March/April 2022 — Just A Bird

The two weekends in this time period both followed the same pattern - an extremely frustrating Saturday, followed by a much improved Sunday. After seeing the Chough on the Friday evening, I was busy all Saturday with the family and so was unable to go out birding. This, of course, coincided with something of a purple patch at Pleinmont, with the Choughs now increasing to 2 birds, a showy Hoopoe was seen and, worst of all, an Alpine Swift spent quite a while tearing around the headland before news got out. It would’ve been nice to see any of these but especially the latter as it would be a Guernsey and British* tick - most frustrating.

The next day, Sunday 27th March, I managed to get out mid-morning and went to see if I could find any of these birds. Driving up Valniquets, I pulled into the side of the road and looked over the gate into the garden where the Hoopoe had been seen yesterday, and it was just there, on the lawn, right in front of me! It was really close and didn’t seem bothered by me leaning on the garden gate and taking lots of photos. I don’t think that I have ever seen a Hoopoe this well anywhere, especially not locally.

This is the gate I was leaning on taking most of these pics, and the bird was on the lawn behind the Silver Birch.

Buoyed by this great sighting, I parked up on top of the headland, mostly to have a wide vista in case of the unlikely event of the Alpine Swift deciding to come back. Walking around, there wasn’t a great deal of migrants in but two Black Redstarts fed with two Wheatears on the cliff slope, one of the former a superb male bird. Apparently I just missed two Choughs which had just flown around the corner so I wandered off again. The original bird had been joined by a second bird from Jersey the day after I saw it. A breeding attempt was not likely though since the birds were both females. They had returned to Jersey in the mean time and so a 25 mile round-trip to feed isn’t much of a trip for a Chough it seems. The only other interesting migrant I saw was a Skylark but I had excellent views of a Peregrine. I also happened upon a nest of Glanville Fritillary larvae by the cliff path. It is very surprising that these are the first Glanville cats I have ever seen, despite knowing what to look for. There haven’t been many this far west along Pleinmont recently, so maybe they are making a comeback here. Returning to look for the Choughs again I apparently just missed them again, so I sat and waited for half an hour but they did not return.

Glanville Fritillary larva - Pleinmont, 27 Mar 22

Back at work on Monday and I was very unimpressed to hear that the Alpine Swift had not only turned up again but had been twitchable. Of course, by the time my work-day was over and I toddled on down to Perelle where it had been putting on a show, it was nowhere to be seen. During the week, there was a few Wheatears and Chiffchaffs new in on the patch but no extras.

The next Saturday, early afternoon, it was a huge surprise to get the grapevine message that the Alpine Swift had turned up again, after a five-day absence, and was feeding low around Rocquaine Bay. The timing of this could not really have been worse since I was just entering the cinema with my daughter to watch the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie! After a couple of hours of watching one speedy creature I was hoping to head down to tick off another but, by the time I was back out in the daylight, the bird had disappeared. It had been twitchable again but it chose the worst time to appear - I was not destined to see this bird. I went down later in the early evening in case it returned but there was no sign.

On Sunday 3rd April I was up early at Pleinmont to try and catch some migrants but it was pretty quiet, although I did see my first Willow Warbler and Swallow of the year. However, there was a Chough in the same area as last week but this was a different one than the one I saw last week. It was showing very well on the slope below me and was pretty close, but it didn’t seem to want to show the whole of its body for photos.

Mark G and I walked the fields at Mont Herault and had excellent views of the wintering Hen Harrier as well as a few more Swallows. We tried to get photos of a very pale Stonechat that Mark had found the previous week but it was very flighty and never gave us the chance. It was very sunny but quite chilly in the wind and it didn’t really look like any new migrants would appear so I headed off.

It was late morning, about 10 50 am, as I left Pleinmont and I thought that it might be worth waiting around Rocquaine for a while. If the Alpine Swift turned up just after lunch yesterday, there was a chance that it might do something similar today - an outside chance, but still a chance. So I pulled up at the fish factory as that was quite a central spot for scanning both north and south. As I envisaged a long, unsuccessful wait, I grabbed my flask of tea and stuck in my earphones to listen to a podcast, and settled down on the seawall for some scanning.

After just five minutes and barely a few sips of tea, I was scanning towards L’Eree when I saw something zip into my bins-view in the distance. Was it a falcon? No - it swooped round and I saw the clear swift shape and white belly - it was indeed the ALPINE SWIFT! The bird was about a kilometre away but it looked like it was showing really well from L’Eree. So rather than be satisfied with distant views, I jumped in the car and raced to Rocque Poisson. From here I saw it just a bit further north and drove round the corner to L’Eree beach car park when it suddenly appeared behind the cottages, before flying round over my head. What a result!

I managed to watch it for only about five minutes and it was very difficult to photograph as it raced round so fast. It was surprisingly low and regularly whizzed past me at eye level. Such astounding views of a species I’d only ever seen flying high in the sky. This was my first Alpine Swift for Guernsey and I have never seen one in the UK either - not even had a sniff of one. It flew off to the south but it was seen on and off for a couple of hours after this. It seems that this was the final sighting of this bird and I consider myself very lucky to have finally seen it - perseverance paid off in this case.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird