Sat 7th December 2013

Since returning from the UK, there has not been a lot of wildlife sightings from me (hence this post's aforementioned blathering). In the dying embers of October, on the 31st, I popped to Icart late one afternoon after a St. Martins school visit and bumped into a brief Yellow-browed Warbler in the sycamores alongside the hotel. It was so windy though it soon disappeared.

The only other main birding I managed in the month was a seawatch from Jaonneuse on 10th. The wind was pretty strongly NWerly and the auks and Kittiwakes passed by in three figures. A count of 22 Balearic Shearwaters was pretty good being so late, and we also had a few Great Skuas and one not-seen-especially-well Pom Skua.  My Pulias patch-watching brought a couple of new species for the year - Common Gull on 15thand Red-breasted Merganser on 25th. The personal highlight has been the Black Redstart which has entertained me in the garden for the last three weekends - I hope that it stays for the whole winter.

Black Redstart - garden, 24 Nov 13

Black Redstart - garden, 1 Dec 13

The best bird on the island was during November was a male Desert Wheatear at L'Ancresse, which is our 6th record and the 3rd in three years. Quite remarkable. Unfortunately it was only available on one day and I was working from dark til dark so was unable to see it.

The Desert Wheatear records in Guernsey - the three northern birds have been seen in less than 1km of coastline, quite a cluster of records.

The first week of December has continued in the same quiet way, but on 2nd, four Teal appeared on the pond at Pulias (a site tick I think) and a group of 7 Snipe flew NE overhead. Maybe the harbingers of some hard-weather movement.

Tue 24th December 2013

So the birding year appears to be fizzling out. Well, to be honest I wouldn't mind a little fizzle as that implies there is something slightly happening. It's my own fault, as really I should be out there searching rather than relying on other people - I have had barely any time out birding this month. The weekends have been inconvenient, or filled with poor weather, and it has been too dark before and after work. I should be able to have 40 minutes each lunchtime but it has been so busy at work recently that I have been working most lunch hours and/or just felt too tired to pop out. Must try harder in the New Year.

When I did manage a lunch trip to Rue des Bergers on 12th I was rewarded with two Great Spotted Woodpeckers together in the trees behind the pool - my first multiple record on the island. On 17th, I found aBlack-throated Diver in Grandes Rocques Bay. The only other thing worth mentioning is that the Black Redstartis still visiting the garden almost daily, but it never seems to appear when the sun is out and my camera is at hand, hence the pleasant but very grainy pics I am getting of it.

Black Redstart - garden, 21 Dec 13

These last few days I have managed to get my butt into gear and finally type the rest of the year's moth records into Mapmate. This is a piece of software that I use to record all my moth data and, although getting a little dated perhaps, it does a superb job of analysing and mapping all this data. This year was my tenth year of data from the garden trap, so I thought it would be interesting to see the fortunes of a selection of species over this time. It does not stand up scientifically because of the irregular pattern of trapping - some years I have trapped twice as much as others -  but it gives some idea. In the ten years, I have typed in 23,829 records of 608 species, and means I have looked at, identified and written down 78,876 individual moths. Wow.

This chart for Snout shows a pattern of a typical, common species, and there are many species with a similar shaped graph. It shows that the species was common in the first four years, then less common in the next five years, before increasing again this year. The main reason for this is clearly "effort" - i.e. the trap was put out less often from 2008 to 2012, than in the other years. However, the main reason for not putting the trap out was that the conditions were poor for moth trapping (so we may get the circular : low counts of moths - therefore conditions are poor - so less trapping takes place - so low counts of moths). So although the effort factor probably exaggerates the changes, I am sure that numbers were still down in those middle years. The summers during this period were cold and wet, and other moth trappers saw a similar decline, but probably less marked than my data suggests.

Two species which seem to have done very well this year are Small Angle Shades and Buff Arches after many years of unremarkable numbers - just why this is the case, I have no idea!

Some species have gone against the general decline and increased during these ten years. However, it is notable that all these species that have increased are recent colonists to the island and not long-standing residents. I could find no species that were clearly resident on the island when I first started moth-trapping, that have obviously increased during the decade. The successful species shown below were all unknown, or at least very rare, on the island at the start of the ten year period.

There are not many macro moths that have obviously declined, but it is more difficult to notice this pattern due to the aforementioned 'effort' factor. One or two show a similar pattern to Pale Mottled Willow below where the decline seems clear but a few more years would need to be studied. A few macro species clearly show a big decline however.

