Monday 31st August 2020

The second half of August was pretty good birding overall despite no garnish of a rare. Just 20 minutes at Pulias on 16th and I had Sedge Warbler, Redstart and Greenshank, and the next day saw 2 Green Sandpipers at Claire Mare and a Pied Flycatcher at Fort Hommet - a selection not to be sniffed at and an indication that autumn had properly arrived. An education this summer has been improving my understanding of juvenile gulls and a few stops at Perelle beach have revealed a few Yellow-legged Gulls, mainly via the tutelage of Wayne. There’s many subtle differences for identification, but the main thing is that if it looks fresh and neat in August, it’ll be a Herring/LBBG, but if its faded/worn/moulty then it’ll be more than likely Yellow-legged.

Yellow-legged Gull - Perelle, 18 Aug 20

second Yellow-legged Gull - Perelle, 18 Aug 20

On 24th August I managed a few hours out and a big surprise was a Green Sandpiper flushed from the shore on the west side of Port Grat, only the second bird I have seen on the patch I think. There was also a Kingfisher there, my first of the year. At high tide I went to look at the Sandwich Tern roost on Houmet Paradis island because Mark had seen about 150 birds there the day before, a record count for Guernsey and a sight worth seeing. When I got there it was indeed rather impressive but I thought that perhaps there were even more. I gave it a couple of counts and soon worked out that there were actually at least 355 terns present! This number was really incredible considering that prior to 2020 there has never been even a 3-figure flock seen before. Just why there has been so many this year is a mystery. Perhaps there is some specific disturbance elsewhere in the Channel where they usually congregate.

Sandwich Terns - Houmet Paradis, 24 Aug 20

Sandwich Terns - Houmet Paradis, 24 Aug 20

Ringed Plover - opposite Houmet Paradis, 24 Aug 20

Ringed Plovers & a Dunlin - opposite Houmet Paradis, 24 Aug 20

Suddenly, on 29th August the winds finally swung round to the north and some seawatching was required. Unfortunately on the first morning I was unable to attend the session due to childcare requirements and I missed some fabulous skua passage. Undaunted, I managed to dash out for a bit in the afternoon, managing two hours on the rocks by myself between 2 and 4, and had a whale of a time. I saw 7 Bonxies and 16 Arctic Skuas including a fine flock of six birds. I may have even had a skua sweep but I couldn’t be 100% - one of the distant birds looked almost certainly a Pom and I am pretty sure I had a Long-tailed Skua just outside the reef. I’d just seen a few Arctics pass and this one looked smaller and lighter in flight and the plumage looked good - very pale below, a palish brown above and an almost white head. Perhaps with a few people beside me, I may have nailed it.

The conditions looked similar the next day and so I went out to Jaonneuse for a morning session. The skuas had slowed down but we still had 21 Bonxies, 5 Arctics and a Pomarine. There wasn’t much else passing but there was my first passage Kittiwakes and Common Scoter of the autumn.

31st August was the final day of the school holidays and I went up to Pleinmont. There were a few migrants about including single Swift, Whinchat and Yellow Wagtail. It was a bright and sunny day and Mark and I had a kettle of raptors suddenly appear in the sky above us. They were difficult to study due to their height and position but we picked out a clear Honey Buzzard in amongst the 20+ Common Buzzards.

Wheatear - Pleinmont, 31 Aug 20

Willow Warbler - Claire Mare, 17 Aug 20 - popped into Claire Mare whilst Chris was having a quick ringing session. Nice to get some birds in the hand, it has been a while.

Robin - Claire Mare, 17 Aug 20

young Collared Doves in nest - garden, 18 Aug 20 - it is amazing how quickly baby birds grow. On the previous post, the photo of the fluffy babies was only 10 days before the above. The birds left the nest about 2 days after this.

Collared Dove - garden, 22 Aug 20

In the moth trap, despite the good time of year, I didn’t really get any notable species. Two species which do seem to have increased this year are the pair of invasive micros, Opogona omoscopa and Tachystola acroxantha, both recent additions to the local insect life. On 18th August I had eight of each species in the moth trap. There was pretty stiff southerly winds on the few days up to and including 20th August which I thought may have brought some interesting butterflies to Pleinmont so I went for a wander. There was none (which matched the lack of migrant moths) but I did spot a wasp feeding on the flower of a clifftop Fennel which I thought looked a bit odd. A close look revealed it to be a Tree Wasp, which has only a couple of records for Guernsey - not what I was searching for but a cracking new species nonetheless.

Tree Wasp - Pleinmont, 20 Aug 20 - note the tiny black dot on the face, the general hairiness and the general impression that it is plotting something.

Curculio glandium (Acorn Weevil) - garden, to MV, 18 Aug 20 - another corking new species for me and not really any recent records for Guernsey, although I am sure it is probably resident in small numbers sticking its beak into our local acorns.