April 2022 — Just A Bird

With the Easter holiday’s arrival, this meant a few extra midweek visits to Pleinmont to look for rarities. The first visit on 10th April was quiet but a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the trees by the camping field was a new species for Pleinmont for me, they are certainly spreading throughout the island nowadays. Just 3 Willow Warblers and a Wheatear indicated that spring migration was definitely delayed this year. A Bar-tailed Godwit was at the Shingle Bank.

The next day things seemed similar but whilst I popped out in the afternoon the temperature weirdly changed to suddenly being very warm - from coat to T-shirt in 20 minutes. I don’t know whether it was this front that brought down some birds, but there was an arrival of birds on Rousse beach. There was a loose flock of c.20 Wheatears as well as a superb Ring Ouzel flying to and fro below the car park. In the bushes there were a few Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and, moving to Pulias there was another 10 Wheatears plus about the same number of White Wagtails. Offshore here a male Common Scoter bobbed around quite distantly, which had a very visible yellow splodge on the bill. It was so bright I decided to go back the next day with my ‘scope but it was no Black Scoter disappointingly.

I was again back up at Pleinmont on 12th but it was again disappointing. A single Skylark landing in a field, the first Whitethroat of the year flying across between blackthorn patches and a few Sand Martin were the most notable sightings. There was a more exciting sighting on 13th when a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew low NE over the garden - bird number 97 for the house list. A brief stop at La Societe fields at Pleinmont on 14th saw lots of wagtails feeding on the recently turned soil - about 8 Yellow and about 25 White Wagtails were present.

A glutton for punishment, I was back up at Pleinmont on 16th where, if anything, things had got worse with just 2 Wheatears to show for a couple of hours walk in the early afternoon. Well really there was 2.5 Wheatears as I discovered a half-eaten corpse lying in the grass by the cliff path. Imagine flying all the way from Africa just to get decapitated in Guernsey. I did spy both of the Choughs together for the first time, feeding low down on the cliffs near Mabel’s.

Marsh Harrier - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22 - It’s a trap!!

WHEATEAR (DECEASED) - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

Since the day was the warmest of the year, I spent quite a bit of time searching for insects on the clifftops as there seemed to be a lot of activity. The jumping spider Aelurillus v-insignitus was quite common on the slopes and the red-spotted carabid beetle Panagaeus bipustulatus ran across bare ground, a new species for me. I also found three new ants and a new crane-fly amongst the rest of the critters found, using my most recent book purchases. I also spied something that I have been looking out for for ages. The blackthorn twigs on the west-facing slopes at Pleinmont are always dripping with lichens and I glanced up to see a deep orange blob amongst the cream and ivory. It was a tiny patch of the rare Golden-eye Lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus), an uncommon and rarely seen species, but quite distinctive.

Golden-eye Lichen *(Teloschistes chrysophthalmus)* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

*Aelurillus v-insignitus* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

*Panagaeus bipustulatus* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

On 18th April, just a week after the first-ever sighting, a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew NE over the house. This time I managed to watch it land in a tree a few gardens away. There is a patch of very large trees in a large garden to the NE of the house so perhaps there is a chance that they may have a nest in there. The same day, I visited Rousse at very high tide and saw a single, and pretty late Purple Sandpiper on the lone rock as well as 2 Common Sandpipers on the shore.

On 22nd I tried a few different spots and it was quite productive. The Purple Sandpiper had relocated to Jaonneuse beach where it fed with 15 Turnstone. A Common Sandpiper was at Vale Pond, along with a singing Reed Warbler plus the 6 Canada Geese were still present. Across the car park, a group of 3 Whimbrel in Grandes Havres were my first of the year. I moved on to Rousse where I found a Tree Pipit, a Whinchat and a Yellow Wagtail all in the space of a few minutes in the grounds of the Peninsula and the adjacent gardens - all quality migrants for the patch. The Whinchat was especially showy. Rousse has been the most productive spot this spring so far for me.

On 24th I had a quick scoot round the island, starting with seeing the Rook that had turned up at Pleinmont, the first I have seen here for ages. Driving past Albecq a Marsh Harrier flew over - new for the patch for the year. Whimbrels were present on a few beaches and finally there was some hirundine passage with all three species moving east along the coast. A small flock of at least 13 Yellow Wagtails fed in the lawn area behind the tennis courts at Jaonneuse.

As usual there were lots of records in April but there was not anything really rare or even a bit rare to go see. Perhaps there will be something to find or twitch in the late spring.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird