When the first choughs arrived at the Durrell Wildlife Park in 2011, a very inspired person (Mike Stentiford) suggested that the project collect video footage of every aspect of this programme as we went along. That way we would have footage of everything we did and could use it in the future for educational purposes or for making our own film.
Mike then went on to recommend the wonderful Annette Lowe who had helped him with some previous filming. We in turn are very grateful that Annette said yes when we approached her, and further agreed to come and film us in all weather and whatever we did through the year, however mundane it must have seemed sometimes. Annette also agreed to volunteer her services and to hide in hedges whenever necessary.
When the choughs were shut in the release aviary for the winter, Annette thought that she had perhaps reached the end of this particular part of the programme. There is now plenty of footage of past activities available for use in future productions and, as a reflection on this work, Annette has kindly put together a short (13 minutes) video on the project to date. Sit back and watch this summary of everyone’s hard work and join us all in looking forward to the next phase. Oh, and hope for some good weather!
2013 was a very busy year for the Farmland bird monitoring team. Whatever the weather, and last year there was plenty of it, we were out counting birds. The ‘Farmland’ title of the project is a little misleading as we count birds at 20 sites across a variety of habitats including true farmland, woodland, heath and sand dune. The project doesn’t include seabirds at sea or on the cliffs or waterbirds on open water – but any that fly over our transects are fair game!
In 2013, 486 record sheets were filled out by our team of 13 volunteer recorders. Since the project started in 2005 we have filled out 2,517 sheets. That’s a lot of birds to put into the data base. We’ve now seen 161 species, one more since the last posting in June, with yellow-browed warbler the most recent addition (recorded at Durrell and Le Saie) this autumn.
Why do we record all these birds?
Consistent, systematic, long-term bird monitoring like this can tell us a lot about what is happening with our local bird populations. This is very important information when planning conservation strategies and updating protection laws or establishing protected sites. The red list of Jersey’s birds (available here) was based on long-term projects like this. Monitoring can show us too seasonality of birds (how many there are through the year) like the common whitethroat (below) but it can also show us alarming trends in their status over the years like the unfortunate greenfinch. It can, of course, also show us those birds that are actually doing pretty well like the great tit.
Common whitethroat. Results from farmland bird survey 2005-2013
Greenfinch. Results from farmland bird survey 2005-2013
Greenfinch. Results from farmland bird survey 2005-2013
What were the team’s highlights in 2013?
The team were asked what their personal highlights were. Sally and the National Trust team told Birds On The Edge that, “whilst hundreds of birds have been seen and counted, including kingfishers, marsh harriers, peregrines, stonechats and goldcrests, the sighting that stands out the most has to be when we found long-eared owl chicks, sitting in a tree in Fern Valley.
“It was a lovely, sunny, still morning; we had almost finished the transect, and it had been rather quiet, not many birds had been seen, probably because sunrise was a little earlier than our start time. Jonny ‘Hawk-eye’ Parkes spotted them first, sitting quietly on the spindly branches on an alder tree, four pairs of big, glowing, orange eyes looking at us, looking at them. We were transfixed, they were so beautiful to see, very fluffy and cute, with big saucer shaped eyes, and they were as interested in us as we were of them.
“None of us had seen real live, wild owl chicks before, so it was really hard to drag ourselves away, we had to finish the transect after all, and report our sightings to anyone and everyone that would listen”!
Cris also wrote: “I enjoy these (two) transects as they happen to go right through a bit of land that is the focus of my work – habitat restoration to save Jersey’s endangered birds. Walking the transects allows me to witness how the restoration management is being implemented and how it’s slowly changing the landscape and improving the habitats for the wildlife community. Hopefully, in time, the data from the transects will show an increase on bird numbers and diversity that will reflect those habitat improvements. The second best thing about this transects is that, on a good day, I get to record all five resident raptors in Jersey: kestrel, sparrowhawk, buzzard, peregrine falcon and marsh harrier”.
Harriet (W) was more than happy too with her year. In November she found not one but two cirl buntings on the Noirmont transect! Harriet (C) found a common quail and Glyn’s highlight was getting two bitterns together on a transect!
Richard retires
Very sadly, one of our stalwart counters, Richard, has had to retire from the programme. Richard covered two transects on the east of the Island and was lucky enough to have breeding cirl buntings, firecrests and buzzards on his patch. We will all miss Richard very much but we do know that we’ll still see him as he’ll continue to feed the cirl buntings to make sure that they are getting enough food throughout the year.
Like to join us?
