island by reintroducing grazing to the Port Soif Common area this summer. Many Islanders will remember the wonderful sight and sound of the skylarks that were once widespread in Guernsey, but sadly, apart from the odd visitor, no more. The area around Port Soif was well-known for these lovely ground-nesting birds, but none has bred there for about eight years.
The Conservation Herd moved to the area last weekend and will be grazing there for roughly six weeks to try to re-establish the habitat that attracted the birds to breed there.
Physical disturbance of the ground by trampling creates small bare patches of earth which disturb the seed bank and helps the germination of wildflowers. This has the potential to allow plants which may once have been considered lost from a site to re-establish or spread. These bare patches can also be important for ants and nesting solitary bees and wasps – and, hopefully, skylarks.
The birds won’t have far to travel. Jersey still has a population and conservationists there are very supportive of our efforts to bring some back here.
The land is managed by Guernsey’s Environment Department and since traditional grazing ended, the area has been tractor-mown each year. Tractor mowing is efficient but leaves the cut vegetation on the ground and a ‘thatch’ of dead grass builds up, the thatch smothers finer grasses and plants, encouraging coarser plants such as common hogweed and brambles to thrive. Reintroducing traditional grazing will increase the range of plants found here and an improved habitat will develop for insects and small mammals. Grazing these areas of land will also allow the grassland to retain small tussocks of grass which are ideal nesting sites for skylarks.
Julia Henney, the Conservation Herd’s manager, said, “Birds such as skylarks and cuckoo were commonly seen in Guernsey until relatively recently. Traditional grazing around the coast has almost stopped and by reintroducing the Conservation Herd to selected sites we hope to recreate more favourable conditions that will encourage them to return here and, over time, to breed regularly on the Island. The Conservation Herd will be ideal to give ‘Operation Skylark’ the best possible start and it’s an exciting project for everyone involved.”
The Conservation Herd will be grazing within electric fencing for several weeks around Port Soif and will be checked daily by the team which cares for them. La Société and the Environment Department would welcome assistance from regular dog walkers and people who walk or exercise around Port Soif. ‘Watchers’ are sought to keep an eye on the cattle when they’re passing and report any problems or concerns to the Conservation Herd team.
Temporary signs are placed around the site to explain the project and give information on who to contact in the event of an emergency.
Anyone who would like more information on the Conservation Herd is welcome to contact conservationherd@societe.org.gg and follow the project on Facebook. Visit the online map here to track where they are grazing.
The European Red List of Birds, published this month by the European Commission, reveals that habitat loss and climate change have caused the declines of 20 per cent of European bird species.
The report’s foreword by novelist Margaret Atwood and poet Graeme Gibson minces no words: “First the birds, then us. Unless we pay attention, we’ll be on the Red List next.”
After three years of work, led by BirdLife International and financed by the European Commission, this report will set the base for European conservation and policy work over the coming years. The Red List is widely recognised as the most authoritative and objective system for assessing the extinction risk of species.
Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Policy says that: “These reports contain some worrying statistics, but they also show the value of well-targeted actions to protect the biodiversity we depend on both economically and socially. Our task is to find ways of building on those successes and spreading them to other areas. They are also a valuable input to our on-going Fitness Check. Europe needs nature legislation that is fit for purpose.”
Iván Ramírez, Head of Conservation at BirdLife International (European and Central Asian Division) said: “The new European Red List of Birds is a call to arms for the conservation of our natural world. It is inspiring to see that many species targeted by conservation efforts and supported by key tools such as the Birds Directive and the LIFE programme are recovering. Yet it is shocking to see many species that used to be common now listed as threatened. It is deeply worrying to contemplate the possibility of a world with no puffins, European turtle doves, northern lapwings or oystercatchers“.
And Christina Ieronymidou, the European Species Programme Officer at BirdLife, commented: “The Red List tells us that we have done a decent job at rescuing the rarest species by protecting their last strongholds and taking actions such as eradication of invasive species and insulation of killer power lines. We are now faced with much bigger challenges, from the ecological degradation of our farmland to climate change. These problems require a much broader and deeper response.”
The very bad news
13 per cent (67 species) of the 533 species assessed are threatened at European level, of which 10 are Critically Endangered (the highest threat level). Among them some iconic birds such as: sociable lapwing, yellow-breasted bunting, slender-billed curlew (which is probably already extinct) and, of local importance, Balearic Shearwater. The study also found that 18 species are Endangered and an additional 39 Vulnerable.
A total of 29 species have been uplisted since 2004, having been formerly considered to be of Least Concern but now threatened or Near Threatened in Europe. These species include, of local importance, European turtle dove, oystercatcher, puffin, razorbill, meadow pipit, kittiwake and common pochard. Some further species that were identified as being in trouble a decade ago have still not improved including Egyptian vulture, greater spotted eagle and little bustard but also aquatic warbler and northern lapwing.
There is some good news
Improvements include a total of 20 species which were previously considered regionally threatened, and are now classified as Least Concern in Europe (although some are still globally threatened). These include Dalmatian pelican, ferruginous duck, stone-curlew, black kite, lesser kestrel, long-legged buzzard, gull-billed tern, black-throated diver and great bustard. Another 25 species are still threatened in Europe, but now have a lower extinction risk than a decade ago, and have seen their threat level downlisted. For example, Zino’s petrel and Azores bullfinch, both previously considered to be Critically Endangered, are now classified as Endangered.
Last week, particularly on Friday 15th May, we at Birds On The Edge were very honoured to spend time with the BBC’s Countryfile team while they were in the Channel Islands filming an episode for this long running, and very high profile, television programme. After a week setting up the background and discussing just what was possible, and who might perform for the cameras, we were joined by presenter Matt Baker for the choughs and the sheep to make their nationwide bows.
On Friday morning, Harriet introduced Matt to Gianna and her foster baby, known so far just as K. Gianna let Matt feed her and see her baby in their nest. In the afternoon Matt and Harriet joined the team at Sorel to call in the flock of choughs and give them their afternoon feed. The birds waited patiently around the aviary while the best angles for filming were discussed and all came in on cue. They even came back for more mealworms and a re-shoot. After feeding, the birds provided some perfect crowd shots as they flew around, calling.
While the choughs were being filmed, Aaron, Euan, Mist the Dog and the Manx loaghtans waited patiently behind the cameras. They then got their turn for stardom as Aaron introduced Matt to the sheep flock and even caught one unsuspecting ewe for closer inspection. Mist watched on closely.
The filming ended as Matt’s co-presenter Ellie Harrison joined everyone at Sorel, coming from Plémont where she had been with the National Trust team looking at the land restoration underway at the old holiday camp site (see the NTJ Facebook site). Matt and Ellie signed off the show in front of the stunning backdrop of the Island’s north coast and Sorel Point in the sunlight. All the while watched by the choughs and the sheep.
Please watch the show on Sunday 31st May at 19.00 and again on iPlayer. In writing this we don’t know exactly which shots will be used in the final show but I’m quite sure it’ll all be good. Many thanks to the BBC’s Emily Vaughan Williams and Nick Denning and Durrell’s Rick Jones for working hard to set up our day in the spotlight and to all the Countryfile team for giving the choughs and the sheep their star turns.
In March we outlined opportunities to watch Channel Islands seabirds remotely through web cameras. We included tantalising details of future access to Alderney’s gannet colonies and even some video from previous seasons. Well, now Alderney Wildlife Trust and LIVE are pleased to update everyone as the camera on Ortac has gone live!
The camera is still a very new instillation and next year we will be able to take full advantage of the supper Falsystems pan/tilt/zoom camera array. However for 2015, AWT very much hope that GannetCam, when it is officially launched in early to mid-June alongside the Track A Gannet (TAG) project, will provide school students, teachers and the general public an unrivalled view into the world of the this spectacular seabird.
