Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Once we hit mid-October, it feels a lot ‘rarer’ here on the island. The winter migrants become more obvious after the slight slow-down at the start of the month, and anticipation levels increase. I went up to Pleinmont for a quick run round on the next available Saturday (13th Oct) and had really good views of a Yellow-browed Warbler feeding below me from my favourite seat above Pezeries Wood. There were also 4 Firecrests in the area but variety was lacking.

Back at work on Monday 15th October, I checked my phone just before lunch and there was a message that Wayne and Mark had just had a possible Pallid Swift flying round Pleinmont! Late swifts are catnip to rarity hunters and we’d had a few in Guernsey before, but we had never been able to turn any into Pallids. This was not good timing however, as I was busy with something else at lunchtime - plus, with roadworks, Pleinmont was a bit tricky to get to in such a short time - and also I had a goddam staff meeting after school! Swifts are not known for sitting for ages in fields or bushes and do a bunk at a drop of a hat. There was a long day ahead of me before having the chance of looking for it.

Keeping an eye on the messages from Wayne, the bird was still present over lunchtime and early afternoon which was encouraging. One or two of the photographers had taken a few decent photos and he was pretty sure that the bird was going to be eventually ID’d as a Pallid. I was chomping at the bit to get there but was still stuck at school. When I finally got in the car, at approaching 4:30, I checked my messages to see that the swift hadn’t been seen since 2:15. Oh bum! I considered whether to leave it and just drive home for a cup of tea after a knackering day at work, but decided not to be so part-time and drove the opposite direction to Pleinmont to try and re-find the bugger myself.

When I arrived on the headland, there were still some birders looking for the bird from its original spot near La Societe fields but there was no sign still - it had now gone missing for two and a half hours. I decided to walk back to the Scramble Track area so I could climb up onto the high mounds so I could get a wider vista in case the bird was feeding further away. Wayne came with me and we scanned and scanned but there was no joy. The conditions were really cloudy and dull with very few birds flying around. Then I noticed a small group of distant hirundines feeding low down behind the pines by the Vau de Monel, and as I was watching them, I thought I saw a larger bird briefly swoop through them. I mentioned this to Wayne and after a while we saw it again and then again and we were convinced it was a swift.

We jumped in the cars and drove down there and running through the trees we suddenly were watching the PALLID SWIFT right above us at close range. Oh yiss!! A new British* tick for me! The bird stayed for the half-hour or so I was there, feeding in the valley above Pezeries Bay with hirundines and gave lots of close views. As it was so very dull and dark so we couldn’t make out any colouration in the field, never mind any pallidity, but this bird seemed quite distinctive as it flew around. As can be seen on the photo below, the wing-tips were really rounded for a swift, incredibly so. The wings did not appear like the sharply-pointed wings of a swift usually do but a bit paddle-shaped. A common feature stated for Pallid Swift is the more rounded wing tips. The bird looked so structurally-distinct and actually quite small compared to the hirundines, and I started thinking it might be something else entirely - maybe Cape Verde Swift or some African species! - stranger things have happened. I even tried to look at other species on the internet when I got home but I struggled to find any useful ID resources.

In the photo below, you can just make out the pale head with dark eye shadow standing out against the rest of the head. There does not seem to be much clear white on the bird’s face. The throat patch and forehead patch weren’t distinct at all and we could see nothing in the field.

Even in the dark conditions the photo below shows that the plumage was pretty pale for a swift. The darkest part of the upperwing appears to be the outer primaries which is good for Pallid. The body is quite chunky and broad.

A notable feature was the pale ‘comma’ marks on the leading edge of the wing by the outer greater coverts. I read somewhere that this might be a possible feature for Pallid. (On the better photos I saw, this appears to be caused by very worn feathers in that area perhaps?). On the pics below, note that the tail fork is not very deep.

I tried to take a video of the bird and managed to catch it a few times. However, no doubt because it was so fast, the frame rate of the video couldn’t keep up with it and so on many parts of the video it looks like there are two birds flying together! Next time I am trying to video a speedy bird I’ll have to reset the camera to super-fast setting, which I think it can do.

So I was really chuffed to see this bird because I had written it off as gone and I nearly didn’t bother. Shows you that it is worth giving things a go. To top off a fabulous evening on the headland, as I drove back across Pleinmont, a superb Barn Owl flew right in front of the car and landed on a nearby stone! Superb stuff.

Conditions the next morning looked pretty good for migrants and I had a quick look at the Fort Hommet pines before work. First bird that popped up was a Sylvia warbler and it soon revealed itself to be a classy Lesser Whitethroat, which was a new bird for me on my patch. Lesser Whitethroats are increasingly scarce autumn migrants on the island, probably because they head SE rather than South at this time of year, and it is a while since I have seen one. Any mid to late October Lesser Whitethroats that turn up are thought to be from much further east rather than the UK but there aren’t many in-the-field ID features for these birds to be sure. Managed some reasonable pics in the dim early morning light.

Lesser Whitethroat - Fort Hommet, 16 Oct 18

The next opportunity to get out in the field was Friday lunchtime when I checked the fields up at Rue des Hougues, Castel. My first two Lapwings of the winter were resting in the stubble field and a few Redwings flew overhead. On the way home there was a Black Redstart on the roof of the last house at Rousse so things were definitely arriving.

