August 2021 pt ii — Just A Bird

The second half of August a pleasing selection of scarce species on the island - nothing very unexpected but a parade of decent migrants. The beach at Perelle was the spot for large gull studying - if you want to do that sort of thing - and I noted a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, on 17th and 18th. The adult bird was obvious but the 3rd-year bird was a little more tricky. The darker mantle isn’t too obvious on the pic below but was more so in the field, and you can see a slight tint of yellow on the legs.

Also on 18th there was a Common Sandpiper and a Reed Warbler at Pulias, the first of the latter I had seen there this year. Whilst driving on one of our regular island tours in the rain on 19th, as I whizzed past a gateway at Creux Mahie, I got a white flash in the corner of my eye next to a horse. The white flash was correctly-shaped enough to warrant a quick drive round the block for a re-run and I saw that the shape was indeed the hoped-for Cattle Egret rather than a Little. The first of the autumn on Guernsey, no doubt the same as was seen a few days previously at Claire Mare.

On 21st I tried Pleinmont for some migrants but 3 swooping Swifts were the only movement of note on a quiet headland. However, rounding the corner of the scramble track, I flushed a Short-eared Owl from very close range and watched it flap away towards the fields. Calling in at Claire Mare on the way home there was both Greenshank and Green Sandpiper, and another stop at Fort Hommet saw a Pied Flycatcher and a brief sighting of the Melodious Warbler that had been found there the day before. The latter was the first I’ve seen on my Hommet-Rousse coastal patch which was a nice bonus.

Melodious Warbler - Ft Hommet, 21 Aug 21

I tried again at Pleinmont on 27th in pretty good winds but there was very little in grounded migrants, 4 Whinchat, 5 Wheatear and 2 Yellow Wagtails being the main things of note. On the way up there I saw 4 Common Sandpipers together on the Shingle Bank and a group of 15 Med Gulls at Richmond.

On 31st again I visited Pleinmont - but just a brief visit whilst driving - and bumped into a group of 3 Dotterels that had been briefly spotted the previous evening but hadn’t been pinned down. They were in the ‘strip fields’ opposite the tower and I took a few snaps from the car window. They didn’t stay and were gone when people looked a few minutes later but they eventually settled in a field for a day or so.

I popped out again in the evening of 31st for my last bit of birding before school started again the next day. A group of 6 Greenshanks at Vale Pond was a nice count and both a Spotted and a Pied Flycatcher were showing superbly well in the trees behind the Peninsula Hotel.

There was not many good days for insect hunting due to the weather, and likewise not many good nights for moth-trapping with nothing very unusual caught. The south-facing banks at the cliffpath at Mont Herault had double-figures of the beetle Stenoria analis flying about looking for mates it seems. These beetles need Ivy Bees for their larvae and this is indeed a place with a decent Ivy Bee colony in October. Also here was a single Blue-winged Grasshopper, the first I have seen for ages, and the furthest west along the coast I have seen one.

Ivy Bee Blister Beetle (Stenoria analis) - Mont Herault, 27 Aug 21

Blue-winged Grasshopper - Mont Herault. 27 Aug 21

Blue-winged Grasshopper - Mont Herault. 27 Aug 21 - showing it has blue shins as well as wings

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Just A Bird