Alderney’s two northern gannet colonies (Les Etacs and Ortac) are, together, the second most southerly colonies in the world and support over 2% of the species’ population. With seven offshore wind farm sites proposed within the English Channel and tidal turbines likely to be deployed in Alderney’s waters, it is more important than ever for us to understand as much about these magnificent birds as possible.
You may notice a plastic bag has caught underneath the camera. Gannets when creating their nest will collect floating debris on the ocean. This originally would only be plant and seaweed material but with the growing problems of plastic pollution in the world’s seas we now find a lot more fishing line and plastic is being used in the nests. The plastic bag you see on camera is an example of this pollution. For more information about marine litter and AWT’s campaign against it visit their website
So please do drop in to GannetCam. There is never a dull moment in a gannet colony when the birds are at home!
A landmark report published this week has shown that European biodiversity is being lost at unacceptable rates. Intensive agriculture is shown to be the main culprit while protected areas can be seen to have a positive impact for conservation
The State of Nature 2015 report shows that only a minority of European species is in favourable conservation status in most EU Member States, and that the situation is even worse for habitats. Farming related activities are the most prominent threat to biodiversity in the EU today across species, habitats, sites and ecosystems. Unsustainable fishing is a main threat to the marine environment while damage to rivers represents the main threat to fresh water habitats and species.
Among ecosystem types, grasslands are in the worst crisis and this situation is clearly linked to agricultural intensification. The marine environment has a particular concentration of threatened species.
Ariel Brunner, Head of Policy at BirdLife Europe, stated: “The new report shows that conservation efforts are having an impact but that the overall situation of EU biodiversity is still dire. If we do not deal urgently with some of the major drivers of biodiversity loss, agriculture in particular, we are going to miss the 2020 target, lose precious habitats and species and pay a high price as a society”.
“On the positive side – added Brunner – there are clear indications that the Natura 2000 network is having a positive impact. Over 100,000 European citizens in just one week have participated to the European Commission consultation (join in here) to save Natura 2000. The findings of the State of Nature offer scientific support to these demands. Let’s hope the Commission takes both into consideration”.
The State of Nature 2015 is the first harmonized report by the European Commission on the state of the EU biodiversity, based on data reported by Member States under obligations emanating from article 12 of the Birds Directive and article 17 of the Habitats Directive.
Key findings for birds in this report are:
Half of the bird populations in EU Member States are reported as being Secure but around one sixth are regionally threatened with another sixth near threatened, declining or depleted.
Wintering bird populations appear to have fared better than breeding bird populations, although data was only available for a subset of birds, mostly waterbirds, many of which are better monitored in winter when they migrate to and congregate in Europe.
Many bird species previously considered under serious threat are, however, increasing. These results suggest that conservation action is having a positive effect on their populations. However, a high proportion of these birds remain threatened at EU level, owing to their small and/or declining populations and/or ranges.
Overall, the most frequently reported pressures or threats for birds were changes in agriculture, followed by modification of natural systems and use of living resources (hunting, trapping, poisoning and poaching). Agricultural pressures/threats are particularly associated with grasslands or heathland and scrub ecosystems and include modification of cultivation practices and changes in grazing regimes.
On habitats
Results for the conservation status of habitats vary considerably between EU Member States. The majority indicate a low level of habitats which are ‘favourable’ and a majority of the overall assessments for habitats have an ‘unfavourable’ conservation status.
Again, the two most frequently reported pressures and threats for habitats are agriculture and modification of natural conditions (each 19 %) including through fertilization, changes in grazing by livestock, and the abandonment of pastoral systems/lack of grazing.
The full report can be read here or in ‘brochure’ form here
Please also visitthis site to express your views on revision of the EU Nature Directives. The Channel Islands are not in the EU but citizens of EU countries can still express their views.
The first clutch of the season captured on the nest camera.
The breeding pairs at the park laid their first eggs of the season this month. Issy waited until after the Easter Bank Holiday to start her clutch of five eggs.
As planned, keepers waited until she had been incubating the clutch for at least five days (25% of the incubation period) and then transferred them to the artificial incubator. Tristan and Issy immediately started rebuilding the nest with the intention to re-lay.
As with all artificially incubated eggs, these were weighed, measured, and then set in the incubator. Staff weighed the eggs daily to monitor weight loss and candled the eggs to check on development. After evaluating methodology and data from last year’s breeding season we decided to set the initial humidity levels lower at 30% instead of 50% to increase hatching success. This seems to have had a positive effect last year.
Sadly, four of Issy’s five eggs died very early on, potentially before staff removed them from the nest. The fifth egg (not necessarily laid in that order) survived. Not only that but it showed an almost perfect pattern of expected weight loss over its incubation period. We think this was due to the reduced humidity. The expected hatch date for the egg is May 1st.
Gwinny waited until the end of the month to start laying. She did the same last year and timed it with Issy laying her second clutch. We had hoped that this year the male having now acquainted himself with what an egg looks like, would co-operate and not throw them out. Alas, the first sign of Gwinny having an egg was a discarded one on the aviary floor when the keeper went in to feed.
Looking back at the recorded footage from the nest-camera we spotted Gwinny laying an egg at around 20.00 one evening. At 06.15 the male went in and removed the egg in his beak when Gwinny was off the nest. Watch in this nest camera video as the male removes the egg – and watch Gwinny return showing her disapproval!
We set up the cameras so we could watch from our computers at home. At 06.00 the next day Harriet woke, switched on the computer and dialled 9-9-EGG! Catherine, living the closest to the park, leapt into action and headed straight for the aviary to rescue the egg. Harriet continued to watch as the male carefully removed the egg just before Catherine arrived at 06:10! We were able to rescue one egg from Gwinny’s clutch. We do not actually know at this stage whether the egg is fertile. We will have to wait and see.
Gianna’s golden egg
After Gianna’s master class in the art of nest building last month she advanced to demonstrating how to incubate an egg!
When she finished building the nest she spent a few days moping around the aviary looking a bit lost. This period is when you expect the pair to be copulating. Gianna’s substitute partner (guess who!) spent a lot of time tickling her lower back resulting in quivering wings and tail feathers. I am not sure I can go into much more detail for readers before the watershed.
The next stage was to provide her with a dummy egg to trick her into thinking she had started laying. It worked and she laid her first slightly odd-looking egg. Nevertheless she was very proud of that egg and has been incubating it diligently ever since. This is very good training for next year if she is to become a foster mum.
Breeding pairs at Sorel
In March we witnessed the first twigs to be carried by nesting choughs out on the north coast. This month things stepped up a gear. Twigs, gorse, dried bracken, and wool were just some of the items collected by the choughs. Interestingly the two dominant males did most of the work flanked all the time by their females. In the case of White, by both his females.
Hopefully they re not flying off to Sark with that twig. Photo by Liz Corry
White feeding Mauve whilst his other female forages alongside. Photo by Liz Corry
White and one of his two females, Black, taking time out to bond over a preening session. Photo by Liz Corry.
With the nests complete towards the end of the month (well at least thats what we think) the males turned their attention to courtship displays and mating.
Photo by Paul Pestana.
Watch this short video of one of the males displaying in the aviary towards two females.
For a while it seemed like April would be a very average month in the Sorel chough calendar. Then, true to form, scandal broke.
Dingle joining the other juveniles on the aviary roof. Photo by Liz Corry
Dingle, our hand-reared male, didn’t come home to roost at the aviary one night. For the past month or so the juveniles and an unpaired adult, Red, spent their nights in the aviary. The 8pm radio-tracking session towards the start of the month showed that Dingle was not there. Neither was Red!
