The first record of a bee orchid Ophrys apifera in Jersey was in 1912. Following that there were only four records, the last in 1947, all from Les Quennevais and St Ouen’s Bay. In 2005 some visitors to the Island sent a photograph of a bee orchid to the Eric Young Orchid Foundation that they said they had found in St Ouen’s Bay but were unable to say exactly where. Local botanists have tried to locate the plants every year since but only succeeded in June this year when Tina Hull and Anne Haden found three bee 
orchid plants north of Le Braye slip in St. Ouen’s Bay. The bee orchid is a protected plant inJersey.
158th bird species on monitoring transects
The 158th bird species was recorded on one of our bird monitoring transects on 26th May. A fine spoonbill Platalea alba was recorded in the scrape area south of the pond on the St Ouen’s Bay transect. This bird was present for a few days but it’s always nice if a rare bird stays long enough to get counted!
Chough report: April 2012
At the start of this month both pairs had built substantial nests using wool and horse hair to line the centre. On the 12th an egg was noticed in Arthur and Gwinny’s nest (SF3). From playing back footage we estimate it was laid around 10:30am. It was quite hard to identify a spherical shape 100% of the time as sometimes the wool covered the egg blurring the image. The female was occasionally sitting on the egg but very restless. Nothing could be seen in Tristan and Issy’s nest (SF2).
Two days later when the keeper entered the aviaries around 11:00 there was a broken eggshell at the front of SF3. More alarmingly there were two broken eggshells at the front of SF2. Playing back the footage it looks like the egg in SF3 accidentally cracked in the nest whilst the female was moving material around. It was cracked around 14:49 on the day we first noticed it.
The day after we found the broken eggs the females were still sporadically sitting on the nests. At 17:55 we noticed an egg in SF3. When the keeper entered the aviary the next morning this egg was cracked on the floor. Playing back footage we saw that Arthur enters the nest at 09:57 pecks at the egg for a few seconds, leaves the nest, returns at 09:59 and removes the egg from the nest. It looks like he was eating the contents but not sure if this was the purpose for removing the egg. Whilst this is happening, the pair next door pecked aggressively at the hatch and vocalised a lot. They have removed nesting material that was touching the bottom edge of the hatch. We inspected the box and found that there is a 3-4mm gap along the bottom of the hatch which might be causing the disturbance. We applied duct tape to block off the light and any draught.
The next day (17th) Gwinny was sitting more tightly on her nest and at 16:55 we noticed she had another egg. If they were not going to sit tight on this egg we planned to pull it for artificial incubation. However, when we went down at 08:20 the egg was on the floor once again cracked. Viewing the footage it seems the female kicks the egg out at 08:10. SF2 nest is still empty.
Egg-laying stopped after this so in total Arthur and Gwinny (our previous breeding female) produced three eggs. Tristan and Issy produced four eggs. All of which were removed from the nest.
Nine days later on the 27th an egg was seen in Tristan and Issy’s nest. This appeared to be the same time-gap between first and second clutches at Paradise Park. However, from viewing footage the egg first appears on the 26th.
This egg was successfully removed from the nest for artificial incubation and the female was given a plastic dummy egg. The egg was set in the Brinsea Octagon 20 at 37.6°C and 50% humidity. The dummy is a plastic egg we usually use for hottentot teal and had been painted to match natural colouration and patterning using Dulux emulsion paints. Since she had not been sitting on the other egg is was hard to tell if she took to it at first.
The next day, the female was sitting on the dummy egg first thing. A second egg was noticed at 09:57 when she left the nest but she didn’t return. At 13:35 we swapped the egg for a dummy and set it in the Octagon. A third egg was visible 10:10 on the 30th and by the afternoon there were four eggs on the nest (2 dummies, 2 real). By this point the female had started to sit more often and we decided to leave her with these eggs. She has not laid any more eggs. Predicted hatch dates for the eggs are between 14th and 19th of May.
Arthur and Gwinny continued to show little interest in their nest despite keepers adding fresh material. Unfortunately on 30th the keeper discovered that Arthur had broken the tip of his upper mandible. The break is approximately 2cm from the tip but it is still attached. We do not wish to risk breaking it further in a catch-up nor disturbing the female next door from sitting so he has been left alone. We continue to monitor his condition and assume he can eat the meat/egg mix but might not be able to pick up insects as easily. If he looks like he is becoming weak we will intervene.
Display flock at Durrell
Nothing of note has occurred with the display flock this month.
General notes
Whilst playing back camera footage we have observed a couple behaviours:
- On the 22nd it looks like Arthur takes a mealworm to Gwinny whilst she is sat on the nest;
- The male enters the nest at 07:54 on the 28th and attacks the camera then leaves. He repeats this behaviour at least three times resulting in the camera moving position. The female is on the eggs all during this incident.
Chough report: March 2012
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On the 7th Tristan (374g) and Issy (335g) were caught up in the shut off and moved to SF2 for the breeding season. We also took blood and faecal samples to contribute to our ongoing bird atoxoplasmosis study. The samples are being analysed in Prague for a PhD project so we do not expect immediate results.
In the process of the catch-up we also trapped B6978 so we weighed her (290g) and noticed that her overgrown beak and broken off naturally. On the 8th Arthur (355g) was caught up, had samples taken for atoxo testing, and moved to SF3. The next day his partner Gwinny (276g) was moved down. She too had samples taken for atoxo testing.
The nest box cameras were switched on by the 9th then went ‘live’ on the Durrell network by the 14th. Aside from the weekend in the middle, there was an administrator hitch involving user licenses, which caused the delay. Since then we have been viewing the cameras when in the office.