The Delicate is a migrant species and the large peak was probably a temporary colonisation of the island. A few of the micro moths do show a more obvious decline and this is probably due to more local factors since they are less likely to fly a long way to get to the trap, or not in large numbers anyway. All it takes is the removal of a nearby food source and the records will dry up.

The above two species' decline were very likely due to the wife's recent weeding frenzies, ridding the garden of much of the Pellitory and all of the Mallow. Looking at the chart below, can you spot which year the large Monterey Pine tree was removed from the garden?

The strange shape of the Brown-tail moth graph is, I suspect, due both to the occasional 'booms' that this species exhibits and the population management control measures that are periodically carried out by the States on this potentially hazardous species.

There are also a few migrant species which have pretty random occurrance patterns. Not all migrant species appear to require the same conditions for an arrival, as there are peaks on different years.

So just a small selection of interest. Maybe I can do another analysis after 20 years!

Mon 30th December 2013

The Christmas week has been beyond dismal with it raining literally every day. I managed a few hours out on Saturday 28th during a break in the storms. It was quite pleasant, but we really need some cold weather to reach "good birding" territory.

Vazon Bay

The main species of interest was a young Little Gull which had been feeding with Black-headed Gulls off L'Eree and the surrounding area for a couple of days. It wasn't there initially but reappeared later in the morning and showed well. Looking back at my records, this is the first I have seen here for over seven years.

first-winter Little Gull - L'Eree, 28 Dec 13

So that is more or less it for 2013. Not very memorable for Guernsey birding, there was no proper rarities at all, no exciting twitches. The run down of good birds that I saw was: Pink-footed Geese, Water Pipits, Black Brant, Avocet, Garganey, Spoonbill, Short-toed Lark, Long-tailed Skua, Tawny Pipit, Melodious Warbler, Wryneck, Lapland Bunting, Yellow-browed Warblers, which is hardly a decent haul. Of course, all very nice birds, but just scarcities, lacking the quality. The only new bird here for me was the Long-tailed Skua. Let's hope 2014 is better. My "patchwork" at Pulias finished on 90 species, which was quite good I suppose, but such a small patch didn't really keep my interest, so next year I shall extend the area I study.

The trips away were enjoyable, but poor for birds, the Semipalmated Plover excepting. There were lots of highlights though from the rest of the wildlife, especially with the effort I put in for "1000 for 1ksq" (I finished on 1060 species). I learnt so much about all sorts of other groups it was very worthwhile. I think in 2014 I'll need to be a little more casual on these other groups and take things more slowly. I think that I shall concentrate on beetles as I have quite a few books to use, and was quite successful in the ID of these. The moth trap was catching more moths than at any time in the last five years and there were lots of exciting species found, including, what has to be the number one highlight of 2013, catching the never-been-seen in Britain before, Pungeleria capreolaria.

Curlew - Claire Mare, 28 Dec 13

Sun 19th January 2014

After constantly bemoaning the lack of rare birds recently, - [which, incidentally, is backed up by statistics. Only 18 official rarities were reported to Guernsey Birds in 2013, which is the lowest yearly-total since I have been bird recorder. This compares to over 50 claims in the previous year. And not all of these will even be accepted of course] - it was great to have something definitely rare turning up. On Wednesday, Wayne found a really nice adult Kumlien's Gull in St. Peter Port Harbour on his lunchtime stroll. I wasn't able to get down there the same day, but a I made a successful dash out on Thursday in my lunch hour (16th Jan). As soon as I parked up, I found the bird sitting on one of the pontoons.    

The Kumlien's-containing pontoon in the harbour

The bird was a splendid creature although quite massive for an Iceland Gull, no different in size from the small Herring Gulls present. Its wing-pattern though was unique, with restricted, darkish-grey patterns on the tips of the primaries. This was the first adult Kumlien's I have seen since myself and Muzza found one on the tip at Swilly Ings way back in 1992 (which we never saw well and I can barely remember it!). There have been two previous Kumlien's in Guernsey - both first-winters.

Kumlien's Gull - St. Peter Port Harbour, 16 Jan 14

This bird was not very close into the pier, so the photo above was the best I could get with my camera. However, I had received a nice new Windows8 phone for Christmas - [which, by the way, I am constantly amazed by, as it is really having a mini-computer on you at all times - and loads better than those crummy iphones!] - and so i thought I'd try a some "phone-scoping" as the kids call it. I zoomed my 'scope up to pretty high-mag, and held the phone a few cm from the eyepiece, and this is what I got...