Growing up, Dingle and the other three hand-reared chicks were always very close. Dingle begs for food from them, often they cave in and feed. He might reciprocate. Chickay and Bean probably spend more time with him than little Caûvette. Mutual preening observed on a daily basis.
Maybe Red’s recent heartbreak from Green and Dingle’s ‘teenage’ hormones have led to the two forming a bond. Can it lead to something more?
Red and Dingle are now spending time together and roost away from the juveniles. Photo by Liz Corry.
Radio tracking and behavioural observations
Green dropped his transmitter on the 19th. This has very little impact on his way of life, but is extremely frustrating for the team as we can no longer distinguish between the three males in flight. Our behavioural observations are now biased towards those birds we can identify, i.e. choughs feeding on open grazed land or at the aviary. We have stopped these observations and are now focusing on nesting behaviour.
Behavioural observations in the field. Photo by Liz Corry
The radio-tracking study of the males’ home range also terminated at the end of the month due to the lack of transmitters. Despite trying to adapt we could no longer collect the required data. This will not stop us from following the choughs. It just restricts the amount of quantitative data for analysis.
Once the choughs take flight it is often difficult to tell them apart. Photo by Liz Corry
Choughs probing the sheep-grazed coastline. Photo by Paul Pestana.
Student exchange
Jen sampling gorse cupcakes. Photo by Harriet Clark.
Jennifer who joined the project in October last year, bid farewell to the choughs and Jersey this month as she returned home to the UK. Jen is the only non-resident student who has been able to commit to more than three months so far.
I’m sure that as the winter months set in at Sorel she began to regret signing up for so long.
Jen assures me that it was worth staying the course and has learnt a great deal including how gorse flower cupcakes taste! We are extremely grateful to have had Jen on our team and admire her dedication throughout.
New student Paul getting to know the choughs. Photo by Liz Corry
Jen handed over the reins to our new student Paul Pestana.
Paul is a familiar face at Durrell having swapped telecommunications for a career in conservation several years ago.
For the last six months Paul has been a volunteer in Mauritius working closely with the pink pigeons. The skills Paul has acquired out in the tropics are very applicable to the student placement role. With the added bonus of not having to deal with mosquitoes.
Whilst not quite up to tropical standards, the weather in Jersey improved greatly this month with the thermometer pushing 25°C – clearly challenging to both choughs and sheep (and field staff who forget sun block!).
The sheep seeking shade at Sorel (try saying that at speed). Photo by Liz Corry
The most challenging weather for staff at Sorel, however, may be when the sea fog rolls in. Breath-taking it may be, yet really really annoying when you are trying to follow birds across a 2km stretch of coastline.
Sea fog clung to the cliffs the entire day on 13th April. Photo by Liz Corry
The spate of good weather meant the juveniles had the opportunity to kick back and relax. If ever proof was needed that choughs play then this was it.
When corvids play it releases endorphins the same way as in humans, making them feel happy. And when choughs play with wool they are actually learning; watching how the adults pick out wool to line nests.
Who knows what else they learn out at Sorel…
Jean
We still have no news on the fate of Jean. We have officially declared her as deceased in the International Species Information System (ZIMS). There is though one new theory to her mystery disappearance. Alien tractor beam.
We have seen in our reports on this website that the exact causes of declines in turtle doves in our part of the world are not fully established. While changes in farming practices that have reduced traditional feeding opportunities and the risk of novel diseases from related species like the collared dove are undoubtedly implicated, continuing pressure from ‘sport’ hunters on the doves’ migration routes are a major factor, if not in the decline, certainly in preventing the population from recovering.
