April 2023 part i — Just A Bird

Usually, at the start of a post, I have a little moan about not seeing very much, but the start of April 2023 was not like that at all, and I was exceptionally pleased with the birds I saw!

After wondering where the migrants were during March, I finally saw my first Swallow over Pembroke Bay on 1st April on a nice sunny afternoon wandering around Jaonneuse Headland. There were also 2 Great Northern Divers swimming in the flat calm bay, and a Hummingbird Hawk-moth hovered in the sunshine on the leeward side of the headland. I wandered down to the area where some rare plants grow and was on my hands and needs looking for some tiny species when a guy came over to me. He asked me if I was alright and if I needed help! I think he thought that I might’ve fallen down and couldn’t get up. I reassured him that I was only looking for insects and he seemed even more perplexed. It was worth my while though because, even though I didn’t find the rarest one I was after, I saw two new species - Early Sand-grass and Slender Parsley-piert.

Before work on 4th April, I had a few spare minutes so I parked up at the car park at Fort Hommet and walked to the pines to see if any migrants had dropped in. They hadn’t, so I had a quick look on the plateau, and as I walked up, I flushed a few passerines from the grass in front of me. Two were obviously Linnets but the other one looked odd - clearly larger than the Linnets and very plain brown. It flew directly away and landed at the top of the Tamarisk by the top car park. It was quite far away to see with the bins but I was convinced that it must be a Corn Bunting due to its bunting-like shape against the sky and the fact I didn’t see white outer tail feathers when it flew up. I managed to get a bit closer and took some photos and, looking at these on the camera screen, confirmed that it was indeed a Corn Bunting. This was the first for the patch and only the 11th record for Guernsey (although most of these have been in the last ten years). It was not very settled and when a car drove past it flew, and I watched it through the bins until it turned into a small dot heading into the island’s interior. An excellent sighting to start the month, finding an island rarity, especially as I found exactly zero of these in 2022.

I ticked off House Martin for the year on 5th and since it was the first day of the Easter school holidays, I went out for a bit in the evening of Friday 7th. There were quite a few migrants in at Prevote including my first Willow Warblers, but it was still very slow for this time of year. Late on I went up to the Reservoir because I wanted to see the Cattle Egret roost (and I had visions of a getting cheeky Night Heron with them since there had been a bit of a UK influx). There were at least 20 Cattle Egrets in the roost but recently there had been up to 40 there.

Cattle Egret roost - Reservoir, 7 Apr 23 - you can just make out the birds in the bottom of the trees on the right of the lake

I tried Pleinmont again on Easter Monday, 10th April, and was looking forward to a decent day in the field as there had been a tailwind and overnight rain which is good for grounding migrants. As soon as I got there, two bright Yellow Wagtails were feeding in the LSG fields and then a male Ring Ouzel appeared at the bottom of the field - a great start. It was a bit breezy on top so I dropped into Valniquets valley and was greeted by a superb little fall of warblers. Right at the very start, there was a roaming flock of phylloscs, with at least 15 Willow Warblers and 10 Chiffchaffs, along with 5 or 6 Blackcaps, as well as a few Firecrests. These were all flicking around just a handful of trees alongside the roadside and it was such a terrific (and nowadays unusual) sight to see a dump of migrants into such a small area. There were more elsewhere but it was weird that it was so uneven. I found another group of about 20 phylloscs halfway down Valniquets and then another of similar numbers near Portlet kiosk, but there were only one or two birds at Pezeries and Vau de Monel. There was a Cetti’s Warbler singing at Pezeries however, perhaps last autumn’s bird that had wintered nearby.

Thursday 13th April was an unremarkable day and didn’t look too exciting for birding, with westerly winds and heavy showers. I took my daughter out in the car and as I was driving around the coast, I decided I needed to stop for a pee. So I pulled up outside the public toilets at Rousse, ran in and jumped back in the car, just as a heavy shower started to fall. As I started the engine, I peered out of the now rain-spotted windscreen to see an odd bird flap across the road 60 metres ahead of us. It had come in low from the east, probably after crossing Grandes Havres, and flew over the road only at about 6 foot height, before disappearing where the small pond is.

After the initial surprise, my brain clicked into gear and I knew it was a heron from its flappy flight, and quite clearly nothing really big and nothing really white. Due to the sunlight bouncing off it, I couldn’t make out much colouration without seeing it in the bins, but it just seemed pale with maybe a brownish tint - and my first thought was maybe a Bittern. Anyway, there was no point sitting and thinking about it, and I turned off the engine, grabbed my bins and camera, and did a rather speedy 60-yard sprint down to the pond.

As I ran, I did realise to myself what it was actually likely to be, and I jumped over the wall onto the road and looked across to see an absolute beaut of an adult NIGHT HERON just stood there in a tree looking at me!

Night Heron is a big rarity here. There has been a few older records, but this was the first local sighting since 1997, a year before I arrived in Guernsey. I took a few photos of the bird and then the rain really started pouring down. The heron jumped further into the centre of the Tamarisk and didn’t look like it was going anywhere soon. I suspect the bird was migrating and saw that there were heavy rain clouds approaching, and with the sight of the Channel in front of it, decided it wasn’t worth the risk of being caught out to sea, and so landed at the first available location. I ran back to the car and put out the news. Since the rain was going to be continuing for a little while, I decided to run my daughter home and come straight back.

After returning straight away, other birders had arrived and they told me that it had dropped down into the adjoining ditch and was not visible, being just round the corner too much. I popped back to the car to get something, and just as I did so, it apparently flew up and behind the houses to the right. No one could see where it landed and despite spending a good half hour searching, there was no sign. Perhaps it flew off low or perhaps it was resting in the trees somewhere. One of the birders tramped round the garden where it seemed to land but it was not seen again during the morning.

Rousse pond - the location of the bird, in the trees at the rear of this pond (photo not taken on same day!). The bay is behind me and so it will have flown in from over my shoulder, across the road in front and then across the pond. The house it disappeared behind is to thr right.

There had been no more sightings, but with a little free time in the afternoon, I returned to the site about 2-ish. Looking at the pond area, there were a few guys waiting but they had still not seen it, but since this was my patch, and the sun was out, I decided on a little walk around the area anyway. I skirted round to look over the back of the gardens - on the very far dunes in the above photo - and started scanning all the trees I could see from that elevated location just in case it was perched up. I couldn’t find it though and wandered down towards the hotel grounds.

Just then, I saw it. It flew up out of the gardens where we couldn’t see it this morning - it must have been tucked right in. It gave a few flaps and circled a couple of times and gained a bit of height. I presumed it was going to go off, but I think it saw the other reed-fringed pond behind the hotel which piqued its interest. So it circled round behind the hotel when I managed to get a few flight shots, and I saw it land high in the tree above the hotel car park.

Another birder had also seen it fly and joined me on the grassy bank as we watched it in the tree. It didn’t stay there long and dropped down towards the reeds and perched up on the wooden fence. I have seen plenty of decent migrants perched on that fence (see Wryneck last September) but I never thought I’d see a Night Heron. It seemed very nervous because the area is very prone to disturbance being just a few yards from the hotel car park and it only took a couple of nearby old ladies strolling by to put it up again. It flew off over the line of poplars and headed south, dropping behind a larger building so we couldn’t see where exactly it was going. But we suspected that was it and it was never seen again.

I felt I was due a bit of luck in my birding and I certainly cashed it in today. Not only did I stop for a wee and it flew in front of me, but I also happened to be there when it decided to fly again a few hours later. Lots of birders missed it unfortunately but I reckon 10 or so other people saw it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t get a second record this year.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird