Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

As August got underway, autumn migration also started to be visible, with two Willow Warblers in the scrub at Bordeaux on 1st. There wasn’t any great movements noted during the first 3/4 of the month, but there was a couple of small wader surges to keep interest. A Common Sandpiper and Whimbrel arrived back at Pulias on 5th (where the first autumn Wheatear was feeding), and on 15th I counted 23 Ringed Plover, 15 Turnstone, 7 Dunlin, 3 Whimbrel and a Common Sandpiper along north end of the patch. However, with weather conditions not providing much hope, I mostly avoided birding, keeping my powder dry. Probably the most interesting bird was a Barn Owl discovered at a site close to home which looked like it might be resident.

Of course, with it being summer holiday time, the moth trap was out regularly during the first week of August, but the weather was not clement enough for almost 2 weeks after. Two micros were picked out that were new to the garden - a striking dark form of Agapeta zoegana and, at the non-striking end, an Aroga velocella (both being my 2nd record in Guernsey - although I literally have no idea where and when I saw the latter!). A few other decent garden moth records included only the second ever Twin-spotted Wainscot and Bucculatrix maritima I’ve seen here. Despite the time of year, very few migrants were around.

On 3rd August I joined the Botany group for a walk out onto L’Eree saltmarsh. Of course, this is not typically allowed, but we took the opportunity whilst there were people on there anyway doing their annual preparation for the West Show. It was very interesting pottering around where we just usually see distantly with the scope. I think I had 7 new species seen on the walk including Buttonweed in one of its few spots on the island, as well as tiny Sharp-leaved Fluellen by the roadside nearby. I think I found the best plant of the afternoon though, when I picked up a Strawberry Clover in fruit - apparently a new location for this recently very rare local species.

Sharp-leaved Fluellen - L’Eree, 3 Aug 19

On 11th August I managed a few hours out searching for new species in the south-east corner of the island. I parked up at the Doyle Monument and walked down to Divette Bay - a tiny little beach which I’d never been to before. It’s amazing that, despite being here 21 years now, there are still a few quiet little spots I’ve never visited. I found a few interesting species and at least 6 ticks including a new species of Hemp Agrimony leaf-mining fly for the island. My favourite though was the terrific little wasp Ormyrus nitidulus which I bashed off a Knopper Gall-filled Oak Tree near the monument. Not only had it the most intense oily colour palette but also had an incredible sculpturing pattern on its abdomen the likes I’d ever seen. Bravo little wasp!

Ormyrus nitidulus - above Divette, Jerbourg, 11 Aug 19

Ormyrus nitidulus - above Divette, Jerbourg, 11Aug 19 - close up of abdomen to show incredible colours and sculpturing

Liriomyza eupatoriana larva mining Hemp Agrimony leaf - Divette, 11 Aug 19 - seemingly a new species for the island with a distinctive spiral mine pattern.

Springtail sp (Katiannidae) - above Divette Bay, 11 Aug 19 - swept this very strongly-patterned springtail from alongside a stream. Apparently the taxonomy of this type of springtail isn’t properly understood and so the various species are yet to be… — Springtail sp (Katiannidae) - above Divette Bay, 11 Aug 19 - swept this very strongly-patterned springtail from alongside a stream. Apparently the taxonomy of this type of springtail isn’t properly understood and so the various species are yet to be formally named.

old local marker stone, above Divette, 11 Aug 19

Privet Hawk-moth - Baubugny, 16 Aug 19 - found this big boy munching on a Wayfaring Tree planted behind St. Sampsons School

Philodromus albidus (or similar species) - Baubigny, 13 Aug 19

Took some detailed, stacked photos of a few beetle specimens of the Silphidae family and created the second part of my “Beetles of Guernsey” project - click on the link in the menu bar for more details.

Also, as usual, my summer project was the annual Rare Bird Report, which I actually managed to finish this year before school restarted. Again, click on the relevant link above to download a free pdf of the report.

On 7th July I went on a butterfly twitch! A Large Tortoiseshell had visited a garden near Paradis Quarry, Vale, on and off during the previous two days and once I heard that it had been seen again I thought it was well worth going for. I should say that the owner of the garden does have an interest in insects and was happy for me and Andy to appear there - it wasn’t just some random persons garden we piled into! It wasn’t there when we arrived so we waited around for a while, enjoying a nice Hummingbird Hawk-moth hovering around the flowers that the tortoiseshell was favouring. I wandered round for about half an hour or so and was thinking about returning home when suddenly it flew in and started feeding at the Red Valerian. To say it showed well was an understatement and we were able to snap hundreds of photos as it ‘nectared’ just a couple of yards away. This is a new species for me for Britain* and also for Guernsey, where I have now seen 26 species of butterfly, including other rarities such as Long-tailed Blue, Swallowtail and Brimstone. The next species may be a bit tricky but I predict Orange-tip, as a couple were seen earlier this spring and so it may just be colonising.

Large Tortoiseshell - near Paradis Quarry, Vale, 7 Jul 19

Not surprisingly July was quiet for birds but one species which this month is really good for is Crossbill. There had been a couple of flocks sighted the previous few days so I was on the look-out for some. On Friday 12th July I exited the school, cup of tea and sandwich box in hand, to take my place by the tennis courts for lunch duty, when a group of 10 finches flew noisily past me. With their front-heavy appearance and harsh calls they were clearly Crossbills and they only flew past at just above head height, just skipping over the top of the astroturf fence. A good one for the lunch duty list.

The next day I paid a visit to Pleinmont to take in the huge flock of Balearic Shearwaters that had built up and I was able to ‘scope them distantly from near the end car park. They were very far away - just left of the lighthouse in the pic below - but it was more the spectacle rather than the views that was amazing. After two summers of there not being any, these birds had come back in numbers. The last time they congregated we thought that about a thousand birds was incredible - this time I estimated about 3000. There may have been even more as other people had thought so. For a species with an estimated world population of just 19,000 birds, this is rather a large chunk of the species all in one place. Traditionally, Balearic Shearwater has spent the non-breeding season in the Bay of Biscay but, perhaps due to changes in temperature of the sea and so changes in the distribution of food, they are now mostly seen north of the Brittany peninsula in summer. Although some people thought that this was a mixed flock of Balearic and Manx, all the birds I saw were brown, albeit distantly brown. It would be nice to take a boat out next time to see them properly.

Watching the Balearic Shearwater flock at Pleinmont, 13 Jul 19

Other than the birds mentioned, I had a few mid-summer Med Gulls on the beaches, a couple of Firecrests in the valleys and I managed to bump into the pair of Cirl Buntings whilst on the school sponsored walk. The terrific news about the latter is that a young juvenile Cirl Bunting has been seen at Pleinmont so we have a new, and totally unexpected breeding species for the island.

The moth trap was out most weekends and especially in the very hot last week of the month. Despite the warm conditions, I didn’t get anything new for the garden in July but the best moths were my second ever garden Splendid Brocade and Sitochroa palealis on 23rd. A selection of the month’s photos are below.

Sminthurus viridis - Garenne, 6 Jul 19 - if globular springtails were the size of a small dog, I am sure they’d be kept as cute pets.

Cydnus aterrimus - Mont Herault, 13 Jul 19 - a non-British shieldbug which is apparently widespread along the cliffs

Broad-barred White on Buddleja - garden 26 Jul 19

Wild Carrot - Rue des Quanteraine, 25 Jul 19

Sand Goby or Common Goby - Port Soif, 23 Jul 19

Light Bulb Sea Squirts - Port Soif 23 Jul 19

On a separate note, I have recently passed a milestone, having now been doing my wildlife blog/diary for a whole decade! 10 years straight - quite a achievement. A couple of times I have had to catch up a few months at once, but there are not really any gaps in sightings. When I started out it was an old-style blog with more regular posts, sometimes every few days, and it included other things about everyday life and ‘amusing’ bon mots and ‘hilarious’ comments, not just wildlife. When I transferred to this new site in 2016, I mostly removed the non-wildlife stuff (mainly due to it being too cringey!). The old site is still there though https://lalarinho.webs.com/apps/blog/ . Nowadays “blogs” are not really fashionable as social media has taken over as the place to talk about what happens in everyday life and to display your witticisms. So that’s why I now think of it as my wildlife “diary”. It may seem self-indulgent to some people to post what I have seen online, but I look at it as a snapshot of a typical birders sightings at a particular place and time, and it may be of interest to someone in the future. I would always be writing up my sightings anyway so I may as well put it online. Anyway, below was my first ever post back in summer 2009 when I was a younger, handsomer man and Fan-tailed Warblers were breeding on my patch! It sounds like I had a very busy trap that weekend and was probably waiting for a stressful inspection week to finish before starting the blog. Onwards to another ten years!

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Friday 23rd August 2019

Wednesday 31st July 2019

Just A Bird