Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

The local birding in October was not very productive. Very few migrants appeared and no rare birds were seen at all. The weather was dismal also. Due to recent changes in circumstance, I have more family commitments than ever before and long hours out in the field are not very likely in the near future. In times of plenty, my brief stops and searches are OK and I find a few stuff. However, in lean times, birders really need to commit and dig out good birds by putting in the time, which isn’t really an option at the moment.

The most surprising sighting was at low tide on a nice sunny day at Pulias on 4th October. On my patch, ducks are at a real premium and, apart from the ubiquitous Mallards and Shelducks, I see very few. So it was weird to see a male Gadwall just swimming off the rocks, looking lost. It slowly drifted north-east along the coast and disappeared round the corner never to be seen again. A quality patch tick, my fourth of the year.

Gadwall - on the sea off Pulias, 4 Oct 24

Sombre Brocade in the early morning sun - garden, 4 Oct 24 - the nights were too poor at weekends for moth trapping apart from this one night early in the month

During the last week of the month we headed out to Iceland on our school trip. We hadn’t been since before covid so it was great to get on track and hopefully keep it going in the future. Our first night was spent in the field studies centre at Juniper Hall in the Surrey Hills. This was just a few hundred metres from Box Hill where I visited a few years ago. It was just a quick overnighter though although I was pleased to hear lots of “yaffling” of a Green Woodpecker early in the morning which is something I have not heard for a while.

Of course, the school trip to Iceland is not really set up for birding but I am always in hope of seeing something decent. At this time of year most things have already moved through and the stops we make are mostly at particular tourist sites and also inland which means there is less likelihood of picking up birds. Most of our few hours in coastal Reykjavik was in darkness but a brief visit to the shoreline saw a few Glaucous Gulls, Eiders, Common Scoters and a couple of Black Guillemots swimming in the bay. Unluckily this spot was just the other side of the harbour to where the White-winged Scoter was hanging out! Around the town there were lots of Redwings and Blackbirds on the roadside verges. Leaving the city, there was plenty of roadside ponds and lakes but we just whizz past on the coach. I did see a Goldeneye/Barrow’s Goldeneye female on one of the ponds - I am not sure which is more likely. One noticeable difference this year was that I saw much more wildfowl than I did the previous two trips feeding in the flat fields in the south including lots of small groups of Whooper Swans dotted around. There were goose flocks too with Greylag being the most common, and at least three large groups of Pink-footed Geese which may have numbered into the 1000’s. I also saw one flock of Whitefronts which must have been Greenland White-fronted Geese. Other passerines were not very much in evidence but I did have a small flock of Redpolls fly around whilst swimming in the hot springs. A White Wagtail was living its best life inside the heated greenhouse which was growing tomatoes - this one was probably not going to be migrating south.

A geothermally-heated White Wagtail inside the greenhouses

Looking north across the flatlands towards the volcano

Aurora Borealis - not my photo as my phone or camera would not pick it up - My first proper Northern Lights were very exciting

The very first morning of September was a very early morning drive up to Pleinmont for some mothing. Quite a few traps were set on the cliffs to coincide with a Societe open day and also there were a few more traps set by some visiting moth-ers from England - so plenty to look through. Conditions were OK for migrants but there was a bit of a cold wind blowing so the traps set right on the top were not so full. However, when we scrambled down to check the sheltered traps down the cliff edge, they were stacked with stuff. There were plenty of common migrants such as Silver Y, Dark Sword-grass, Palpita vitrealis etc, and quite a few Convolvulus Hawk-moths were visible.

Whilst we were looking through one trap, Andy shouted up from further down the cliff “Death’s-head!!”. And there bloney was one! A massive Death’s-head Hawk-moth sat on the side of the trap - my first-ever of a much-wanted species, the largest British moth. We dragged all the traps up the cliffs and looked through them. It can be a bit frustrating with lots of people delving into a load of traps, not able to look at everything as closely as I prefer to do, but I managed another moth tick with a fine Pale Shoulder, another rare migrant. I wish that I could do the cliffs more often as it is loads better there for rarities than my inland garden location. But 1 - I haven’t got the equipment and 2 - I haven’t got the time, so it is a bit of a moot point. But anyway, a Death’s-head, in the flesh - wow!

Deaths-head Hawk-moth - Pleinmont, 31 Aug 24

After the superb DHHM, the month came down with a massive bump with somewhat of a wader debacle. I was back at school and was on the second of my training days at the start of the year when I got a message in the morning that a Lesser Yellowlegs had been photographed on 29th August on one of the Grande Mare golf course ponds. This would be an overdue first for Guernsey and a British tick for me so it was a bit of a sickener that the news was almost a week late. However, there was a good chance it was still around and some of the local birders were searching for it whilst I was working.

Then, at about 2 pm, I received a message that the bird had been re-found, on the new golf pond alongside Rue des Bergers. Terrific news and I only had to wait about an hour or so before I drove down. There were a small group of birders watching it and I set up my scope and saw the bird on the far side of the lake. It was quite a way away and right into the bright sunlight so I couldn’t see it very well or in any detail (the poor photos below were about the best it showed). But we watched it for a while until I had to go off home. Poor views, but I was pleased to see the bird, and hoped that I could maybe come back another time and see it properly.

Forward on an hour or so, and I am at home with the computer just browsing, when a post came up on facebook of the “Lesser Yellowlegs” with a photo attached. The bird in the photo was clearly a Wood Sandpiper. I reidentified it and, requesting more info, it seems that the photo was taken a bit later on in the afternoon on the same pond that we were looking at. Obviously the bird had moved to the near side of the pond, within range of decent photos. So this must have been the same bird? Or was it a second bird? In any case, I had definitely not defintiely seen a Lesser Yellowlegs at all (and looking at my poor photos, they were at best inconclusive, and favoured Wood Sand in jizz). There had been no previous sightings of Wood Sandpiper before that afternoon in Guernsey, so this would have had to be new-in. So maybe the Lesser Yellowlegs had not stayed after all. Dipsville, Arizona!

As it was Tuesday evening, I then had to go to play my weekly game of football, assuming that the LY was a goner and presuming everyone had missed out. However, when I got back and checked all info sources, it was confirmed that the Lesser Yellowlegs was actually still there! It was feeding on the original pond on the golf course. The two bird theory in action. It was now well after 7 o’clock but I just had to rush back out, still in my football kit and all sweaty. Of course, the chosen pond was not one where you could just drive up to, so I parked by the RDB hide, then had to run down the lanes with all my gear. There was no-one else there as the pond came into view and I spotted a wader along the edge - Green Sandpiper - d’oh! I had to scurry further down the lane to see the left hand side of the pond, and finally, the LESSER YELLOWLEGS was wading in the shallows feeding away.

I have no photos of this bird as, by now, the light was very much disappearing and I could barely see much detail in the gloom. In fact, just to double-check, on my way home, I went back round to the roadside pond and saw that the Wood Sandpiper was still present (and flying round calling). It was a good job I did rush out again at dusk because I was the last person to see the yellowlegs and it was not seen again. So I was relieved that I saw the bird in the end but was kicking myself for not picking out that the earlier bird was a Wood Sand, even considering the poor viewing conditions. Presumption is an enemy of the birder.

Most of the rest of the month was really really poor for September with so few migrants seen and poor weather conditions - I can’t ever remember seeing as little in the month. I just saw a few Whinchats and Common Sandpipers, with even common species being in short supply. The best bird on the patch was a Cetti’s Warbler singing for just one day in the vegetation along the edge of Pulias Pond. It is a species that is spreading and this was a new species for the patch, but not really what I was expecting in that spot. On 21st September Pleinmont was quiet but I had my first Skylark and Grey Wagtail of the season. The 28th was a decent day for seawatching and an enjoyable few hours from Jaonneuse produced a couple of Arctic Skuas, an Arctic Tern and a small passage of Sooty Shearwaters.

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