European turtle dove distribution map from Plant of Birds http://www.planetofbirds.com/columbiformes-columbidae-turtle-dove-streptopelia-turtur
The European turtle dove is not yet considered globally threatened and has a very large range but in Europe it is considered to have an unfavourable conservation status, a status that may be confused by those, probably uncertain, numbers outside of the region (species account here). In the UK, where the turtle dove population has seen a 95% decrease it is given the RED status of a species whose population or range has declined rapidly in recent years, or that has declined historically and not shown a substantial recent recovery. In Jersey is too has RED status.
Our turtle doves are migratory, visiting us for just the spring and early summer. While the exact routes that our turtle doves take are unknown, in order for them to get to and from their wintering areas south of the Sahara, most European birds must pass through narrow sea crossings, safe areas, to avoid lengths of open water. These ‘safe’ areas are anything but safe.
Jersey’s birds would most likely have gone south through France and Spain before flying across Morocco. Birds from further east in Europe go through the islands of the Mediterranean including Malta and Cyprus. These islands lie on one of the main flyways of wild bird migration (over 384 bird species have been recorded in Malta). The importance of these islands to European bird populations like that of the turtle dove mean that they should be treasured.
However, the large scale shooting and trapping of birds during migration through Malta and parts of Cyprus are well known to conservationists right across Europe, and to anyone who has visited. During the spring and autumn, thousands of migrating and resident birds are shot indiscriminately. Further, thousands of small songbirds are trapped to be caged or for the table. An analysis of international ringing recoveries of 75 species, from 35 countries, showed individuals that had been killed in Malta (report here). Many of these birds, like turtle doves, were rare or declining species, species that only have small numbers of young and take several years to reach sexual maturity. Birds that we and millions like us had cared for and protected during the breeding season!
The impact of hunting pressures on European bird populations can have serious repercussions on their conservation status. This hunting, much of it Illegal, is therefore an international issue that affects the breeding birds of almost all countries in Europe. Malta is an EU country and spring hunting and trapping is expressly forbidden by the Birds Directive. However, exceptions can be made and despite widescale disapproval elsewhere in Europe (see e.g. Chris Packham’s blog with videos here) it goes on.
Cyprus Base (Akrotiri and Dhekelia) is a British Overseas Territory which makes it very disappointing then that the numbers of trapped songbirds illegally killed there reached an estimated 900,000 birds in 2014 (report here) – the highest level recorded in 12 years.
Comparative figures reported for the Republic of Cyprus reveal that illegal bird trapping elsewhere on the island is still an issue (reports here), but the figures have reduced since 2002. The light of bad publicity is rightly being shone on Malta and Cyprus. Encouragingly, the Base Area authorities have recently signed up to a Cyprus Strategic Action Plan on illegal bird trapping.
Photo of legal turtle dove hunting from International Safari Corporation website http://www.safariinternational.com/en/small-game/passege-game/335-morocco-turtle-doves
Law enforcement throughout the islands is a key problem as authorities are under-resourced and under-staffed. What can we do? Please support the efforts of the local bird conservationists who often work under pressures that we couldn’t start to imagine here. BirdLife Malta and BirdLife Cyprus need support from all of us so check their websites and sign up to their newsletters. Keep up to date too through Mark Avery’s blog and Birders Against Wildlife Crime.
While the Eastern Mediterranean receives much publicity for its bird hunting, it does go on in the west where turtle doves can, in places, be hunted legally under strict conditions. Hunting trips to shoot (our?) turtle doves in Spain and Morocco (here and here) are freely advertised – that’s some holiday!
New York City in the USA has long been a favourite site for foreign visitors – including millions of birds. But here, as in other North American urban areas, birds face a significant danger: colliding with a building or structure. “It is estimated that some 90,000 birds die annually in New York City because of collisions with buildings,” says Susan Elbin, NYC Audubon’s director of conservation and science.