With Richard’s retirement we are looking for new volunteer recorders. As you can see, it’s always fun and we need someone who can commit themselves to doing their transect once in each fortnight (you can chose which day and we can bring on a sub for holidays and other absences). No transect is much more than one kilometre in length and they are all easy to walk. It is, of course, important to be able to identify our common birds both by sight and , often more importantly, by sound but don’t worry about those rarities if you aren’t certain about Richard’s pipits or honey-buzzards. Rarities may just the icing on the cake for us observers and you’ll learn about them as you go! We will show you the routes and help with bird identification. If you are interested please reply through this web page.
Three new choughs arrived in Jersey on 2nd December thanks to our friends at Paradise Park. Alison Hales, Director of Paradise Park, and her husband Ray, drove the new birds from Hayle in Cornwall and onto the ferry at Weymouth. Keepers had to move the choughs into their export crates the evening before their departure, and then they were driven off before the crack of dawn to make the ferry. On arrival in Jersey they went straight to Durrell’s Vet Department for routine health screening then on to Sorel. The choughs entered a thirty-day quarantine period and remained separated from the original five birds for the first three weeks.
These new recruits are two chicks from the 2013 breeding season and an older male juvenile. Having more males in the group will hopefully boost breeding opportunities in the forthcoming years. They have certainly settled in well, coming down for food and going straight on the weighing scales.
When the choughs arrived in Jersey they were treated as a precaution for gapeworm with ivermectin. This needed to be repeated after 14 days so on the 17th they were caught up by the vet. The new birds’ body weights were recorded at the time and it was clear that they had been gaining weight since being in the aviary. This is a good sign since the stress of the import would have reduced their weights and the cold weather at Sorel would cause the birds to burn more calories. They are obviously feeding well!
The two groups in the aviary were mixed on the 20th and despite a few expected scuffles everyone seemed harmonious. There has certainly been solidarity throughout the gales and downpours with the birds sheltering together. However, towards the end of the month a fight between two of the choughs was witnessed in which one bird was pinned to the ground by the other. Fights like these are common in the wild when arguing over territory and females. They can often lead to quite serious, sometimes fatal, injuries. This particular fight started over food and, in a confined space such as the aviary, it isn’t unexpected when there are new males establishing their roles within a group.
The new recruits have been given colour rings and accordingly they have been named ‘Yellow’, ‘Cerise’, and ‘White-L’ (not to be confused with sadly deceased ‘White’). At a later date they will be fitted with radio transmitters in order to follow their movements in the wild.
Nest Box Cameras
With the VIP cargo uncrated and settled in, Alison and Ray turned their attentions to the captive collection at Durrell. They stayed in Jersey for a few days to help set up nest cameras for the 2014 breeding season. They kindly donated equipment and spent time training staff in how to use the software.
Expectations are high this year with both keepers and choughs now experienced in how to get nests, eggs, and chicks. Efforts now, as always, will be to increase the chicks’ chances of survival to post-fledging. With improved image quality and chough-proofed cameras so they stay in place, keepers will be able to see when they need to intervene to help the chick. For example a chick gasping in the nest can be a sign of gapeworm infection or overheating. Keepers will be looking out for this and treating to prevent conditions worsening.
Footage from the cameras will not be live to the public, but edited clips can be posted through this website.
Surprising benefits of species restoration
As always, this project is not just about restoring Jersey’s chough population. Some additional benefits take a lot of time and planning. The grazing sheep restoring the coastal grassland areas at Sorel may seem low maintenance, but as Aaron le Couteur will tell you it is the complete opposite. The rams are kept off-site to avoid ‘encounters’ with the public during the breeding season: their horns are much larger than the females and juveniles out on the cliffs and can get them into a lot of trouble. On Boxing Day three broke free from their field so Aaron had to move them to a secure field. The aviary field was the ideal surrogate home whilst the fencing was repaired.
The new additions in ‘their’ field provided welcome enrichment/amusement for the choughs, although their antics started to put the integrity of the aviary fencing to the test. Fortunately the fencing in the original field was fixed before the choughs’ fence gave way and the rams have now been moved back.
Housing the choughs at Sorel has also benefitted a somewhat unexpected character. For several months now a young kestrel has been spotted hanging out at the aviary. The height of the poly-tunnel gives the kestrel a good viewpoint over the surrounding fields to plan it’s next meal. More recently the kestrel has been spotted inside the external chough roost-boxes no doubt sheltering from the stormy weather. The shelter of the aviary also attracts small rodents which have may have caught the eye, and talons, of the kestrel.