Lapwing - Rue des Hougues, Castel, 19 Oct 18

With the quality mid-week I was itching to get back out on Pleinmont headland and I went up there Saturday 21st for the morning. It was really good up there and it felt like there something rare to be found but its a large area to cover for a small band of birders. The seed fields by the tower were becoming full of birds and there were now at least 15 Reed Buntings feeding in there. This is easily the largest flock of this species I have ever seen in Guernsey. Goes to show that if there is proper food resources for migrants, they will stick around. Migrant finches included a few Siskin and at least 2 Brambling passing over amongst small flocks of Chaffinch. Small numbers of Skylark liked the very bare dirt field at Mont Herault and were very briefly joined by a Water Pipit, likely the one that was seen a few days ago. As I had a little time, I called at La Prevote on the way back - probably my favourite little valley on the south coast. The first bird I saw looking down into the valley was another Lesser Whitethroat. It may have been the sunny weather but it looked very, very pale. Unfortunately I couldn’t see it again but I could hear some calls from deep in the brambles. A really enjoyable morning out in the field but still no rarities found - 2018 has been a lean year so far for finding my own stuff.

I managed one moth trapping session in this period - on Friday night, the 19th - and it was superb. A nice selection of late autumn species included 3 crackers. The classy-looking migrant, Palpita vitrealis which I’ve only had in two other previous years, a Green-brindled Crescent with its emerald frosting which I have not caught for more than 15 years and so is a new one for the garden, and a well-overdue new species for me that I have been expecting for years, a Yellow-line Quaker.

Green-brindled Crescent - garden, 19 Oct 18

The winds this autumn had not been kind to the seawatcher and so a sudden northerly shift on a Sunday afternoon meant that I gave it a shot from the rocks at Jaonneuse on 23rd September. Afternoon seawatches are pretty rare here, as passage isn’t usually good enough for people to do an “all-dayer” and why wouldn’t you go out birding in the morning first if you could? But the sudden change today and the rain stopping meant I gave it a go between half-one and half-four. It was really good with birds regularly going past. I had 30 Arctic Skuas and 14 Bonxies, a few inside the reef, and a tantalising pale, greyish, long-tailed-a-like which I got onto too late. Sooty Shearwaters were going past far out with 21 recorded, plus about 13 Manxies. Commic Tern flocks passed with regularity totalling about 170 birds. A really nice seawatch, a pity nothing rare was nailed.

During the working week, passage birds were regularly recorded on the patch’s headlands between 24th and 28th. There were at least 3 Whinchat, the first Grey Wagtail, a Firecrest, a couple of Common Sandpipers and 2 juvenile Common Terns past Pulias. I also had a large hawker dragonfly flying round the pond one afternoon which I hoped was a rarity but turned out to be just a very late Emperor from photos. A Greenshank spent a few days at Pulias Pond and wasn’t scared off at the first sign of a dog-walker, unlike most waders which drop into the pond. I was pleased with the photo of it below, perched on a dark rock above the flat calm water, flanked by two Redshanks, which I titled “King of the Shanks”.

Greenshank with Redshanks - Pulias Pond, 25 Sep 18

On the last day of September I went up to Pleinmont and started off with an early morning Barn Owl hunting the fields at Mont Herault. Apart from a few Skylarks there wasn’t a great deal else over that side so I made my way back to the Societe seed fields where both Corn and Ortolan Bunting had been seen the previous day. A few other birders were around and we ‘worked’ the crop field and saw what we all thought was the Corn Bunting fly out and into the top field. We went up to that field and saw it fly past again and again thought it was the Corn Bunting, and were pretty happy with it. I decided to try the valleys but came up with nothing new apart from a flyover Green Sandpiper and a couple of Siskins.

Returning to the seed fields, people were still looking for the buntings and, again we had a bird fly up which we were thinking was the Corn Bunting again but it perched up distantly on top of a weed this time, and I took a couple of snaps, and it wasn’t the Corn after all, but was an Ortolan. After confirming the ID of this bird, I now couldn’t be sure that we had Corn Bunt earlier, as it gave a similar appearance in flight - looking pale and plain faced in the bright light. Whilst we were scanning the field we saw a Merlin motor past at the bottom of the field, probably a juvenile male from the miniature size.

The first week of October was typically quite quiet on the island, but I had the odd migrant on the patch. The Greenshank was still at Pulias where I had a late Willow Warbler on 11th. A Redstart and Firecrest were present at Fort Hommet on the 9th. Moth trapping conditions were not good in this period but on 5th I managed both Vestal and Blair’s Mocha in the trap.

Best thing of the week was a species I’d been wanting to see for ages - a Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle, walking along the grass path by Pulias lower car park. What a chunky brute it was, rearing up at me when I crouched down to see it. Didn’t manage to get my camera on it before it hid in the vegetation. They are clearly pretty rare here or I’d have seen one before now, and looking at the database there is only one or two official records on the island. Most reported Devil’s Coach Horses seem to be similar but slightly smaller species.

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Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

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