Tag Archives: Alderney

Chough report – Second quarter

Posted on by

Alderney
The pair of choughs seen in Alderney on 31st March continued to reside there into April. This news was shared by Alderney Bird Observatory (ABO). It’s great to know we have eyes and ears on the neighbouring islands, where choughs are concerned. Both female and hatched in 2023, these birds were identified as: Skomer (Black/Pink (L)) and Millport (Dark Blue/Pink (R)). Always observed together, they were also seen allopreening. Their spontaneous ‘girls trip’ to Alderney could have been to scout for some males, as unfortunately, the sex ratio in the flock has more females than males. Having failed in their endeavour, the pair returned to Jersey on 10th April.

Skomer and Millport are back from their week away in Alderney. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

The first of many
The first chick of the year was ringed on 1st May. This chick was from a new breeding pair, Alder & Angalsea, at a new nesting location. The male, Alder, hatched in 2022, and the female, Angalsea, in 2023. This young pair is rarely seen at the Sorel aviary during supplementary feeding times, so it was a big surprise when we received information on their success. The team set off, found the pair, their nest and chick! Although they only had one chick this year, we hope that in the coming years they will become more experienced and successful.

This year’s ring colour is: Brown. It will be coupled with three other individual identifier bands. The long-debated chough naming theme this year is: Biscuits, which turns out to be quite fitting as the biscuits brand McVitie’s is celebrating their 100th anniversary!

Hobnob showing off their new colour rings. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

New nest findings
The team has been working hard to find more chough nests across the island. With the help of Jersiaise ornithology members as well as Jersey residents, the team at Durrell has received more chough sightings, which in turn has helped narrow down the search for nest locations. This year, three new nests were located. The first nest was located in L’Etacq, which was breeding pair Alder and Angalsea’s nest. The second nest was found through word of mouth on social media. We contacted the landowners and they happily allowed us to monitor the nest, enabling us to establish the pair visiting were Portelet & Sallow. The third nest was also found in St Ouen and with landowners again giving us access, we concluded the third nest site belonged to Aspen & Jaune. 

Kevin displaying next to Wally, their partner. Photography by Charlotte Dean.

The nests found in St Ouen were unfortunately inaccessible without cherry pickers. The location of Sallow & Portelet’s nest was well hidden, but the landowners managed to send us regular nest updates, allowing us to know how many chicks to expect from them. Their nest contained four chicks!

Aspen & Jaunes nest could luckily be viewed from the ground, and they had two hungry chicks to feed. If any of the readers know of a chough nest site, please do not hesitate to email us at charlotte.dean@durrell.org as we’re eager to find out where all the choughs nest for future monitoring.

Two chicks at Aspen & Jaunes nest. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Ronez First walk around
Our first quarry walk around was on the 16th May – this is when we look around accessible chough nests to estimate chick ages so we can plan leg ringing sessions. The nests we could look into were Kevin & Wally, Dusty & Archirondel, and Iris & Sercq’s. Kevin & Wally had three chicks of ringing age; therefore, we ringed them on site. Dusty & Archirondel looked as though they had two chicks in their nest. Sercq & Iris had two much younger looking chicks than the other two pair’s nests we visited. Although we could only access three nests, we could hear chicks in other nests when walking around the site.

Two hungry chicks in Sercq & Iris’s nest. Photography by Tobias Cabarat.

Ronez ringing visit
The chough team visited Ronez again on the 25th May for the chough ringing visit. Our visit would not be possible without our collaboration with Ronez, as well as the generosity of 4Hire for allowing us the use of essential equipment to access nests free of charge. A total of seven nests were seen at the quarry this year, with six being accessible. Three of those nests required a cherry picker, and one required a scissor stair lift.

The first nest accessed was a new pairing; Percy & Remi. Percy & Remi had three hungry chicks in their nest, but unfortunately the weather was against us, so the chicks were left undisturbed. The second nest was another new pairing; Lee & Elm who had two chicks in their nest. The third nest was breeding pair Trevor & Noirmont, containing two chicks. The fourth nest investigated using the cherry picker was empty. The fifth nest was Dingle & Pyrrho’s, and this nest was accessed with a scissor lift.

Toby & Charlotte pulling chicks from Lee & Elm’s nest. Photograph by Bethea Billington.

One chick was found in the high nest, however chick calls were heard close by while this chick was being ringed. The staff explored around the nest site and found three newly fledged chicks hiding under a cupboard!  The sixth and last nest investigated belonged to Sercq & Iris, and two chicks were noted.

The one chick that was in Dingle & Pyrrhos nest. Photograph by Bethea Billington.

Plemont pair
The pair at Plemont weren’t visited as much this breeding season due to the stairs to the beach being replaced. However, once access was granted again, we managed a few afternoon observations. We also had some helpful Jersey residents monitoring the nest in our absence. Minty & Reys four chicks were witnessed leaving their nest for the very first time on 5th June and brought all four fledglings to the aviary on 11th June.

Two of the four chicks seen at the Plemont pairs nest. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Table 1, number of chicks in each nest visited so far.

Breeding pair

Number of chicks in nest

Alder & Angalsea

1

Kevin & Wally

3

Percy & Remi

3

Lee & Elm

2

Trevor & Noirmont

2

Dingle & Pyrrho

4

Sercq & Iris

2

Dusty & Archirondel

2

Aspen & Jaune

2

Sallow & Portelet

4

Minty & Rey

4

Bo & Flieur

Unknown

Pinel & Vicq

Unknown

Sarnia & Pine

Unknown

Kent & Rougenez

Unknown

Oronsay & Manitou

Unknown

Feta & Manchego

Unknown

Total

29

First ‘choughlets’ at the aviary
On the 5th June, the first pair to bring chicks near the aviary was Dingle & Pyrrho. Though the flyover was brief, the team spotted them. The next pair were Kevin & Wally, with two of their three chicks on 10th June. Minty & Rey brought their four chicks on the 11th June, who looked to be quite a handful! Dusty & Archirondel brought two chicks on 13th June, with Lee & Elm bringing their two chicks a little later on 17th. On the 18th, Sercq & Iris brought one chick, Sallow & Portelet brought three chicks, and Trevor & Noirmont brought two. Aspen & Jaune were seen feeding two chicks at the aviary on 20th June. Percy & Remi brought 3 chicks to the aviary on 21st June. Alder & Angalsea brought their chick to the aviary on 22nd. Finally, on the 25th June, Bo & Flieur surprised us when they were seen feeding a chick!

‘Choughlets’ all in a row on the aviary. Photograph by Charlotte Dean.

Where have you seen the choughs?
April saw the most frequent sightings of choughs in St Ouen, which varied from inland sightings to observations along the coast. The highest number of choughs seen in a flock at St Ouen was seven in some horse fields along Mont Matthieu. The largest flock seen was 15 over Sorel. Choughs were however seen in many places around the island, including: Plemont, Corbiere, St Helier, Les Landes, Trinity, L’Etacq, Grosnez, Greve de Lecq, Grouville, Petit Port and St Catherine’s.

St Ouens seems to be the place to spot choughs lately. Choughs were seen most often during May – whether that be near the pond or further inland. The largest flock seen around the island was 23, flying over towards Ronez. Corbiere also saw 21 choughs. Apart from St Ouen, Ronez and Corbiere, the choughs were also spotted in various other places such as: Crabbe, Plemont, Les Landes, Grosnez, Le Pulec, Petit Port and White Rock.

Corbiere seemed to be the most popular place to see choughs in June. The three main places they were sighted were near the radio tower, in the Gorselands and La Rosiere quarry. The second most popular areas were Plemont and Les Landes. The largest flock was spotted in flight over Les Landes. However, the choughs were also seen in St John, St Ouens, St Mary’s, Grosnez, Greve de Lecq and Petit Port.

Parent and fledgling in flight over Grosnez. Photograph by Antony Morin.

Conservation Awards 2025
Durrell was invited to attend the 35th Jersey Conservation Awards anniversary as a potential candidate for a chance to win an award for conservation efforts across Jersey. This year’s event had several categories: School & youth group green award, Young conservationist of the year, People’s choice award, Best conservation project runner up and best conservation award. Each candidate entered gave a presentation on their projects. It was inspiring to hear about the fantastic conservation work that is on-going around the island. Durrell was lucky enough to receive the ‘Best conservation project award’ for the Red-Billed Chough Project.

Durrell Bird Team members accepting ‘The best conservation project’ 2025 for the Red-Billed Chough Project. Photograph by: Paul Wright.

Durrell’s Species Champion Award (DSCA)
Durrell’s education and chough team collaborated on a week-long event in June, where year 6 pupils of St John’s school took part in Durrell’s Species Champion Award (DSCA). The DSCA aimed to engage schools and local communities in wildlife conservation as well as to find better connections with nature. St John’s school chose the charismatic Red-billed Chough as their species champion and therefore were educated on the species through activities between 23rd – 27th June. The chough team gave a talk on the Red-billed Chough Project. During the week, the children learnt about ecosystems, chough diet, chough legends, created posters on the species, as well as taking a field trip to the Sorel aviary. They ended their week ‘championing’, by sharing what they had learnt with a reception class and their families.