In the dark, and especially in foggy or rainy weather when birds fly at lower altitudes, the combination of glass and light becomes deadly. Confused by artificial lights, blinded by weather, unable to see glass, or simply exhausted by flying around the lights like moths near a flame, birds can be injured or killed. Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP), the Toronto-based conservation society that spearheaded the lights-out movement in 1993, is succinct about the threat: “Across North America, more birds die from collisions each year than succumbed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.” A landmark study conducted by the Field Museum in Chicago showed that by turning the lights off in one building, the number of bird kills dropped by an average of 83 percent.
Growing awareness of light’s fatal attraction to birds has led to action: NYC Audubon inaugurated Lights Out New York in 2005. This year, a number of the city’s iconic buildings such as the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, 501 Lexington Avenue (formerly known as Citigroup Center), Silverstein Properties, The Time Warner Center and the Worldwide Plaza will turn off their lights from midnight to dawn during peak migration season from 1st September to 1st November.
In downtown Chicago, about 100 buildings go dark after 11pm for six months during spring and autum migrations. That is “virtually all of the buildings downtown over 40 stories,” according to Annette Prince, director of Chicago Audubon Society’s Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. And in May, Minnesota’s governor signed a bill that requires structures owned or leased by the state to turn out the lights after midnight during spring and autumn migrations. Other bills supporting Audubon lights-out efforts have been passed or sponsored in Michigan, Massachusetts, and San Francisco.
Not only birds are saved. By following Toronto’s bird-friendly rating system, Metro Hall posted annual savings of $200,000 in energy costs.
Savings in terms of birds’ lives are not as easily measured. In New York City, about thirty volunteers patrol a handful of buildings in the city during migration as part of Project Safe Flight. “The monitoring and research improves our understanding of the causes behind urban bird collisions and suggests ways to prevent bird collisions from occurring,” says Elbin, adding: “The number of birds migrating in autum and spring seemed light this year since few birds were found at the 13 buildings monitored.” (One hundred and fifty eight and 65 bird kills were found, respectively.) White-throated sparrows, common yellowthroats, and ovenbirds were the most numerous species found.
Glenn Phillips, NYC Audubon’s executive director, explains that such low numbers can be misleading and are due in part to New York City’s unique architecture: “We don’t know the true scope of the problem in part because of the set backs of the buildings. With set backs, the birds may fall onto high floors, their bodies never reaching the ground. Other considerations are: predators, wind currents, and traffic. All these factors make it hard for us to collect data and monitor deaths.”
Publications on bird-window collisions can be found here
A new and experimental project was launched today offering an unrivalled insight into the lifecycle of Britain’s largest native seabird, the northern gannet. The project entitled ‘Track a Gannet’, or T.A.G. for short, is jointly run by Britain’s smallest Wildlife Trust, the Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the University of Liverpool, and has enabled gannets to be put under surveillance using the 3G mobile network. The project is unique in that:
The tracking is done by fitting prototype GPS tags which have been developed by the BTO and the Universities of East Anglia and Lisbon and transmit data in near real time. The devices were attached to the tail feathers of 20 northern gannets by a team from the AWT, BTO and University of Liverpool, and connect the birds with any 3G enabled mobile network they come into contact with, at which time the tags download the track of where the birds have been. The tags transmit the flight paths of the gannets to the website which updates every time a bird comes within range of the European 3G network. The website offers the most ‘real time’ form of monitoring ever attempted on birds at sea.
The same webpage also has a live streaming GannetCam webcam which is situated on the Ortac gannet colony. The webcam enables both scientists and the public to get a much more detailed glimpse into the birds’ behaviour within their colony. In fact, several of the birds with tags on are nesting in front of the camera and can, therefore, be followed live both through the transmitters and the camera. If tags survive until the chicks have left our waters it is hoped that the project will yield the first live streaming data from gannets heading to their wintering grounds.
Alderney hosts a number of important seabird colonies in the English Channel and with six wind and three tidal developments proposed in waters surrounding the island under consideration by UK, French and Alderney governments, the Alderney Wildlife Trust is increasingly concerned about the need to understand and protect its seabirds.
