Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

The second half of August a pleasing selection of scarce species on the island - nothing very unexpected but a parade of decent migrants. The beach at Perelle was the spot for large gull studying - if you want to do that sort of thing - and I noted a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, on 17th and 18th. The adult bird was obvious but the 3rd-year bird was a little more tricky. The darker mantle isn’t too obvious on the pic below but was more so in the field, and you can see a slight tint of yellow on the legs.

Also on 18th there was a Common Sandpiper and a Reed Warbler at Pulias, the first of the latter I had seen there this year. Whilst driving on one of our regular island tours in the rain on 19th, as I whizzed past a gateway at Creux Mahie, I got a white flash in the corner of my eye next to a horse. The white flash was correctly-shaped enough to warrant a quick drive round the block for a re-run and I saw that the shape was indeed the hoped-for Cattle Egret rather than a Little. The first of the autumn on Guernsey, no doubt the same as was seen a few days previously at Claire Mare.

On 21st I tried Pleinmont for some migrants but 3 swooping Swifts were the only movement of note on a quiet headland. However, rounding the corner of the scramble track, I flushed a Short-eared Owl from very close range and watched it flap away towards the fields. Calling in at Claire Mare on the way home there was both Greenshank and Green Sandpiper, and another stop at Fort Hommet saw a Pied Flycatcher and a brief sighting of the Melodious Warbler that had been found there the day before. The latter was the first I’ve seen on my Hommet-Rousse coastal patch which was a nice bonus.

Melodious Warbler - Ft Hommet, 21 Aug 21

I tried again at Pleinmont on 27th in pretty good winds but there was very little in grounded migrants, 4 Whinchat, 5 Wheatear and 2 Yellow Wagtails being the main things of note. On the way up there I saw 4 Common Sandpipers together on the Shingle Bank and a group of 15 Med Gulls at Richmond.

On 31st again I visited Pleinmont - but just a brief visit whilst driving - and bumped into a group of 3 Dotterels that had been briefly spotted the previous evening but hadn’t been pinned down. They were in the ‘strip fields’ opposite the tower and I took a few snaps from the car window. They didn’t stay and were gone when people looked a few minutes later but they eventually settled in a field for a day or so.

I popped out again in the evening of 31st for my last bit of birding before school started again the next day. A group of 6 Greenshanks at Vale Pond was a nice count and both a Spotted and a Pied Flycatcher were showing superbly well in the trees behind the Peninsula Hotel.

There was not many good days for insect hunting due to the weather, and likewise not many good nights for moth-trapping with nothing very unusual caught. The south-facing banks at the cliffpath at Mont Herault had double-figures of the beetle Stenoria analis flying about looking for mates it seems. These beetles need Ivy Bees for their larvae and this is indeed a place with a decent Ivy Bee colony in October. Also here was a single Blue-winged Grasshopper, the first I have seen for ages, and the furthest west along the coast I have seen one.

Ivy Bee Blister Beetle (Stenoria analis) - Mont Herault, 27 Aug 21

Blue-winged Grasshopper - Mont Herault. 27 Aug 21

Blue-winged Grasshopper - Mont Herault. 27 Aug 21 - showing it has blue shins as well as wings

August began with a single Great Skua passing west off Pulias on 2nd and waders continuing to appear in small numbers with a small flock of Turnstone growing at Jaonneuse and Green Sandpiper at Claire Mare on 7th.

More exciting was the opportunity of going out on a pelagic on 9th but this excitement was cruelly snuffed out upon arrival at the docks when we learnt that the choppiness of the water was a little too rough for an expedition out into the deep Channel. We had to be content with a jaunt to the far side of Sark where birds were few and far between and it was a little disappointing. We had a few good views of Balearic Shearwater but these tended to speed past quickly rather than hang around. Other than that it was just a couple of Manx Shearwaters, a few migrant Swifts and waders that were of interest. A single Ocean Sunfish waved his fin at us and we did have great views of plenty of Grey Seals at the Humps, the most I’ve seen in Guernsey. Not a pelagic really, more of a boat trip. Oh, and I was a bit sick :(

Balearic Shearwater - near Sark, 9 Aug 21

However, things soon brightened up because I was finally able to go visit the family in Yorkshire after a good 20 months without leaving Guernsey - that is a pretty long time, most people managed to get off Alcatraz quicker than that. A Black-browed Albatross had been present at Bempton Cliffs on and off since late June and I was hoping perhaps it would cling on for a bit longer. But unfortunately it hadn’t been seen at all for at least six days and I was resigned to being a bit too late for the party. However, as I was sat in departures in Guernsey Airport, I noticed on Twitter that it had returned and was flying round the cliffs again. It was game on!

I would have been a little rude to drive past my family and straight to the headland! So I played it cool and planned to go down the next morning, 14th August. After negative news early on, just as my dad, my sister and me were about to drive off to Bempton, news came on the phone that it was sat on the cliffs! *fist pumps a-plenty* So we pulled up in the RSPB car park and headed towards the cliff-top. I wasn’t expecting so many Gannets to still be in situ and it was a terrific sight.

As I walked east, I passed birders letting me know it was still present, and my twitching-walk kicked in, gaining pace and accelerating away from the pack. We eventually reached a little huddle of birders on the clifftop looking back across the cliffs towards where we’d walked from. Of course, as I’d flown in for just the weekend with tiny hand-luggage, I only had my bins and was struggling to pick out where the other birders were directing me. After a while it became clear that from that angle you could only see a tiny bit of its back - no wonder I couldn’t pick it out! So I scrambled to the far side of the group and could now definitely see the bird in question. Of course, there were plenty of kind birders there who let us look through their ‘scopes and what a fine bird it was - a flippin’ Black-browed Albatross!!

This was the first albatross I had ever seen. To be honest, I was beginning to think that I would end up never seeing an albatross at all, especially with everything occurring at the moment, so seeing one in my home county was really terrific. I was a little disappointed that it never took flight whilst we were there and we stayed around for a bit just in case. But I cannot complain of course after being a little jammy that it returned just for me and I knew that quite a few people had dipped out.

On the photo below, the bird was sat on the sharp little headland jutting out, just up the slope from the flat bit above the arch. And you may be able to pick out a little huddle of birders on the far cliffs after the next bay - that’s were we were looking from. We didn’t really see much else there, a few Tree Sparrows and a Ringlet butterfly is what I can remember.

BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS - Bempton, 14 Aug 21

The rest of the time we stayed quite local in Driffield and the adjacent Wolds. Around the town there were some nice chalk streams and bank-side walks to enjoy them, with quite a lot of Stream Water-crowfoot growing, a new plant species for me. I found the Driffield Canal interesting. A very shallow, wide waterway cut into the chalk, to link the market town with the River Hull to transport goods away. An evening walk along here saw Common Sandpiper, Kingfisher, Little Grebes and a superb Fox. I also learnt it was quite a good spot for seeds and peas.

Little Grebe at dusk - Driffield Canal, 14 Aug 21

It was a very short trip and I didn’t really get much chance to look for much more wildlife, but even watching the Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows was terrific on the Wolds, there seems to be plenty there. On both drives to and from Leeds-Bradford Airport I saw a few Red Kites drift over the Harewood area. So the albatross was my first new world bird since the Dupont’s Lark in April 2019 - let’s hope it isn’t as long ‘til my next one.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

August 2021 pt ii

August 2021 pt i

Just A Bird