Charlotte giving a talk on the chough project. Photograph by Alexandra Ward.

 

 

Inter Island Environment Meeting 2021

Posted on by

Environmental experts and conservationists from the Channel Islands will be meeting virtually to share ideas and collaborate on projects at a two-day meeting from Thursday 21 October. All Islanders are invited to listen to the speakers and contribute to the meeting.

This year’s Inter-Island Environment Meeting is being chaired by the Jersey Biodiversity Centre (JBC) and Government of Jersey’s Natural Environment team.

The theme of the meeting will be about how the Islands are connected by biodiversity and will discuss biological recording, conservation research, citizen science, and the importance of sharing technology, knowledge and expertise, using the Pollinator Project as a case study.

There will be two interactive workshops and various speakers from the Channel Islands, UK and France. Participants will be invited to share their experience from the workshops which will involve visiting local wild spaces and using the hashtags #IIEM2021 #IslandsConnected on social media.

A preliminary timetable is available to view here.

Chair of the JBC, Anne Haden, said: “By working together as a group of Islands we are able to achieve more and create an aspirational way forward to tackle the biodiversity crisis. Together, we can create a stronger biodiversity network and pool our limited resources to ultimately protect our Islands’ natural environments.

“This meeting is an excellent opportunity for environmentalists and conservationists to discuss and identify the solutions needed to maintain healthy and sustainable ecosystems, for us and future generations.”

Photo: Anne_Nygard/Unsplash

Minister for Environment, Deputy John Young, said: “I am looking forward to collaborating with colleagues and Islanders in our annual Inter-Island Environment Meeting. We will be using the two days to listen to presentations, take part in workshops, and discuss how we can improve the way we communicate with each other for environmental projects and work together as a network of Islands to protect our natural environment.

“By making this a virtual event, I hope that more Islanders are encouraged to join in from work, home or during their lunch break.”

Those who wish to attend online must register in advance by clicking here.

Jersey islanders who do not have access to a computer can attend in person. Talks will be live-streamed on a big screen at the Société Jersiaise. Light refreshments will be provided. Those wishing to choose this option must register by calling 01534 633393.

Birds in the Channel Islands: lists updated

Posted on by

A little later than in previous years, we are very pleased to update everyone on the Channel Islands’ birds. Two new species were added to the Islands list and unlike some of last year’s (here) they were ‘proper’ species, not those cryptic ones hiding in plain sight. Although Guernsey did add the previously ‘hidden’ Iberian chiffchaff and Caspian gull to their own list in 2018.

With some revisions (Jersey’s saker falcon, probably an escape, was demoted), the overall total for the Islands only actually went up by one so now stands at 377. I was right, last year, that Alderney would add little bunting to their total but they still haven’t reached 300. Losing a bean goose (its become two species and while Jersey can confirm records of both taiga and tundra bean, Guernsey and Alderney decided that they couldn’t retrospectively confirm the tundra version) put them back one, the little bunting brought them back up to 298. The wait for 300 goes on!    

And, in the separate islands, Guernsey added the three species above but also saw their first pallid swifts with birds seen in October and November. Offshore Guernsey birders recorded their Island and the whole CI’s third Wilson’s petrel. And, to rub it in with their southern neighbours the royal tern continued to hang around until May and still didn’t visit Jersey.

In Alderney, the impressive effort continued and besides the little bunting, long awaited second records of goosander, Iceland gull and Richard’s and tawny pipits were logged. There were also three records of great egret, a rapidly spreading species, and two of cirl bunting, a species, in contrast, considered to be in decline and exhibiting limited movements. Interestingly, Sark also saw a cirl bunting, their first since, well, a long time ago. Jersey has breeding cirl buntings but they were absent from the Island from 2004-2012 pointing to more movement in this species than had been expected (and look out for more news on this beautiful bird next year!). 

Guernsey also recorded local rarities in Canada and pink-footed goose, penduline tit and corn bunting. Sark added records of only rarely recorded red kite, nightjar and hawfinch with their cirl bunting.

In Jersey, besides the two CI firsts, above, the first Island record of Pallas’s leaf warbler meant that a gap in the CI list was finally filled in – there have been 18 previous records of this warbler across the other three islands. There were also seconds for Barolo shearwater, little crake and Caspian gull. The little crake was found in poor health and died in care.  A third common rosefinch and third dusky warbler were also notable. 

Two further wading birds made contrasting appearances in the islands in 2018 with a Kentish plover recorded in Jersey for the third time since 2000 and six black-winged stilts seen (two in Jersey and four in Alderney). Kentish plover is a former breeder in Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney (last breeding in 1974) whereas the stilt was only first seen in the islands, in Guernsey, in 1987 and has now been recorded in 13 separate years.

The full A Working List of the Birds of the Channel Islands can be downloaded here

 

Wilder Islands

Posted on by

By Liz Corry and Glyn Young

This year’s Inter-Island Environment Meeting (IIEM) was held in Alderney hosted by the Alderney Wildlife Trust and the States of Alderney. We had two days of presentations, participatory bioblitzs, and workshops. A new Wilder Islands conference ran on the third day bringing scientists, conservation practitioners, and policy makers together. This extra day was used to discuss the role of islands as biodiversity hot spots in a response to global environmental decline. Each day was introduced by AWT’s indefatigable Roland Gauvain.

There were over 120 delegates in attendance representing the Channel Islands, UK, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies and France. Quite a crowd and quite a diversity of subjects.

For an island just shy of 8km2 Alderney did pretty well to accommodate us all. We took over the independent cinema and Island Hall for presentations and workshops, nipping into the Georgian House for coffee breaks and sustenance (there was also a divine three-course meal cooked by The Blonde Hedgehog staff using locally sourced products. We won’t talk about that since Glyn was only there for Day 3).

Presentations

Topics included invasive species control, citizen science, rewilding, and species monitoring. We will just mention a few to give you a flavour of the event.

Bob Tompkins talked about how Jersey is tackling the Asian hornet problem. We also heard from delegates about the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s approach. It is a daunting task; one that depends enormously on volunteers and public awareness. One take-home message, maybe unintentional, was just how amazing and socially intricate hornets are. 

Bob Tompkins explaining the intricate architecture of a late stage Asian hornet nest. Photo by Liz Corry.

Asian hornets are considered a pest because they predate honey bees; a species already in peril. As are many of our pollinating species be it bird, bat, or beetle.

At last years IIEM we heard from Barry Wells about the success of the newly created Pollinator Project. His team’s efforts (and enthusiasm) are now being replicated in Jersey in order to connect the Channel Islands together to achieve greater success.

Barry Wells talking about the success of the Pollinator Project. Photo by Liz Corry.

Barry highlighted an interesting fact – around 27% of Guernsey is designated as gardens. If you can convince homeowners to set aside just 10% of that land to pollinating plants it would be the equivalent of 200 football pitches. On one tiny island! Think how many insects that would help.

This is another example of how volunteers can be a huge benefit to biodiversity by making subtle changes. Sometimes a huge shift in public attitudes is needed and is harder to achieve. Cristina Sellarés touched upon this when she discussed the impact of dogs chasing wading birds on beaches. 

Cristina Sellarés discussed the concept of islands within islands. Photo by Liz Corry.

Some impacts are harder to notice unless you dedicate your time to monitoring them. Take eelgrass for example. It is considered a priority marine habitat in the Channel Islands due to the wonderful array of ecological functions that it has. Yet we don’t really know anything about our own eelgrass.

Pacific halibut resting on a bed of eelgrass. Photo by Adam Obaza (NOAA)

Step forward Dr Melanie Broadhurst-Allen (member of the Guernsey Seasearch team) positively glowing with passion for the sheer number of species eelgrass supports (including brent geese).

Just some of the invertebrates that rely on eelgrass.

Lack of public awareness has meant urban development, dredging, pollution, and sediment runoff has significantly degraded this habitat. A joint collaboration between partners from Guernsey and Alderney led to a citizen science project to monitor eelgrass. Data from this will hopefully be used by policy makers to apply protection and conserve eelgrass beds.

How to segway from eelgrass to choughs? Monitoring – sea eagles – reintroductions – choughs. Seamless.

Jamie Marsh, Reserves Manager for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, talked about the white-tailed sea eagle recent release on the Isle of Wight. Three-pairs of birds were released in August as part of a reintroduction project. With an 8ft (2.5m) wingspan it is not surprising that the birds’ GPS trackers have shown some interesting results. One eagle, named Culver, excelled itself and was spotted by a father and son in London! Jamie shared the tracking data which confirmed Culver flew over Westminster at the end of August, over to Essex, before returning to Hampshire.

Movements of a reintroduced white-tailed eagle marked in red) across the south west of England. Photo by Liz Corry.

If this particular project is successful it will help pave the way for other reintroductions on the Isle of Wight; cirl bunting? beaver? chough?!

Potential reintroductions in the Isle of Wight will help boost biodiversity. Photo by Liz Corry.

Keynote speaker

Public opinion has been divided over returning sea eagles to England. Not helped by the often skewed and in some cases fake news coverage. Something Dr George McGavin raised in his lecture on the first evening.

George McGavin gave the keynote speech of the Inter-Island Meeting. Photo by Liz Corry.

George’s talk entitled Where have all the insects gone? touched upon the tendency for the media to extrapolate headline grabbing facts from reports and not consider the finer detail. Audience members were treated to a brief lesson in statistical significance and bias in survey sampling. Luckily George went about it in an engaging manner.

On the subject of insect numbers, George referenced the 2004 Big Bug Count led by the RSPB. Similar to their Big Garden Birdwatch, people were asked to count the number of insects seen on their vehicle registration plate using a ‘Splatometer’. It made people reminisce of days gone by when you would have to stop the car to wipe splattered flying insects off your windscreen.

Of course windscreens are different from number plates. Maybe the ‘splats’ are more likely on a larger, higher up surface? We won’t know unless the survey is repeated on an annual basis allowing us to see trends. We do it for birds, why not for insects? Well if you live in Kent you can! Kent Wildlife Trust reinstated the scheme this summer. What results would we get for Jersey? An island with more cars than people!

Wilder Islands

On the third day, the conference took on a new role and focused on the role islands have to play in a rapidly changing world where ecosystem collapse seems inevitable and considered how we can work together to meet this challenge. Again hosted by Dr George McGavin, each session involved a series of short presentations putting forward the speaker’s position with the speakers then forming a panel to debate the issue, with questions and input from the floor.

The keynote speaker today was Tony Juniper, Chairman of Natural England who talked on why islands and island biodiversity are so important globally and for the UK.

Session 1 looked at how we prioritise our response to the impacts of climate change on island ecosystems with Rob Stoneman (Rewilding Europe), Glyn Young (Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Birds On The Edge) and Dr Louise Soanes (University of Roehampton).

Glyn’s talk was nattily entitled Islands: threatened engines of evolution and covered the importance of islands in the ‘creation’ of new species, current threats to the world’s islands and novel solutions looking at Durrell’s work in the Galápagos Islands. 

Session 2 looked at the role of marine protected areas within islands in securing marine biodiversity with Dr Bryce Beukers-Stewart (University of York), Dr Jean-Luc Solandt (Marine Conservation Society), Farah Mukhida (Anguilla National Trust) and Jim Masters (Fishing into the Future).

Blue Islands Charter
Political representatives at the conference stepped out to take part in the Blue Island Summit, to sign a charter committing islands to work together in their response to the environmental threats they face.

The signed Blue Islands Charter. Photo by David Nash

The natural environment knows no boundaries

Acknowledging that the natural environment has no boundaries, Ministers and other representatives from the UK family of small islands agreed the Blue Island Charter. The Charter provides a statement of principle on a number of initiatives previously discussed by the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies Environment Ministers Council as well as other islands. These stressed working together on common issues which we all face.

Some key issues which the UK family of territories intend to pursue include moving towards a ban on single use plastics and, in general, controlling the impact of the Island’s activities upon the terrestrial and marine environment. Crucially, this would be facilitated by supporting each other through open communication and education.

The various territories are further actively exploring the possibility of creating a joint biodiversity fund to support inter-island work. This fund would also be open to contributions from other parties, including governmental, corporate and private sources. 

This charter demonstrates the will and intent of islands to work together for the benefit of all, to safeguard the environment and promote active collaboration on matters such as climate change. It portrays a level of commitment in promoting environmental governance in a manner rarely seen on a global scale. See the media release here

Session 3, after lunch, Hon. Claude Hogan (Minister, Montserrat), Dr Mike Pienkowski (UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum) and Dr Keith Bensusan (Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society) looked at the roles NGOs and government might play in the response to climate change and biodiversity loss across our islands.

And finally, the outcome of the Blue Islands Summit was announced by delegates from Alderney (Andrew Muter, CEO) and Gibraltar (Dr Liesl Mesilio, Director of the Environment) to the room at large and attendees were asked to approve as a whole a statement of unity and a request for collaborative working.

Safe returns

And so, on a wet and very windy Sunday we returned home to Jersey, our flight home in doubt until the last minute. Thank you Aurigny. Before the flight I took time to walk down to Braye and watch the weather, to quietly thank our hosts, AWT and particularly Roland, Lindsay and Justin and listen to Wales beat Australia. What better way to end a great and productive weekend.