An exciting opportunity is available for a student placement at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, based in Jersey, working on the red-billed chough reintroduction project. This project, which began in 2013, is one of many within the Birds On The Edge project run in collaboration with the National Trust for Jersey and States of Jersey Department of the Environment.
Two placements are available, starting on 1st September 2016. Durrell houses a captive collection of choughs at the Wildlife Park, while the reintroduction project is based at an off-site aviary near Sorel Point. Juvenile choughs bred in captivity are being released to the north coast of Jersey. All birds are intensively monitored and managed post-release. The student placement will assist the Field Manager in carrying out these activities. Students will spend six months with the project from September to March or March to September, with the remaining six months spent working with Durrell’s Bird Department.
Choughs have been absent from the Channel Islands for nearly a century and with the UK population in serious decline this is an exciting opportunity to help restore an enigmatic species. You can read about the placement programme here and if you would like to apply, please contact eluned.price@durrell.org for further information and an application form. The closing date is 11th July 2016.
Easter may have been early this year, but our chough eggs waited until April was in full swing to make an appearance. The first sign of egg-laying at the Wildlife Park was on 12th April when the nest cameras revealed an egg in Iseult’s nest. Within a week she had finished laying and started incubating.
Iseult’s eggs – view from the nest camera monitor. Photo by Hester Whitehead.
Choughs normally lay around five eggs in captivity with the female starting incubation when the third egg is laid. Issy appeared to be quite restless at first, leaving the nest whenever she was disturbed. As the aviary is on show to the public the decision was made to cordon off the footpath which runs alongside the nest site. This seemed to work well and Issy continued incubating.
The public footpath was blocked to prevent disturbance to the nest whilst Isuelt was incubating. Photo by Liz Corry.
Egg-laying for the other two breeding pairs in the Park was not as straightforward. Both pairs took a long time to progress from a few twigs in their nest-box to a fully lined chough nest. Then it was a matter of waiting for the first egg. It turned out to be a very long wait to the point we had almost given up expecting anything. Seventeen days after Issy laid her first egg Gwinny and Mrs D started laying their own.
Denzel and Mrs D have very little experience in breeding and this is their first time together. Everything appeared ok when Mrs D laid her first egg. Then keepers had a moment of doubt when they checked the nest cameras. “I’m sure there was an egg there before?”, “Is that an egg or a bit of wool?”, “It’s ok its still there”, “Wait, has the egg gone again?” Checking back over the camera footage we realised that what was hoped to be lighting issues and camera trickery was actually Denzel carefully removing the egg from the nest and Mrs D laying her second egg. He did the same thing to the second egg in the evening when staff had gone home. The remaining eggs were rescued before he had chance to act and given to Gianna to foster incubate.
A slightly different scenario played out next door in Gwinny and Lucifer‘s nest-box. This time it was not just the eggs in danger. Gwinny and Lucifer have had clutches for the past two seasons. There have been issues with each clutch and eggs being tampered with. Staff usually have to rescue to artificially incubate. CeCe being the result of last year’s rescue efforts. We were quite prepared for the same to happen this year. What we were not prepared for was Lucifer‘s reaction to the first egg. As can been seen in the video below he became extremely aggressive to the point where Gwinny was in danger.
Staff reacted quickly and re-housed Lucifer away from the breeding aviaries. There was the slight risk that Gwinny may abandon egg-laying due to the disturbance and not her ‘partner’ not being around. The risk to Gwinny by leaving him in the aviary far outweighed this and our actions were justified as she continued to lay over the next few days and has incubated consistently since then.
Staff rescued the first egg as planned and gave it to Gianna to foster-incubate along with Mrs D‘s two rescued eggs. Gwinny went on to lay three more eggs which were left with her to incubate as she was sitting so well.
Gianna has shown that she has learnt from her experience as a first time mother last year and is even more attentive to her nest this year. As with last year she was given a dummy egg to stimulate egg-laying. This seemed to work and a few days later she produced her own, followed by two more. This is quite interesting as last year her first egg was her only egg. Gianna will be used for foster-incubating and foster-rearing. We are not 100% confident in her ability to look after hatching eggs so any fertile eggs she has will be transferred to an incubator in the Bird Department and subsequent chicks hand-reared for the crucial first few days before returning to Gianna.
Gianna will hopefully help out again by foster rearing this year. Photo by Liz Corry.
Over in Cornwall our partners at Paradise Park appear to be having an easier time with their five breeding pairs. You can watch live footage from their nest cameras by clicking here. Potentially one or more of the chicks you will see on camera will be joining the flock out at Sorel later on this year.Update from Sorel
It was a little harder to determine when the choughs at Sorel started egg-laying. There was a period towards the end of the nest-building stage when the males started displaying to their partners and several mating attempts were observed. Green in particular liked to show off by spreading his wings to full extent and parading around Black. Or any other female that happened to be in sight.
Green showing off the size of his wings to his partner (on the right) on the roof of the aviary. Photo by Liz Corry.
Dingle joined in with collecting wool for his nest with Red. This is really promising behaviour and progress from last season when he partnered up for the first time. He has also been observed taking nesting material from the quarry in the form of lagging around pipes. Very resourceful. A recent roost check showed that the pair have switched from roosting at the aviary to roosting in the quarry. A sure sign they now feel invested in their nest and want to keep a close eye on it.
Dingle collecting nesting material from outside the aviary. Photo by Liz Corry.
We determined that the females had started incubating eggs by observing behaviour before and after the supplementary feeds at the aviary. Black was the first no-show of the three incubating females. As it is only the females who incubate the eggs they try not to leave the nest too often. When they need to leave, they need to know ‘abandoning’ their eggs is worthwhile. The choughs know when to expect food at the aviary because staff stick to set times. Sometimes, however, staff are delayed so instead of taking the risk of flying to the aviary to find there are no food dishes out Black waits for Green to return with the supplementary diet, thereby letting her know staff have put the food dishes in the aviary. After a minute or two discussing the tardiness of the keepers and what’s on today’s menu, the pair will then head over to the aviary, quickly feed, and return on a full stomach to continue incubating the eggs. Mauve and Red followed suit so now all that remains is to continue observing behaviour and count down the days to the expected hatch dates.
We still have the young pairs feeding and preening each other but not yet ready to nest. A new pairing we noticed this month was that of Lee and Caûvette. It will be interesting to see if this relationship continues throughout the year. Caûvette was hand-reared. Any nesting attempt by her will be followed with great enthusiasm not just by the chough team, but by other reintroduction projects around the world.
Lee and Cauvette, a hand-reared female, have paired up. Too young for this year’s breeding season but promising for next year. Photo by Bea Denton.
The other new pairings appear to be going well. Q and his female Noir can be seen below taking part in a spot of mutual preening after lunch.
Q and Noir have bonded over the past couple of months. Photo by Bea Denton.
Q invites Noir to return the favour and preen him. Photo by Bea Denton.
We had one piece of information this month which helped add solid facts to our breeding records, but also brought with it upsetting news. Early morning on the 4th April and email came in from quarryman Kevin Le Herissier that said “have a bit of good news and a bit of bad news”. I might have then stolen his thunder by suggesting the good news was the discovery of a chough nest.
Dingle and Red’s nest before Red starting laying. Chough nests are protected in the UK and cannot be photographed or approached without a licence. Photo by Liz Corry
What could not have been predicted was the bit that came next. The bad news.
Kevin had been working in the asphalt plant that morning and suddenly heard a group of choughs alarm-calling outside. He noticed several birds looking very distressed, hopping around on the ground, shouting at something. When he got closer he realised that in amongst the cacophony of choughs there was a chough head! No body, no feathers, just a head. We arrived on site shortly after the phone call and after a little detective work we found, at various sites, a piece of wing, intestines, and tail feathers with a radio transmitter attached. From this and her absence at the aviary feeds we knew the deceased was Ormer one of the 2015 chicks from Paradise Park.
Ormer was found dead in the quarry this month potentially predated by great black-backed gulls. Photo by Liz Corry.
Whilst not wanting to sound uncaring, quarry and bird staff breathed a sigh of relief. It was not one of the breeding females and it was not Dusty the wild chick. A loss nonetheless though. I presented the remains to a somewhat perplexed vet team to try to gather as much information as possible from a post mortem examination. Blunt trauma fracture on the skull and descriptions from quarry staff suggest that Ormer and the others had had a run-in with the gulls who also nest in the quarry. Great black-backed gulls are notorious for their aggressiveness and predatory behaviour and were seen nearby (a number of pairs nest in the quarry alongside the more numerous herring gulls) and were considered responsible.
We have observed choughs chase off gulls (normally, or always, herring gulls) simply so they could play on the rocks the gulls were sitting on. Some may use the term ‘bullying’, but we like to think of it as being over-confident. Unfortunately this time around Ormer met with an even more confident species.
Another impressive sunset as staff carry out a roost check. Photo by Bea Denton.
The breeding season got underway this month with both birds and staff busy nest building. For Durrell staff at the Wildlife Park, work actually began back in February. The breeding aviaries needed a spring clean, fresh perching, and the nest cameras turning on before the pairs could be moved from their flocking aviary on public display to their individual breeding aviaries.
Keeper Jess Maxwell securing the nest box in one of the off-show breeding aviaries. Photo by Kathryn Smith.
Keeper Jess Maxwell switching on the nest camera recording equipment for the 2016 season. Photo by Kathryn Smith.
Two of the breeding aviaries are off-show. Their positioning and foundations make it very difficult to get grass to grow providing natural foraging habitat for the choughs and their chicks to develop natural skills. To compensate for this, various substrates are added such as bark chip and compost. Logs and rocks are strategically placed around the floor and on the shelves.
Keeper, Kathryn Smith, adding substrate to the breeding aviaries. Photo by Jess Maxwell.
These serve a dual purpose. Staff can hide insects in or under them to encourage natural foraging and the hard surface edges allow the birds to clean their bills after feeding. The abrasion from rubbing the bill also prevents the mandibles from becoming overgrown.
Keeper, Kathryn Smith, drilling holes into logs to hide mealworms in for the choughs. Photo by Jess Maxwell.
In the short video clip below you can see Gianna demonstrating one of the ways we keep the choughs active.
There are three potential pairs this year. The flocking aviary will become a breeding aviary between March and July for the third pair. If the choughs take to nesting in here, keepers will have to monitor disturbance levels and manage accordingly as this is on-show to the public. Having already lived in the aviary over the winter the pair will hopefully be accustomed to people walking past and won’t feel threatened.
We don’t pick the pairs, the choughs do that for us. Their choices are limited as we only have six birds in the breeding programme. Tom Lancashire, a Nottingham Trent University student undertaking a twelve-month work placement at Durrell, conducted a behavioural study of our choughs as part of his Zoo Biology degree.
Student Tom Lancashire studied the social relationships amongst our captive choughs to determine breeding pairs. It appears Cece our hand reared bird made her own observations. Cece has since moved from Durrell to live at Paradise Park. Photo by Tom Lancashire.
His observations showed that Issy and Tristan have once again paired up. They are very defensive over the food dishes in the flocking aviary and make sure they get to the food first. They probably view the aviary as their territory and tolerate the others being there outside of the breeding season.
For this reason they will have the flocking aviary as their breeding aviary. True to their legendary namesakes their relationship has been a turbulent one. That being said they have both had nests before which have seen chicks hatch, but not survived to fledge. Hopefully 2016 will be their year!
Tom Lancashire studying social interactions within the choughs at Durrell. Photo by Edward Bell.
Gwinny is still with her young male friend who Tom named ‘Lucifer’ on account of his black leg ring and tendency to throw eggs out of nests. Admittedly it doesn’t sound like a promising pair. We are hoping that Lucifer may change his ways this year as he matures and becomes more familiar with the concept of parental care.
Denzel and his (unnamed as yet) female also appear to be a pairing albeit by default. He was put with her when he came out of quarantine on arriving at Durrell last year. He still sticks by her in the flocking aviary and they have been seen to preen each other. We will have to wait and see whether or not this relationship blossoms.
The pairs were moved into their breeding aviaries at the start of March after a few delays. Keepers provided nesting material and watched to see what would happen. Issy and Tristan were first off the mark carrying twigs to their nest box. Gwinny has also been quite active. Alas Lucifer has been equally active in removing the twigs!
The other important chough at Durrell doing its part for the breeding programme is of course Gianna. We hope to use her as a foster parent again this year. This means she is given her own aviary complete with nest-box and nesting material. It’s probably her favourite time of year as she gets pampered by the keeper trying to convince her she has a partner who can provide whilst she is on the nest. The keeper also needs to ensure she goes through all the right steps at the right time. We need her to be in sync with the breeding pairs in case we need to rescue eggs or chicks from their nest and give them to Gianna to care for.
The video below shows just how excited Gianna was when she saw the nest-box for the first time. Choughs in the wild will make similar calls and collect similar nesting material. The only difference is that the keepers disinfect the wool and twigs as a precaution before adding them to the aviary; the wild ones throw caution to the wind.
Sorel
The pairs at Sorel had us all second-guessing with their nesting activity. On 29th February White was spotted taking a twig to one of the cliff nest-boxes closely followed by Mauve. He also had most of the juveniles hanging around the site. We observed the group until the birds went to roost, but did not see any other signs of nesting activity.
The pairs at Sorel started nest building in March although finding food still took priority. Photo by Liz Corry
In fact nothing else was observed for a few weeks. Conspiracy theories abounded. Why were they not carrying twigs around? Had they given up because of all the rain? Last year they didn’t start until mid-March. Was White simply too quick off the mark? Were they sneaking materials out of the quarry behind our backs and binoculars?
By the end of the month we had our answer. On the 25th a lone chough was spotted flying with a gorse twig in its bill. A few days later wool was flying back and forth. So no, they had not given up. Although yes, White was probably a bit eager. And yes, they probably did sneak materials from the quarry as the jump from twig stage to wool lining does not happen in three days.
The juveniles continue with their objectives; eat, play, eat some more, sleep. As the weather improves food availability will improve. Warm sheep poo being a favourite source of grubs for some.
Caûvette finding larvae to eat from the sheep poo. Photo by Liz Corry
For two particular choughs change is afoot. We have a couple of ‘buddy’ pairs. Females Flieur and Helier look after each other. Kevin and Lee‘s clutch-mate ‘bromance’ continues. Then, headline news, the pair which currently holds the award for ‘cutest couple’ is none other than Dusty the wild-hatched chick and Egg a two-year-old female. We will be watching them very closely over the next few months.
Dusty, wild juvenile, feeding Egg a captive-reared two-year-old at Sorel. Jersey. Photo by Mick Dryden
At Sorel we often receive visitors as the project is not only very popular in Jersey but increasingly it is becoming a showcase for reintroduction of a native bird and co-operation between partners and landowners and users to help restore our countryside. This month we hosted international students from Durrell Academy’s DESMAN course and students from Nottingham Trent University’s MSc in Endangered Species Recovery course under the guidance of Samantha Bremner-Harrison. On the 18th we introduced countryside journalist Robin Page and his wife Lulu to the project. Luckily the choughs put in suitably spectacular appearances on each occasion despite the obviously lees than pleasant weather.
The most significant event for Jersey’s free-living chough population this month has been the disappearance of Blue, the breeding female, who has not been seen since the end of the day on Sunday 31st January.
The only potential clue to her disappearance was on 2nd February when the group were observed actively following a peregrine back from Sorel Point to the grazed headland. When the group returned to the aviary for supplemental feed we placed the food dishes behind the aviary on the grazed land. This way the birds settle on the ground (providing there are no mountain bikers or walkers around) and we can get a clear close-up view of how everyone is.
Student, Nicola Cox, feeding the choughs away from the aviary using target training techniques. Photo by Liz Corry.
As Green, partner to Blue, came into land it was clear he had a problem with his ‘landing gear’, his right leg was dangling out to the side. When he settled on the ground it was clear to see he was hobbling and reluctant to put any weight on the leg. He was feeding fine and did not seem too perturbed by it.
Green has gone through quite a few ordeals in his time living at Sorel including locking talons with a peregrine on his first ever flight away from the aviary in 2013. We monitored him closely for the next 24 hours, but he, the trooper that he is, recovered quickly and was using the leg again the next morning. Could Blue have fallen prey to a peregrine?
The weather had not been too kind, but not so severe that Blue or the rest of the group were in any danger. She was present at all the feeds before her disappearance and roosting in the relative safety of the aviary.
A fair amount of observations had to be carried out from the shelter of the keeper porch due to the constant rain. Photo by Liz Corry.
Icho and the others frequently returned to the aviary looking half drowned. Photo by Liz Corry.
Whatever the reason, the fact is she has left the group, and life goes on for the rest. None more so than for Green who within the space of a week had re-paired. Black, a single female, wasted no time in making her presence known. Our first true confirmation of the pairing was on the 8th when he was observed passing food to her. This is a bonding exercise which proves to the female that he can provide for her if she decides to incubate eggs. Over the course of the month their bond has strengthened.
Whilst it is disheartening to lose a proven breeding female, the fact that Green has re-paired is encouraging. It is also good news for Black as she tried to nest last year and failed in finding a reliable male.
It all means that we head into the new breeding season with three strong pairings all with experience of nest-building at the very least.
Another interesting change which occurred when Blue left the group was with roost site preferences. Checks in the first half of the month showed that two choughs had decided to re-join Mauve and White in roosting at the quarry. Since last October Green, Black, Blue, Red and Dingle had roosted at the aviary with the juveniles instead of the quarry. Now it looks like Green and Black are once again roosting in the quarry. Could this be an indicator as to where they will nest this year?
February sunset roost checks at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry.
There was a slight chance that Red and Dingle were the two not roosting at the aviary.
Ever get that feeling you’re being watched? Photo by Liz Corry.
Our confirmation, however, that it was not them came on the evening of 6th February. The weather had been clear and calm so the choughs were active right up until the sunset at 17:30. The three pairs were missing from the group.
At 17:38 with light almost gone, two choughs shot back from the direction of the motocross track and went straight into the external roost box. It was Red and Dingle.
Having two less birds roost at the aviary will hopefully make the task of cleaning out the roost-boxes a little less depressing for the chough team.
As the winter weather eases off and day length increases we have seen a change in the choughs’ behaviour.
The group are spending a bit more time away from the grazed land and moving round to Sorel Point and the motocross area. As far as we know they have not been over to Crabbé at all this month and only occasionally venture over to Devil’s Hole.
A welcome break from the rain. Photo by Nicola Cox.
The majority of the time we see just 2, 4 or 6 birds flying over to Sorel Point and Ronez Point which we assume are the pairs nest prospecting.
Funding
We are very grateful to a private donor and neighbour of the choughs who generously gave a donation to help contribute to the cost of repairing the aviary roof. Durrell’s Maintenance Department will hopefully start work in March. I’m sure the choughs will be very thankful, even if it means they have to find an alternative watering hole.
The choughs (and a couple of crows) searching for food in the National Trust conservation field near the aviary. Photo by Liz Corry.
By Liz Corry
It was a very cold, wet and windy start to the new year bringing with it several challenges for the choughs at Sorel. Their primary concern, as always, was to find food to keep them fueled throughout the bitter and blustery days. With the grazed land saturated by rain water, insects were hard to come by. This might explain why they started making regular visits to the conservation fields. An untapped source of insects?
The cliff face around Devil’s Hole, where the water runs off rather than collects, also proved popular exemplified by their muddy bills and heads.
Finding the choughs in the rain. Photo by Liz Corry.
Erm Q you have a little something, just on, its hanging off, oh dear. I’m sure no one has noticed. Photo by Liz Corry
Fortunately there was only one day of ground frost which disappeared fairly quickly. Chough bills are efficient digging tools, but they are not tough enough to break hard ground. An unseasonal or prolonged period of ground frost can lead to starvation and is often detrimental to wild chough populations.
Ground frost at the start of January. Photo by Liz Corry.
Jersey experiences another kind of ‘ground frost’ for birds at this time of year. Jersey Royals are planted in January and the farmers cover their crops with protective plastic sheeting. The sheeting is largely to protect from ground frost and encourage growth, but also stops birds stealing or damaging potatoes. Of course the choughs are not interested in vegetables they want the insects in the soil. When the young choughs flew over to Crabbé this month after a short spell away you can only imagine what was going through their minds the first time they flew over the fields.
Potato fields in Jersey are now covered to protect the freshly planted Jersey Royals. Photo by Liz Corry.
Jersey’s chough population became a bit more reliant on the supplemental feeds at the aviary. This is where there next challenge awaited. How to fly through release hatches into the aviary with 40+ mph tailwinds or cross winds without smacking into the frame-work? Those that did risk actual life and limb demonstrated just how aeronautically skilled this species is.
For the likes of Ormer and other less confident individuals, the team started placing food bowls on the ground outside of the aviary. For those inside who then found themselves struggling to stay grounded on the tables, the bowls were placed in more sheltered positions.
Helier was blown backwards off the aviary shelf. Fortunately no damage except to her dignity. Photo by Liz Corry.
The choughs demonstrating their association with the target board and food. Photo by Liz Corry.
There have been a few times this month when the weather has been so bad, the group fail to turn up for the aviary feed. Opting instead to stay sheltered on the cliffs by Devil’s Hole or in the dry, warm quarry buildings. Who can blame them?
There is growing concern for the aviary itself after three winters out on the cliffs (four if you include whilst it was being built). One of the shelter stands became dislodged from the framework after overnight gales. The integrity of the plywood roof is beginning to give, reducing the amount of dry shelter spots for the birds when they roost and keeping food bowls dry. Ideally a new bitumen-panel roof needs to be fitted with guttering to collect rainwater (5-10 litres of water is carried to the site each day). This cannot be done without finding funding first. We estimate costs to be around £500 or less if we can find reclaimed materials. Then, all we need is a day when the winds won’t blow the builder off the roof!
A bonus function of the present aviary roof? – fresh drinking water. Photo by Liz Corry.
That being said, January did experience a few sun-blessed days much to the excitement of the choughs who took full advantage of the calmer weather. Visitors to Sorel will have seen amazing aerial displays from the group. Some of the younger males have started displaying around the breeding females involving lots of tail flicking and running around like a scene from a Benny Hill sketch.
January is the month when the choughs start planning for the upcoming breeding season. Nest prospecting (weather permitting) and looking for potential partners. We switched their supplemental food to the breeding diet which means more protein and calcium. The captive pairs at the Wildlife Park will switch to their breeding diet when they move from the flocking aviary into their separate breeding aviaries.
Twenty-two choughs waiting for staff to put out their supplemental feed. Photo by Liz Corry.
We have tried to see if the choughs would take a pelleted diet. The expected cost of supplemental feeding for 2016 is approximately £3,000. An all-in-one pelleted diet could reduce this as long as it is not at the expense of the birds’ nutritional needs. So far we haven’t found one which the birds will not either ignore, flick out of the dish, or jump from in fear. Yes that actually happened!
Just for fun here are two of the youngsters searching for insects in a slightly unusual way…..
January was looking set to be a relatively mundane month to report back on. That was until the morning of the 31st when Durrell student, Nicci, was out on radio-tracking duties. The choughs were spread out as per foraging around Sorel and Mourier Valley. There are seven birds whose daily movements are being tracked with proximities of the other fifteen birds in relation to those focal birds also logged. Not all twenty-two need to be accounted for at each session, but they usually are as the group stick together out of the breeding season. ‘Brunch’ at the aviary is when we expect to see all of the birds at this time of year. On this occasion there were only twenty-one. Nicci’s concern started to grow over the course of the afternoon as there was still one bird unaccounted for. At the afternoon feed she could still only count twenty-one. Mentally ticking off leg rings from the list time and time again Nicci reported back to the team that Dusty’s mum, Blue, was missing.
Blue, pictured here with her partner at the aviary in January. Photo by Liz Corry.
She was last seen the day before, an hour before roost. Her and her partner now roost in the aviary, as opposed to the quarry, where the only threat at night would be from a feral ferret or cat. In which case you would expect signs of intrusion at the aviary and the group to be behaving differently the following morning. Nothing. Was she off exploring for nest sites without her partner? Had a peregrine snatched her? Would she reappear the next morning? Only time, and February’s report, will tell.
Radio-tracking took an interesting turn this month. Photo by Liz Corry
For the past two months some of the choughs have been making infrequent visits to Crabbé in the morning and the odd trip further west to Les Landes. In December they decided that breakfast at Crabbé would become part of their daily routine. More specifically they were finding breakfast at the shooting range! Highly entertaining for the radio-tracking team as you can imagine: and certainly not featured in the project’s risk assessment!
The rifle range at Crabbé is perfect foraging habitat for choughs (as long as they avoid the targets). Photo by Liz Corry.
The short grass at the gun range and low level of disturbance provides perfect habitat for insects the choughs love to eat. Photo by Liz Corry.
The choughs also love to fly up and down Les Vaux de Lecq next to the gun range. The narrow valley running up from Grève de Lecq beach has an interesting effect on the prevailing winds.
The top of the hill at Le Câtel de Lecq hill provides a perfect look out point for when the choughs start flying around the cliffs at Rouge Nez. It is also another site were the Manx Loaghtan sheep are kept to manage the land. Possibly another reason why the choughs are attracted to this end of the Island, showing further the importance of these sheep.
View from the top of Le Câtel de Lecq looking inland towards Les Vaux de Lecq. Photo by Liz Corry.
Manx Loaghtan sheep at Câtel surprised to see a radio-tracker first thing in the morning. Photo by Liz Corry.
Rouge Nez and Petit Grève taken from Câtel. Photo by Liz Corry
The victorious moment that staff beat the choughs to Crabbé and watched a group of 14 fly in from Devil’s Hole. Photo by Liz Corry.
Which way will they go next? Photo by Liz Corry
We are all wondering where is next on the chough’s travel itinerary? Please keep sending in your reports of sightings as the birds are always trying to outsmart us!
End of year catch-up
At the start of December Noirmont (or Noir for short) was sporting a slightly longer bill than the rest of the flock. The bill on a chough is constantly growing much like our nails. Mechanical wear whilst feeding, preening, pecking etc., generally mediates the growth rate so you wouldn’t notice. For some reason Noir’s was not being worn down at a sufficient rate and was very noticeable.
Noir’s overgrown bill. Photo by Liz Corry.
The upper mandible had started to cross over with the lower which reduced her ability to forage for wild insects and will have limited her food intake. The simple solution was to catch her up and give her a quick trim as you can see in the video below
The flexible part of Noir’s transmitter antennae mysteriously snapped off. Photo by Liz Corry.
Whilst we had Noir in the hand we took a look at her radio transmitter. Somehow the flexible antennae, visible in flight, had broken off the day before.
We thought a closer look might shed some light on how this had happened. It didn’t.
We thought the manufacturers might know. They didn’t.
It will remain a mystery. All that matters is that she is ok and the transmitter is still working.
Noir wasn’t the only bird we caught up that day. Since we had the group locked in to catch Noir we took the opportunity to look at a few others we had on our ‘watch list’.
Lee also had transmitter issues…he had lost it!
First thing on 7th December his radio signal had been beeping away from the direction of the aviary suggesting he was having breakfast over there. Except he wasn’t. Lee was over at Crabbé frolicking around with his friends. Was he trying to evade us on purpose like some sort of rebellious teenager?
The transmitter was found in the aviary in a known roosting-spot. It was still attached to the central tail feather which is glued to the body of the transmitter. At the end of October we noticed that Lee‘s central tail feather had twisted round almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the other eleven tail feathers.
The tip of Lee’s dropped feather, with transmitter still attached, shows a new feather starting to grow in. Photo by Liz Corry
Regardless of the reason, the weight of the transmitter on the feather more than likely played a part in the feather eventually coming out.
Closer examination showed that a new feather had started growing through at the base a few weeks prior to the transmitter dropping.
We are still following Lee’s movements it just means a little more groundwork for us. In flight you can see the gap in his tail feathers. On the ground we have to wait until we can see his leg rings which isn’t always easy depending on the terrain.
Lee at Les Vaux de Lecq clearly showing his identifying leg rings but missing his tail-mounted transmitter. Photo by Liz Corry.
Ormer, Dusty, and Bean were caught up to check on how they are progressing after their treatment for nematodes and general malaise. They all seemed ok and we were able to get accurate body weights from them; all relatively reasonable considering the time of year.
Chough in a bag; obtaining a body weight for Ormer. Photo by Liz Corry
Blue was given a replacement blue leg ring for the one she lost in summer. Photo by Liz Corry.
Last on the list of things to do whilst all 22 choughs were locked inside was to replace the plastic leg ring Blue lost in summer.
She has been quite busy over the last few months being a new mum. We didn’t want to interfere before and she has been easy to identify through her behaviour.
Lessons learnt this month
After several roost-checks we now know that twenty of the choughs roost at the aviary each night. White and Mauve prefer to have a bit of privacy and remain faithful to their roost-site down in the quarry.
Mental note for next year: don’t place the Christmas wreath directly underneath an external roost box!
Christmas wreath at the chough aviary. Photo by Liz Corry.
The choughs inspect the Christmas tree but refuse to perch on it. Photo by Liz Corry
The Christmas tree does get used – by a local kestrel. Photo by Liz Corry
In an attempt to get into the spirit of the festive period the aviary was adorned with the Christmas wreath (above), gold pine cones for enrichment treats, and a tree! Budget was tight so an actual Christmas tree was out of the question. Bear in mind the inquisitive nature of corvids we had to think about choking hazards and non-toxic materials so fake snow and tinsel was ruled out. We kept it au naturel with the hope of getting a festive Christmas card out of it. The weather was against us, as it was with most activities this month, which meant background options were limited to light rain or heavy rain. We also blamed the weather for tipping the tree over. Until we spotted the local kestrel perched on top!
Christmas Day itself was no different from any other day. Staff handed out a Christmas dinner of mealworms and boiled egg to the choughs. It might not sound like your typical family Christmas meal, but I’m sure a few of you out there will relate to the chaos that followed around the dinner table.
And in other news…
Part of our job involves keeping a daily diary about the birds’ health and activities as we do with all the animals we look after at Durrell. Daily reports, which can include medical records, genetic history, and biological data, are submitted to a global database to help improve species management and breeding programmes. Picture then, if you will, the expression of our animal records administrator as she transcribes the following from the keeper:
“Wednesday 9th December.A few of the choughs were seen warily following a grey heron walking down the aviary field, but were scared away when it turned round to face them.”
Sun beginning to set over the release aviary on the last day of 2015. Photo by Liz Corry.
With 2015 at an end and Birds On The Edge experiencing another successful year we would like to take the opportunity to thank all the staff and supporters who have worked on all the projects this year. Without you none of this would happen.
Dung beetles belong to the group of insects called the Scarabaeoidea, which include dung beetles, chafer and stag beetles. There are just over one hundred species in the UK, of which over half are dung beetles. The National Recording Scheme for Scarabaeiodea has existed for many years, and has mostly been a data collection point and identification support to the recording community. As part of the on-going Species Status Project by Natural England in collaboration with Buglife, a review of the scarce and threatened dung beetles and chafers is currently in progress (to be published next year). This project highlighted the lack of modern records for many rare species and areas of the UK that were severely under recorded. This prompted us, Darren Mann (Head of Life Collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History), Steve Lane, Ceri Watkins and myself (Sally-Ann Spence) to go out look for beetles in under-recorded areas and to re-survey sites where rare species were previously known. Together we set up the Dung beetle UK Mapping Project – affectionately abbreviated to DUMP and drawn attention to our project using the Twitter hashtags #dungathon and #dungisfun.
In addition to the fieldwork, we are examining museum collections to extract data for the historic distribution of species. We have put out a call to the beetle recording community, and data mined Irecord and Ispot. All of this data is building better distribution maps, informing habitat preferences and providing other ecological data for the UK dung beetle species. The end result will be a dataset of dung beetle information, including identification, distribution maps, ecology and species conservation status. This will be made available via The British Beetles website and will include an on-line recording system using Irecord.
Why we all need dung beetles
Dung beetles are considered key Ecosystem Service Providers within the livestock sector. They deliver many benefits to farmers including increased soil nutrients and general nutrient recycling. They improve the soil structure by increasing aeration and drainage which in turn increases rain water filtration through the soil which also leads to a reduced run-off of rainfall – research is also looking at their pasture reseeding capabilities, abilities to reduce anaerobic processes and decrease methane formation. We know the process of pasture reseeding can have detrimental effects on soil erosion too.
They reduce pest flies, gastrointestinal parasites and pasture fouling by carrying fly egg and larval eating mites with them as well as consuming the dung the maggots live in themselves. Research is on-going into their part in nitrogen and carbon recycling but we know they are incredibly important in keeping pastures green and healthy for livestock especially in the absence of non-organic artificial fertilisers. Our results mapping the dung beetle species in the UK (although the project is in its youth), are already showing an alarming trend in species rarity and even extinction. The three main reasons behind this are considered to be the use of anthelmintics (especially in wormers), soil disturbance and the disappearance of livestock from historic pastures due to a change in farming practices.
We take the opportunity of our survey visits to make farmers/livestock keepers aware of their dung beetles, the latest research, their economic benefits and how they might implement simple workable measures to ensure a healthy dung beetle population. We have received a fantastically positive response from all we have spoken to. Farmers are keen to preserve their dung beetles and we intend to gather more data about species and their population frequencies to enable more research into these incredibly important beetles.
We are at present unfunded (please contact if interested in helping to fund this vital project) so as individuals we are surveying the whole of the UK in our spare time, on family holidays or around other work. It is a huge labour of dung beetle devotion. We are obsessives and dung is a big part of our lives. The project is vast. Different species live in or under different dung in different stages of decomposition on different soils at different altitudes at different times of the year. Dung quality is important too. We have become connoisseurs of fine dung. Not adverse to feeling the texture or giving it a good sniff (you can tell a lot about an animals health by its dung), we will examine it and the soil underneath meticulously for beetles. All data is noted on the spot – the date, GPS location, soil type, weather conditions, temperature, elevation, dung type, pasture quality and time spent in that locality surveying.
Dung beetles in Jersey
On a recent trip to Jersey helping a colleague working on the Ice Age Project, I took the opportunity to contact the Roger Long of the Société Jersiaise to trace some historical specimens in their collection that I had become aware of through my research. Never to miss a chance I also managed to survey a few isolated locations and one of which was the area around Devils Hole. It was just awesome to encounter large areas of Minotaur beetle Typhaeus typhoeus burrows. These dung beetles like sheep and rabbit dung on light soils with short turf. The population in this area was extremely good and as it became dark the air hummed with them flying in on sheep dung. They fill their burrows with the dung for their larvae to feed on. The smaller Aphodius sphacelatus and Aphodius prodromus were also represented in good numbers. These Autumn emergence species feed in the dung itself. Excitingly I also found Aphodius affinis in this area. Another small dung beetle that feeds within the dung but is not found in the UK and is considered rare in France. It was also a first record for Jersey.
These dung beetles and their larvae are a vital part of food webs supporting many insectivorous birds and omnivorous mammals. The Minotaur beetles in particular are a important food resource for the choughs (see photo here) and it was excellent to see the sheep maintaining the right habitat for these beetles by their grazing behaviour and the dung they produced.
We hope to be back in Jersey in May 2016 to complete a whole Island dung beetle survey. This will provide a species list and population density records crucial for further research into Jersey’s precious ecosystems.
You can read about Sally-Ann’s Minibeast Mayhem – Educational Workshops here
November. The time of year the field team finally succumb to the ‘great’ British weather, unpack their thermals, wrap up in woolly garments, and pretty much live in waterproofs round the clock.
Unless it is November 2015. In which case we also need sunglasses, factor 15, and the agility skills of a border collie to be able to escape our woolly confinements when the sun comes out and the wind vanishes.
There have been days when the team have had to abandon tracking for health and safety reasons. Jersey’s Met Office issued several weather warnings this month with gale force winds reaching above 50mph. Visibility has been poor due to the constant drizzle and mist spreading across from sea to shore. Sorel Point lighthouse might not be as majestic as Corbiere, but it still serves its purpose as an aid for navigation for getting back to our cars! Yet other days have been t-shirt weather (until the sun goes down and hyperthermia sets in). The choughs have been equally unpredictable in their behaviour as a result of the weather leading to four very eventful weeks.
Checking for blockages in Ormer’s trachea.
At the start of the month Ormer showed signs of having a gapeworm infection. Not surprising since Dusty was treated for it the week before.
We caught up Ormer exactly the same way as we did for Dusty and injected him with a wormer. Once again the medication was quick to act and within a day Ormer was his normal self.
With that mini-drama dealt with the team turned their attention to trying to understand why the choughs were spending so much time these days on the west side of Mourier Valley. Watching them endlessly fly around for fun gives you one clue.
They also like to shelter in the Devil’s Hole and look for insects where the soil layer is exposed on the rock face. Anyone familiar with this area will appreciate the leg work needed for the radio-trackers to head down to the hole to pick up a signal only to have to walk back up when the birds switch to the headland minutes later!
Is there a better bounty of insects to be found at Devils Hole compared to Sorel? After watching Noir feeding on a beetle by a clump of gorse the other day it seems hard to believe the rock face has better to offer. Thanks to Piers Sangan and the Insects of the Channel Islands Facebook Group for identifying Noir‘s choice of snack as being a minotaur beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus).
Noir snacking on a beetle. Photo by Liz Corry
The choughs’ jollies on the other side of the valley came to an abrupt halt mid-November when the gales returned and the wind chill factor was Baltic. The birds were struggling to stay grounded and any flight required brute strength and persistence.
One morning whilst the group were over at Devils Hole we noticed Bean and Dusty sat on the rock face not moving whilst everyone was searching for food. At the 11am aviary feed there were twenty-one birds feeding in the aviary. Dusty was missing. Jen returned to Devils Hole to find Dusty sat in the same place looking miserable. We assumed that for whatever reason he didn’t have enough strength to battle the gales across to the aviary with everyone else.
Jen took over a target board and placed it on the headland opposite the rock face. She placed a bowl of food on the target, blew the whistle, and called Dusty to the food. To her surprise he not only responded, but shot up in the air and over to the aviary. This behaviour appeared promising; however he never actually went in to feed and disappeared shortly after…along with Bean. By the afternoon aviary feed Dusty was still missing. Bean materialised in the field next to the aviary and just sat crouched down looking miserable whilst everyone else ate. We tried taking the food closer, but she flew to the nearest rabbit hole and sat in it sheltering from the wind. Bean had made it back into the aviary by roost time but there was no sign of Dusty.
The next day Dusty was spotted back at Devils Hole sat on the cliff face whilst the rest of the group were flying around. Bean was still looking miserable and not eating very much throughout the day. The weather was still horrendous and wasn’t set to change for a few days.
Checking Bean’s body condition showed she was quite thin. Photo by Liz Corry
With Bean’s condition deteriorating we decided to lock her in one section of the aviary so she could have respite from the cold wind and a food bowl all to herself. We knew she had lost weight. It wasn’t until we had her in the hand that it became apparent just how thin she was.
Feacal samples were submitted to the lab. Ultimately all she needed was a bit of TLC and a hearty meal. We increased the amount for food for all the birds as clearly they were having to burn a lot of calories to fly in the wind and stay warm. Once Bean was reunited with the group they stayed close together, including Dusty, and remained on the Sorel side of the valley. Until the next day!
Just as our stress levels were being lowered Lee and Noir went off the radar. This was obviously worrying what with Dusty and Bean’s fiasco and the bad weather continuing. Jen and Nicci tracked a group of choughs flying from the quarry and off west beyond Devils Hole early morning. Whilst trying to work out who was left behind a report came in of a sighting at Les Landes Racecourse again. Jen jumped in the car and went off to investigate.
Les Landes Racecourse backing onto Grosnez. Photo by Liz Corry.
Typically the group had left the area and disbanded. Eleven choughs had been at Les Landes with nine of those last seen heading off down the west coast over L’Étacq.
Chough hide and seek. Photo by Liz Corry.
Calmly assuming that the birds would return for their 11am aviary feed as they always do Jen returned to Sorel. They did indeed return, but Lee and Noir were still missing and absent at roost.
A search began the next day covering the areas were the group had been spotted.
Applying artistic license, some of the following photos were taken using filters to emphasise how bad the weather was without risking the camera’s longevity.
The search lasted all morning.
Grosnez. Photo by Liz Corry
Grosnez castle. Photo by Liz Corry
The Pinacle southwest of Les Landes Racecourse and north of L’Etacq. Photo by Liz Corry
Not a chough… Dartford warbler at Sorel. Photo by Liz Corry
View from Corbiere across St Ouen’s Bay to L’Etacq in the north. Photo by Liz Corry
Not choughs…stonechat and linnet at Plemont regeneration area. Photo by Liz Corry.
Just before giving up one last place was checked. Edit that. Double checked. From Ronez loop road the radio antennae was directed towards the quarry. The faintest of beeps emitted from the receiver! Cutting a 26 hour story short…Lee and Noir had somehow found themselves in the workshop building at the bottom of the quarry. Where they perched affected whether the signal was being blocked or not. Mixed feelings (from both parties) of confusion, relief, embarrassment, and glee when tracker and choughs were reunited .
Quarry site foreman Kevin trying to figure out why Lee and Noir won’t leave the workshop. Photo by Liz Corry
Lee and Noir in the quarry workshop. Photo by Liz Corry
Trying to find a suitable spot to target feed. Photo by Liz Corry
The only question now was how to get them out. It took a few attempts at target feeding and another night in the building to think about it.
The next morning the weather was the complete opposite; sunny, calm, dry(ish). The rest of the flock decided to spend the day at Ronez, something they haven’t done in a long time. This probably helped as the two in the building could hear them calling. Lee plucked up the courage to leave by 10am.
Noir took a bit more encouragement. This time when I visited her she started wing-begging when I spoke to her and offered food. Yes I talked to her. No I didn’t expect her to talk back, although in her own way she did. Still unsure about flying down and out of the entrance I blew the whistle to attract the other choughs. A very loud White and his partner Mauve flew in from the back entrance and chatted to Noir for a minute before all three left the building and re-joined the flock.
Noir and Lee returning to the aviary with the flock after two nights in the quarry. Photo by Liz Corry.
By the afternoon feed all 22 choughs were back together and eating at the aviary.
And that is how our November came to a close.
What could possibly happen in December?
Jinx
Display aviary at Durrell re-opens. Photo by Liz Corry
One thing that did go as planned this month was the move of the choughs at Durrell back into their flocking aviary on display at the park.
The repair work to the netting was completed last month. There is still a bit of DIY to do and it needs a bit of replanting after the digging required for the new structural supports.
The important thing is that the birds are together, as they would be in the wild. They get to have a mental break from the breeding season. And the prima donnaGianna gets to see her public.
Gianna having bathed, preens her feathers. Photo by Liz Corry
Jersey’s free-living chough population now stands (and flies) at twenty-two individuals since the release of the captive-reared chicks in September. So how have they been coping with life on the north coast?
The Jersey flock probing for insects on the grazed and at Sorel. Photo by Tim Morley.
Arguments around the dinner table. Photo by Liz Corry.
The seven young captive-bred choughs have integrated well into the free-living flock. Social ‘pecking order’ was established relatively quickly with most of the bickering being between the juveniles and restricted to feed times at the aviary.
It also tends to be the boys more than the girls who squabble. Brothers Kevin and Lee always bicker at feeds, but spend the rest of the time preening each other. A true ‘bromance’?
Kevin waiting to see if Lee will share what he finds to eat (I doubt it!). Photo by Liz Corry.
They are quite competent at searching for wild insects. Bills buried deep in soil and sheep muck. Kevin and Lee even turned their attention to a fresh mole hill, pretty much levelling it in their quest for food.
Noir, a 2015 captive-reared chick, digging for insects. Photo by Liz Corry.
Ormer demonstrating why a chough needs such a long bill. Photo by Liz Corry.
As the cold, wet winter weather sets in the abundance of insects living in the soil decreases, which means the choughs’ wild food supply becomes limited. Like their neighbours in the UK they look for alternative food sources at this time of year to top up their calories.
Last winter the group showed a great deal of interest in the hawthorn berries around the aviary. This year was no different and the new chicks joined in with the foraging.
Choughs use the hawthorn trees around the aviary site as a vantage point to rest and preen as well as a food source in the autumnal months. Photo by Liz Corry.
Our flock have the benefit of sympathetic staff who can interpret their insistent chatter and stalking from above as “please can we have some more food in our bowls?”
Release aviary at sunset. Photo by Liz Corry.
After a busy day of hunting for insects the new choughs go to roost in the aviary along with the other juveniles. Prior to their release in September there were seven choughs roosting in the quarry, Dusty had left his parents and joined the aviary roost group.
This appeared to stay the same after the release.
The choughs continued to forage once the sun had set. Photo by Liz Corry.
However, when the clocks changed on 25th October field-staff made a new discovery: A clear sky and a bright, almost full, moon provided enough light for the choughs to carry on foraging near the aviary once the sun had set.
To be fair, their internal clocks may have been slightly skewed (with ours) making them think they had at least another hour before bed.
Flying in to roost. Photo by Liz Corry.
Suddenly the birds took to the air and headed straight for the aviary. At least one pair broke away and shot off to the quarry. Two others disappeared from view.
Had they sneaked into the aviary via the other side? Had they left for the quarry, but been missed in the melee of choughs flying around the aviary? All we knew was at least 18 roosted at the aviary; four more than normal.
We repeated our roost checks and also checked in with Ronez Quarry to see what information they could provide. We now know that White and Mauve still roost in the quarry. The remaining adults, Green, Blue (Mrs Green), Black, Red, and her young man Dingle, all roost at the aviary.
There have also been changes in where the choughs hang out during the day. Breakfast time is spent over at Devil’s Hole no longer near the heather regeneration area on the east side of Mourier Valley.
Foraging for breakfast at Le Marionneux (west side Mourier Valley). Photo by Liz Corry.
We knew of their visit to Les Landes last month thanks to public sightings. This month we have had several sightings of choughs flying around le Câtel Fort, Grève de Lecq, which is halfway between Les Landes and Sorel (as the chough flies). Many thanks to Keith Pyman for those reports. He was lucky enough to see them pretty much once a week throughout October flying over his house. We cannot physically get there in time to know where they go after that. Are they passing Grève de Lecq on the way to Les Landes? Are they just scoping out the cliffs at Petit Grève? All we know is that they are back at Sorel in time for their lunch feed acting all nonchalant.
Not every chough made the journey beyond Devil’s Hole in October. Sometimes it is just four birds, at other times it is a group of seven or fourteen. We cannot be sure which individuals travel without being there to see their leg rings. Even then it requires them to be on the ground not flying with their feet tucked in. The radio-tracked group of seven tend to favour staying at Mourier Valley. Again not having transmitters attached to the other 15 doesn’t help our chances of being able to identify those who wander off.
One thing we can be certain on is the health of our choughs. Our close daily monitoring allows us to know when something is wrong. When that something is Dusty, Jersey’s wild-born chick, our own stress levels tend to increase let alone the bird’s.
A fortnight into Nicola Cox starting her six-month student placement on the project she spotted Dusty occasionally open-mouthed breathing. This could be due to several different reasons most of which are mundane and fleeting.
We continued to monitor him closely and could see that his breathing was gradually becoming laboured and he started sneezing. We know this usually means one thing and a faecal sample from Dusty confirmed it. He had Syngamus, a gapeworm, and in quite high numbers. Thankfully this is very treatable, but it did mean we had to catch him up to worm him.
The easiest, least stressful way of doing this was to call all twenty-two choughs back to the aviary just before roost and lock them in. I held off giving them their afternoon feed until then to ensure they were all motivated enough to stay inside the aviary eating. First thing the following morning we went in and caught Dusty in hand-nets. Within minutes Dusty had been checked over by the Vet, given medication, and the whole group given access back outside. The choughs appeared unfazed and within a couple of days he had stopped sneezing and breathing normally. Quite an exciting and thankfully positive end to the month.
They might not seem like it at first glance, but the sheep at Sorel are part of a special task force deployed in Jersey to help protect and serve the Island’s biodiversity. And now to boot they have celebrity status! Having featured on BBC’s Countryfile back in summer and subsequently attracting tourists to the north coast they have once again hit the headlines with ITV Report.
The report by Katie Robinson (ITV Channel) can be found by clicking here or following The National Trust for Jersey‘s Facebook page. There is a nice video as well featuring ranger Neil Harvey and a cameo from the chough flock.
Working hard on our coastline since 2009
Having been established back in 2009 with just 20 breeding ewes and two rams, Jersey’s conservation grazing flock of Manx loaghtan sheep is now almost 200 strong. The Manx loaghtan, a hardy rare breed thought to be the closest living relative of the now extinct Jersey sheep, originate from the Isle of Man. Since their introduction, the flock have been invaluable in addressing the widespread ecological degradation that has taken place along Jersey’s north coast.
Historically, the coastal headlands and slopes on Jersey’s north coast were grazed; however changes in Jersey’s economy during the early 20th century led to the cessation of traditional mixed farming practices on marginal land. When active management ceased, the semi-natural open grassland and heathland habitats characteristic of traditionally farmed marginal areas began to be invaded by bracken and scrub. The invasion of bracken in particular, which now blankets vast swathes of land along the north coast of the Island, has sadly led to a widespread decline in biodiversity.
Reinstating active management is the key to restoring species-rich semi-natural maritime grassland and heathland habitats. The Manx loaghtan flock contribute enormously in this respect. Through the action of trampling, the sheep help to reduce the cover of bracken, while grazing controls the growth of competitive plant species, prevents scrub invasion, and facilitates the development of diverse plant communities with varied sward structures. In addition, patches of bare ground and animal dung resulting from sheep grazing provide important resources for invertebrates.
Sheep, choughs and other birds
The Manx loaghtan grazing area at Le Don Paton provides ideal habitat for the choughs. These iconic birds forage for invertebrate prey in areas of short turf and dung produced by the grazing sheep, and also use wool in nest building. In addition to benefiting Jersey’s resident wildlife, the short grassy areas maintained by grazing also provide feeding opportunities for migratory bird species of conservation concern, such as meadow pipit, wheatear and ring ouzel.
The increase in the size of the flock is fantastic news as it will allow this highly effective and sustainable management technique to be more widely applied, facilitating the restoration of Jersey’s coastal headland habitat for the benefit of our native wildlife.
Sheep and people
The flock have proven to be extremely popular with both visitors and local residents alike, to the extent that they are now something of a visitor attraction. An additional benefit of the increase in flock size is the increased production of high quality meat for the local market, as well as wool for craft knitting.
Museum of Natural History
These dung beetles and their larvae are a vital part of food webs supporting many insectivorous birds and omnivorous mammals. The Minotaur beetles in particular are a important food resource for the choughs (see photo