I thought this was surprisingly successful, albeit tricky to do. I was really chuffed with the quality that can be achieved, and it will be very useful for record shots where my camera just can't manage. It was difficult to hold the phone exactly in the same plane as the scope's eyepiece and about a cm away from it. I may try making a 'device' that can hold it in just the correct orientation. And also, the phone can also film video clips. It isn't great quality, but again very useful for recording purposes (it is better quality viewing on the computer than through Youtube). The advantage of videoing a bird rather than still photography, is that you can often catch important identification features that you always seem to miss when snapping away. For example, I was not able to catch the details of the spread wing-tip pattern of the bird with the still camera and this can be vital for large gull ID. But perfect timing is not important when filming, because you can pause the video at just the right time when it is showing the important feature that you're after. Below is a screengrab of the paused video showing the aforementioned feature.

And, even better, I also discovered, that the new phone can take pretty darn good pictures through the microscope too (see the rove beetle sp. head below). This is exceptionally useful since I have had to keep my old Nikon Coolpix handy just to use for microscopy pics. But also quite sad that, after literally tens of thousands of shutter clicks of the old trusty coolpix, I will probably never use it again. To call my new device a 'phone' is a bit silly really, as in the full month I have had it, I have only used it to talk to somebody once.

Apart from the Kumlien's, I have been putting in a little more effort with the birding so far this year. I have had another go at the "Foot It" challenge - which is to try and find as many species of bird on foot from your front door as possible in January. It has been rather a slog to be honest because there is simply not as much about as last year at this time, due to the warm winter we are having. I am only on 60 species compared to 74 at the same time last year. I'll give it one more tramp around on Saturday but the 80 species target is unattainable.

I have also entered into the "Patchwork Challenge" again this year. In 2013 I chose my 'mini-patch' of Pulias as my area, but in the end I discovered that this was a mistake as focussing on such a tiny area became a little tedious. So this year I have extended it to my 'full patch'. I consider my full patch to be the coastal strip between Fort Hommet and Rousse because this is the area I drive past twice a day and so can call in at lots of different spots during the week. Also, it includes the closest bit of coast to my work, so I can fit in lunch hour visits. This is far more interesting and I have chosen the area to include a little more variety in habitat, as can be seen on the map below.

So far, during lunch hour visits to Fort Hommet, I had 30+ Kittiwakes plus a few Razorbills on the windy day of the 6th Jan, then a lone female Common Scoter bobbing about in the bay on 7th. Also on the 6th, looking out over Grandes Havres from Rousse, I saw my first local rarity of the patch-year with the first-winter Glaucous Gull that had been around, resting on the sand in the bay, where a Great Northern Diver has been seen on a few occasions. So the patch list is on 53 species already, including the beautiful red-ringed, second-winter Med Gull found on on Cobo beach on 13th.

Med Gull - Cobo, 13 Jan 14

I do plan to take more general photos this year, mainly to illustrate and brighten up this diary, so here are a few from Grandes Havres from this week, showing the colourful and, after recent storms, sometimes bashed-up boats.

Thu 6th February 2014

The winter continues to be wet, windy and wild. Granted, extreme weather conditions can cause distress and misery if you are unlucky enough to be caught up in it, but to the unaffected observer it is pretty darn awesome! We've had front after front rolling in off the Atlantic, and with the massive tides at the moment the island is struggling to cope with the water. The waves have been pounding the coastline, swamping buildings and floating away cars. And the last few days have been so wet with rain that the inland lanes are also flooding, with rivers flowing through the countryside. With the island getting hit from both sea and air, it has been rather spectacular.

These poor conditions and warm weather have meant that my "Foot-it" efforts were disappointing (see details here) but I have been more successful with the "Patch-birding". The stormy seas have brought a lot of gulls into the coastline, as they usually do, and I have been regularly checking any flocks I have passed. On 28th Jan, I was driving home pas tCobo and noticed a lot of gulls feeding close inshore on the high tide. It was after a meeting and so half-four-ish, and so getting to be quite dark and dull. However, I soon picked up an Iceland Gull amongst the throng, which was excellent, presumably the same one that was seen at Chouet the previous week.