We have had a few glitches with the choughs and the cameras as we suspected based on their behaviour last year. We know they are prone to playing with them so tried our best to secure the cameras before the birds went in the aviaries. The nest boxes and cameras were fitted in the aviary but after that point it wasn’t feasible to fiddle around too much, so we tried duct taping the cable to the box and then the camera to stop it tilting. However, this just encouraged Tristan and Issy in SF2 who pulled the tape off and moved the camera. We have only had to interfere twice with re-positioning the cameras within the first week. They have moved it since, but we can still see most of the floor, so have not bothered disturbing them further.
Because we expected to be able to playback recorded footage we have not taken detailed notes of nest building. Especially at the start when it took both pairs a considerable amount of time to figure out how to build a nest. We added nesting material in the stages recommended byParadisePark, i.e. large twigs then smaller bits such as heather, then finally wool or horse hair.
What we do know is that in SF3 one bird would take in a twig whilst the other would take it out. This went on for well over a week. Next door had similar issues although to a lesser degree. SF3 had the basic structure of a nest before SF2 started laying foundations, but then they quickly caught up. A potential problem we have in SF3 is that one of the birds, we think the female, has a habit of vigorously pecking at the inspection hatch on the side of the box. We thought that she did it whenever she sensed the choughs next door in their box. However, we have observed this behaviour when the nest is vacant.
Captive breeding at Paradise Park
There are four breeding pairs at Paradise Park of which only three have started nest building this month. On the 24th one of their pairs was recorded copulating on the nest box camera. This footage and the live stream can be viewed at http://www.paradisepark.org.uk/choughs/webcam/index.htm
Display flock at Durrell
We have still been having issue with mice in the catch-up cage so we stopped feeding in there and had another go trapping. However, Yl-R had somehow managed to get inside the closed shut-off. The only possible way was under the frame behind the rocks. She must have been very determined. Fortunately, for her, all the traps had been triggered by mice. We have stopped trapping now and will continue looking at ways to improve pest proofing in the aviary.
The toad spawn failed so the pond was cleaned out for the choughs to use again. A few hours later a newt was swimming around in it.
General notes
As of March we have been adding grated cuttlefish to the chough diets to ensure they have enough calcium in their diet for egg production.
Chough report: February 2012
Work is continuing on the chough breeding aviaries, although it has slowed down through other commitments and emergencies that have cropped. Cables for the cameras are currently being fitted. The cables will run overhead to the Orang-utan building, as opposed to underground. There are too many service pipes, drains, and electrics under there already! Hopefully the cameras will be online by the first week in March.
Durrell Bird Department Staff have been busy trying to get the neighbouring aviaries set up for the breeding season to avoid disturbing the choughs once they are moved. That work is now complete. The display aviary has had issues with mice in the food-bowl located in the catch-up cage. We blocked off the catch-up cage, so the birds could not access it for two days, whilst we set mouse-traps. We caught one mouse in that time and will reassess in a week if we need to repeat it. The entrance door has been mouse-proofed, but there is still the door leading to the entrance to repair. We have tried blocking holes with wire-mesh but the choughs just see that as enrichment!
In the meantime we have found toad spawn in the display aviary pond. A toad was seen in the pond on the morning of the 28th with toad spawn, and then a few hours later a male and female toad were seen in amplexus. Not sure if the choughs will see the spawn as another form of enrichment, but it is keeping the staff entertained.
The birds themselves have been fine and there is nothing of great importance to report for this month. Biannual faecal samples were submitted on the 13th. We are still awaiting the results from the Durrell Vet Department. It was noted that Rd-R (B6978) has an overgrown upper mandible, but it does not appear to be causing any problems. When we catch up the adults next month we will try and catch Red too and trim her beak.
Six members of the National Trust for Jersey staff visited Durrell on the 20th for a tour of the chough facilities. They were shown the diets, helped feed and put out enrichment, and had a sneak peek at the breeding aviaries.
Chough report: January 2012
The breeding pairs seem to be tolerating each other there has not been any aggression this month to warrant removing a pair. On the 22nd the birds began their ‘breeding diet’, which means mixed corn is removed and finely chopped heart added. This will be kept up until the end of August.
Building work began on the new chough breeding aviaries. We now have two aviaries in Shep’s Field set up to maximise breeding potential. The nest-boxes have been fitted and are awaiting the installation of a camera to one and alteration to a hatch so we can open it. The cameras will then be wired up so we can view the footage on the network computers. This is likely to require laying underground a cable to the Orang-utan Building kitchen.
There are still a few ‘tweaks’ to do to make the breeding aviaries effective seclusion aviaries and a bit of interior design regarding substrate and enrichment. Otherwise all is on course for moving the birds in March.
The birds in the display aviary are now more confident at coming down to the ground to feed. This is evident by the probing holes in the soil and barkchip. There is still tension between the adult pairs. To help simplify the situation when describing their relationships we have given the pairs names. The metal pair (B6694 ♂ and B6697 ♀) will now be known as Arthur and Gwinny respectively. The others (B6696 ♂ and B6695 ♀) have been named Tristan and Iseult respectively.
The juveniles imported from Paradise Park in 2011 have started to form bonds and like to perch together in pairs. Green (♂) and yellow (♀) have often been seen preening each other. Likewise mauve (♂) and white (♀) will hang-out together. On occasion orange has been pushed out of the group and not allowed to perch next to the others. It will be interesting to see if this behaviour continues.
Ps. A newt has been spotted in display aviary pond!