We will be keeping a close look at the situation. Kestrels do not pose any threats to choughs and, in the wild, choughs will often roost near to kestrels as they act as a deterrent to other competitors and/or threats. The concern will be more for the kestrel and whether it decides to set up a permanent home/nest at the aviary.
Winter is not an easy time for birds. They need extra energy to keep warm, especially during long winter nights. To cope with this, they lay down extra fat reserves, though small birds quite often only lay down enough for a single night. Longer nights not only affect the amount of energy a bird uses, they also reduce the amount of time that birds can feed in. Birds, therefore, have to make the most of the daylight hours to replenish their energy reserves before it gets dark.
The 2004 BTO Shortest Day Survey, run in association with BBC Radio 4, investigated the patterns behind birds arriving at garden bird feeders first thing on a winter’s morning. Building on observations from the Shortest Day Survey, the Early Bird Survey will investigate what effect, if any, light and heat pollution have on the feeding patterns of birds during a cold winter’s morning.
Your help is needed to work out how light pollution affects the foraging behaviour of garden birds.
The Early Bird Survey will be taking place on Thursday 9th January. It’s a simple survey that requires you to get up before sunrise (which you’ll have noticed is still quite late!), note the birds arriving at your garden feeding station and enter them online.
Once you enter your results, you’ll get immediate feedback about how your garden compares to those of other observers!
If you are free to do it tomorrow, please download the instructions today as we will also be collecting data on artificial light sources and overnight temperatures.
The Countryside Enhancement Scheme (CES) is an environmental improvement scheme open to all Jersey landowners, land managers, businesses, charities, schools, States departments and others. The scheme is funded by the States of Jersey and offers financial incentives that support and reward environmental initiatives through voluntary management agreements designed to look after Jersey’s countryside. This includes enhancement of wildlife, landscapes, historic features and natural resources (soils and water), as well as providing new opportunities for public access.
Last year, the Countryside Enhancement Scheme funded a project to clear large amounts of bracken from publicly administered land on the slopes west and east of Plémont in order to improve the condition and species diversity of these coastal habitats. A total of 17,151m² (9.5 verges or 4.3 acres) of bracken scrub has been cleared on this occasion.
In the past these steep slopes would have been managed by grazing animals, and by harvesting bracken and gorse for animal bedding and fuel respectively, giving opportunity for short, species-rich grassland and wild flowers to flourish. Today the only grazing which takes place is done by rabbits, which unfortunately is not enough to stop the gradual encroachment of gorse scrub and bracken.
The aim is to return the slopes to their former ecologically diverse coastal heathland habitat, encouraging fire-tolerant shrub vegetation such as heathers Calluna vulgaris and Erica cinerea, gorse Ulex gallii and broom Cytisus scoparius.
The project compliments Birds On The Edge objectives in conserving maritime heath, cliff and slope habitats which are listed as valuable key habitats in the Jersey Biodiversity Strategy (2000).
Access to manage the slopes is difficult due to their being so steep and being isolated from any close parking and other infrastructure. It is planned that a number of ‘holes’ be created in the coastal scrub with a more diverse vegetation within. The long term intention is to re-establish grazing to these slopes with the livestock foraging between these holes and ultimately linking them, creating habitat corridors. The first step is to create areas which can be grazed and which will supply a sufficient amount of fodder to sustain the livestock.
The contractor successfully cut the bracken scrub to ground level and then rolled it into piles of mulch at the bottom of the slopes. The team will return to the site in early June (2014) to treat any bracken regrowth with the fern specific herbicide Asulox.
The champions of the Birds On The Edge Farmland Scheme
By Cris Sellarés
Birds On The Edge would like to recognise the hard work and commitment of the star farmers that have made our Farmland Scheme possible. They not only joined the scheme with enthusiasm and have sowed the conservation crops on their fields after harvesting the potatoes, but they have also looked after them for the benefit of Jersey’s threatened wildlife. Without our champion farmers none of this would have been possible, so here’s a big THANK YOU to them. Show your support and encouragement for their efforts in safeguarding our farmland birds by buying local produce whenever you can!
This feature is included as a permanent page on the website here and will be updated.
Steve Baudains
Steve comes from a family that has been farming in Jersey for five generations, since the late 19th century. He started working for companies such as the Jersey Royal Company and partnered up with other farmers until he took over his family’s farm in St Lawrence a couple of years ago. Steve has been running the farm with his father ever since and looks after the land of a various of landowners across the north and west of Jersey, mainly producing Jersey Royals for Albert Bartlett.
Colin Huelin
Colin’s farm and land on the north coast has been in his mother’s side of the family for over 70 years. Colin’s childhood memories are of his brother and himself jumping off the bus from school and going straight to the fields to pick potatoes and, later as a teenager, to drive the tractor around collecting bales of hay. Colin is an independent potato producer and sells his crops directly to local and UK markets.
Alexander Richardson
Alexander works alongside his father Doug on the many enterprises of their farm in St Ouen. Through their company they produce and sell a variety of eco-friendly fuels and pellet stoves to keep the cold away. They are an independent producer of Jersey Royals and sell their crop to Albert Bartlett. For more information on their produce check out their website at FarmFuels.
Ian Le Brun and The Jersey Royal Company
Ian ‘Toots’ Le Brun has been with the Jersey Royal Company since it was created in 2002. At that time he had been working for four years for Fairview Farms, which became one of the five founder members of the JRC. His present role at JRC involves securing the land base and making sure that the landlords and ladies wishes, if they have any, are executed. He also looks after the 2nd crop programme which again needs to fill the requirements of all parties concerned. The JRC has been using bird conservation crops under the advice of an independent consultant for over 10 years now in areas such as La Rocque, Victoria Tower, La Hougue Bie and Sorel, providing food for birds in winter across the Island. Their experience with the conservation crops has been invaluable to Birds On The Edge and by joining this scheme it has allowed them to expand the land that is put towards conservation crops. Read more about their work here.
Three new choughs arrived in Jersey last week thanks to our friends at Paradise Park. On arrival they went straight to Durrell’s Vet Department for routine health screening then on to Sorel. They are now undertaking a thirty-day quarantine period before being allowed out.
These new recruits are two chicks from this year and an older male juvenile. Having more males in the group will hopefully boost breeding opportunities in the forthcoming years. They have certainly settled in well, coming down for food and going straight on the weighing scales. The ‘older’ residents have also warmed to them although due to the quarantine restrictions they are separated at present.
The new recruits have been given colour rings and uniquely coded transponders. At a later date they will be fitted with radio transmitters to follow their movements in the wild.
The arrival of the new choughs coincides with the decision to postpone releases until the New Year. When the weather starts to improve and daylight hours increase we will look to continue. By that time the quarantine period should have ended and the two groups mixed, trained, and ready to take to the skies once again.
November was a relatively quiet month regarding chough activity. Green was mixed back with the females on the first of the month. Considering the amount of squabbling the females had been doing whilst he was locked away the mixing was very uneventful. He immediately reunited with Mauve, the birds preening each other to make the point. The rest just carried on with their day to day business.
After several days of being mixed it was clear to see that the bond between Green and Mauve was as strong as ever. He was feeding fine and everyone was responding well to the whistle training. It took a while, however, for the birds to get over their fear of being caught up again.
Despite the group looking ready to be released again the weather conditions were certainly not looking good. Strong gale-force winds kept the choughs hunkered down seeking shelter. Even flying from one end of the aviary to the other proved challenging. Often the choughs would just ‘go with the flow’ and glide sideways through the hatches to a safe landing spot. Weighing the birds became near impossible with the scales moving and birds struggling to brace the wind.
Long-range forecasts suggest the weather is only going to get worse. Taking this into consideration along with the birds being locked in for so long the decision has been made to keep them in over the winter now.
Life in the wind tunnel (video from the chough cam)
Aviary DIY
With the birds locked in we took the opportunity to carry out some essential maintenance on the aviary as well as a few improvements. The major issue with any temporary structure on coastland is weather erosion. A few of the hatch hinges and associated wiring system had rusted despite oiling. The hinges were replaced, with the help of volunteer Neil Singleton, and the wires replaced with PVC coated wire (i.e. washing line!).
Both keeper doors needed mouse-proofing using half-inch galvanised mesh sunk into the ground. The perimeter of the aviary has sunken mesh around but the inch mesh covering the doors provides an easy access inside for small rodents. The food waste bin proving an obvious appeal to the fieldmice now that winter supplies are becoming scarce.
Extra shelter boxes have been added to the aviary to try and create a more appealing roosting environment for the choughs. Ideally, as was originally planned, the roof of the shed area would be covered. However, concerns over wind damage to the overall structure or panelling blowing off injuring the public has meant a compromise needed to be sorted. There is still some work needed to be done to improve the aviaries appeal but, for now, it more than adequately provides shelter for a bird like the chough from the wind and rain.
In early September, Birds On The Edge reported on Jersey’s Back to Work scheme. Since the middle of August, the Social Security Department and Department of the Environment have been trialing this scheme to help unemployed people in Jersey to gain skills and experience to gain permanent employment while carrying out dedicated projects in order to enhance Jersey’s biodiversity. This has tied in nicely with the Birds On The Edge project and has enabled the scheme to tackle tasks which directly benefit the aims of the project. Groups of 16 unemployed locals have been given necessary training and guided by Ecoscape, a local contractor with a wealth of environmental experience and know-how, tackling tasks which improve our local environment over six-week periods. To date over 45 candidates have joined the scheme, which will continue into the New Year.
Birds On The Edge has provided the groups with a variety of tasks to complete, all over the Island, which help to improve the participants skill set and work ethic, and at the same time have a large impact on the work and aims of the project.
One of the first projects targeted was at Petit Plémont, where the group cut and cleared a large amount of bracken and bramble mixed-scrub to encourage the re-colonisation of heathland associated vegetation. A total of 3,050m² (1.7 vergées or 0.75 acres) of bracken was cleared and removed from site.
Following the success of the first task the scheme continued to tackle more north coast bracken scrub, this time at White Rock. On this site there was a large area of bracken and bramble dominated scrub which again was cut and cleared to allow regeneration.
The second group of workers from the Back to Work scheme continued where the last group left off, showing enthusiasm and interest for the aims of the project. They started by continuing the work at White Rock clearing remaining bramble and bracken and also clearing an amount of the invasive holm oak. A mosaic of areas has been cleared to date totalling 5,000m² (2.8 vergées or 1.3 acres). This second group then headed down to Egypt where the meadow was very overgrown. This large, recently neglected, meadow, which measures 9,300m² (5.17 vergées or 2.3 acres), was cut and cleared of the overgrown bracken, leaving only small islands of bracken to provide some shelter to the wildlife in the area. The tree canopy alongside the meadow was cut and raised to allow natural light through to encourage growth.
This group also set out to tackle tasks on the south coast, particularly at Noirmont Common Site of Special Ecological Interest. Here the groups set about clearing Hottentot fig which had taken over large areas of the headland. 3500m² (1.9 vergées or 0.86 acres) of bracken and ivy were also cut back and raked. Large piles of raked mulch were then removed so that any native plants growing in the area were not suffocated and had a chance to grow back.
With the change and evolution in agricultural practises leaving Jersey’s coastal habitat under-managed and resulting in an ecological decline in their condition it is with great excitement that the Back to Work Scheme can be targeted to achieve the aims of the Birds On The Edge project. The work which has been carried out by the Scheme will continue to tackle the coastal restoration tasks and also go some way to help to promote public awareness of the importance of these coastal restoration projects.
Conservation fields yield seed-rich crops for our farmland birds
By Cris Sellarés
You may remember announcement of our trial scheme to help farmland birds through the winter when it was launched last spring with the help of two private sponsors. Local farmers were supplied with a bird conservation seed mix to be planted into potato fields. The crops, similar to those used in the conservation fields that the National Trust for Jersey has at Le Don Hodges, near Sorel, were planted in clusters of fields across the north coast, after the Jersey Royals had been harvested.
Many local farmers and landowners kindly agreed to try these crops for a few months, so that they would provide our farmland birds with a source of food during the coldest months of the year. As soon as the crops were planted we started monitoring their growth every fortnight and documenting their development.
These conservation crops are composed of a rich variety of plants, especially chosen to produce large amounts of protein and fat-rich seeds, such as buckwheat, mustard, quinoa, chicory, sunflower, millet, gold-of-pleasure, triticale, spring wheat and phacelia, which is very good for insects too.
Such has been the success of some of these conservation fields that members of the Botany Section of the Societé Jersiaise have expressed their interest in the crops and shared her extensive knowledge on each plant’s history in Jersey and it’s importance for the ecosystem.
Some species in particular, such as gold-of-pleasure Camelina sativa or wheat, have all but disappeared from our landscape over the last few decades and it is exciting to find them again amongst our fields. Sadly, the varieties planted are commercial ones, produced and chosen for their value to the birds during winter, and are not likely to self-spread or go wild anytime soon, at least not before the fields are ploughed at the end of the winter to make way for next year’s crop of Jersey Royals.
When the first choughs arrived at the Durrell Wildlife Park in 2011, a very inspired person (Mike Stentiford) suggested that the project collect video footage of every aspect of this programme as we went along. That way we would have footage of everything we did and could use it in the future for educational purposes or for making our own film.
Mike then went on to recommend the wonderful Annette Lowe who had helped him with some previous filming. We in turn are very grateful that Annette said yes when we approached her, and further agreed to come and film us in all weather and whatever we did through the year, however mundane it must have seemed sometimes. Annette also agreed to volunteer her services and to hide in hedges whenever necessary.