As I watched this bird, I noticed how dark it was, not standing out from the other immature gulls as Icelands usually do. The primaries were not gleaming white, and the rest of the plumage was quite dull and "unbiscuity". I wondered that perhaps this bird was an immature Kumlien's Gull. There had been plenty around the country and of course, we've just had an adult bird. Frustratingly, the bird never was still and I found it difficult to see the details of the plumage properly. It was either bobbing on the waves, feeding frantically or flying around. Even taking proper photos was impossible in the half-light and the couple below were the best of a bad bunch, and have been extremely lightened.

first-winter Kumlien's Gull - Cobo, 28 Jan 14

It was also difficult to get any details in flight as it swooped and flapped, but I did catch a clear dusky tail-band and the primaries again did not glow. I had to leave the bird thinking it was probably Kumlien's but not really nailed-on for certain due to the tricky viewing conditions, but I did have a good gut-feeling. Looking at the photos at home, one picture (the top one) seemed to show some good features - the dusky lines down the primaries, the dark on the tail, the quite brown plumage around the head and breast, the dark bill, the largish size. I have not the bird since, but luckily it moved down the coast to L'Eree where other observers have been able to watch it properly and have confirmed the identification as Kumlien's, which is an excellent start to my year on the 'patch'.

Every day the sea has been choppy, but on 30th Jan there was a brief respite and the bays were calm. It is worth making the most of these still days as it is much easier to find feeding birds. In just 20 minutes on the way home from work I found a Slavonian Grebe at Cobo, a Black-throated Diver at Grandes Rocques and a Great Northern Diver at Port Grat, as well as a few Great Crested Grebes and Razorbills.

On 5th Feb there were 2 Great Northern Divers and a Slavonian Grebe at Grandes Havres, plus a welcome return by the Black Redstart in the garden after being missing for a month. Finally, today at lunchtime, I braved the wet weather to look out over the stormy seas from the car park at Fort Hommet and was rewarded with a fine adult Little Gull flying over the headland.

This Wren was singing at Fort Hommet on one of the few sunny days. I recorded it because it sounded a little atypical for the species. It may have been because it is just warming up, or practising, or just doing some sub-singing But I always like to think, when I hear a slightly different song of a common species, that it is a foreigner singing in a French accent! (or german, or irish, or russian - or wherever our visiting wintering Wrens may come from.)

Grandes Rocques

Rousse

West coast from Pulias

Fri 21st February 2014

The main interest at the moment continues to be gulls. The last storm to roll in from the Atlantic brought with it another Glaucous and another Iceland Gull, which makes a total of five white-winged gulls recorded on the island within a month, which must be a record. I caught up with the new Iceland Gull in the field by the recycling centre at Choueton 15th Feb. It was the only gull in the field at the time and so was easy to locate. I took the photo and video below with the phone - it does take useful photos but clearly has its limitations, especially coping with bright whites it seems. (Maybe I should have turned the football reports off the radio before I started filming). There is a chance that this bird has some Kumlien's Gull in it, although there does definitely seem to be small anchor-marks in the primary tips. However the primaries are quite greyish looking rather than bright white and it was darker-billed and chunkyish. I suspect some integrade rather than being classed as either subspecies.

first-winter Iceland Gull - Chouet, 15 Feb 14

February being such a quiet month here, I haven't noted many other birds, but the Great Northern Diver has been seen regularly in Grandes Havres. It would have been great to spend time searching the gull flocks this winter with all these rarer ones being seen, but gull-watching is a pursuit that requires lots of time searching for these subtle variations and interesting forms. Often, when scanning quickly through a group of loafing gulls, I come across an individual that is a little puzzling, but to work out what it might be would require more time than I generally have available. Maybe in the future I may actually be able to partake in some detailed, pedestrian birding instead of my current 'hit-and-run' methods.

a dark-eyed Herring Gull - L'Ancresse, 17 Feb 14 - variation in the appearance of large gulls is immense.

Of course, the storms that brought in these rare gulls have also brought problems to our wildlife. There has been a notable increase in wrecked seabirds on the island, with many dead or exhausted auks, shags etc being found on the beaches. On their own, these birds are more than capable of surviving a few storms at sea - that is what they are designed to do - but they will are not able to survive if their defences are compromised by a coating of oil. The number of these wrecked birds with oil on them is awful. There has not been a massive oil spill, so these must have succumbed to a tanker nearby "flushing its tanks". It seems that this problem is widespread at the moment in the outer channel and on the french coast.

Guillemot - Pulias, 9 Feb 2014 - an oil-stained and wretched bird struggling on the rocks.