Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

A quiet first month to 2017, I headed out first on 3rd Jan to cover the Hommet to Rousse patch and had a very successful morning. At Pulias I saw the wintering Black Redstart, but a bonus bird was the Kingfisher perched on a rock by the pond giving great views. I tried to get my camera out but was thwarted by a dog walker - just for a change! Moving on down the coast, a Black-throated Diver swam very close in at Cobo, again giving great views albeit just beyond camera range. There seems to be just as many of these as there is G N Diver this winter.

Moving down to the Richmond end of Vazon, I thought I'd pop in to see if the Whitethroat was still present. Tony B had the same idea but we could not see it. I went to look for Water Pipit round the corner - but again failed - when Tony called me back to say the Whitethroat had just appeared, so we had more great views of this exceptional mid-winter bird. There were lots of Brent Geese in the bay, more than 70, and also a female Red-breasted Merganser swimming just off the rocks. It was such a pleasant, sunny morning to be out in the field.

Back to work on 5th Jan, I had two different divers on the way home - a Great Northern Diver at Grandes Rocques and a Black-throated Diver off Rousse, probably the same one as I photographed a few weeks ago.

I didn't really do much else until I had a walk round the Grand Pre on 21st Jan. This was hopefully to discover some rare wintering passerines but I saw very little. I get the impression that there seems to be very few wintering land birds in general this year. Highlights of the walk were a really nice Water Rail perched up in the lower branches of a small tree, and a Woodcock flushed from the side of the marsh along the southern path, a place where I have recorded the species before.

The final sighting of the month was a Lapwing seen at school on 27th Jan which landed in the field with the Guineafowl, which I found most amusing. Is this a new carrier species for Lapwing?

STATS

A new year begins and so I take a look back at 2016 - the facts and figures are below. As can be seen from a few of these stats, my focus for 2016 was definitely finding my own birds. I may have had a very low year list, but this was because I didn't go and see lots of uncommon and scarce birds that I heard about. In fact, only 4 birds I saw this year were not "self-found". Very disappointing was that I had no new birds for Guernsey or Britain at all in 2016, but at least, in Poland, I saw my first new World lifers since 2011.

5 new birds for the World - Pygmy Owl, Grey-headed, Middle Spotted, White-backed and Euro Three-toed Woodpeckers - now on 765.

0 new birds for Britain - still on 391.

0 new birds for Guernsey - still on 252.

1 new 'self-found' bird - Kentish Plover, makes 271.

4 new Hommet to Rousse 'patch' birds - Greylag Goose, Coal Tit, Shoveler, Kentish Plover, makes 157.

2 new garden birds (in or from) - Garden Warbler, Black Kite, makes 88.

2016 Guernsey year list total - 131, worst ever (but didn't exactly try!).

Official local rarities found - 3 - Kentish Plover, Black Kite, Short-toed Lark.

Official local rarities seen - 7 - Long-tailed Duck, Cattle Egret, Black Stork, Black Kite, Kentish Plover, Iceland Gull, Short-toed Lark.

End-of-year British Pan-species list - 2438.

End-of-year Guernsey Pan-species list - 2065.

Garden moth list - 627.

New Lepidoptera in Guernsey - 3 - Tachystola acroxantha, Barred Sallow, Lunar Hornet Moth.

New Lepidoptera in UK - 3 - Nemophora metallica, Small Waved Umber, Essex Skipper.

New mammals - 2 - Bottle-nosed Dolphin, Bison.

PHOTOS

I have picked out my favourite ten photos from 2016. I feel that I did not take many photos this year compared to previous years and did not have a lot to choose from. These are not necessarily the most perfect pictures I took, just ones that I like for varying reasons.