Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

The morning of 8th May started painfully when I somehow managed to shut the car door on my thumb when jumping out to look at some waders on Vazon beach. However, the day improved considerably about an hour later. I was walking down the sloping field at Mont Herault in the fabulous sunshine and there was a pleasant south-easterly breeze coming off the sea, ideal conditions for something to arrive from France. I turned round to see a larger raptor appear above the fields to my left, silhouetted against the sun. Lifting my bins, the bird swooped round and I could see the wonderful fork and sooty plumage of a Black Kite. Fumbling for my camera which was not playing ball, the bird flew right past me at a very low level and did a circuit of the field in front of me - such terrific views of this rare bird. After checking me out, it continued on and disappeared off northwards over the brow of the slope. I managed to get some great pictures, despite the camera still being on settings for taking close-up pics of insects - why do I never learn?

As Black Kite has been showing a general increase in records and expanding in range, it isn’t an ‘unexpected’ species any more, but it is still properly rare here. This is only the 12th record for the island and there were no accepted sightings in the previous two years, so still a thrill to find one yourself. I had to walk up the hill a bit to get phone coverage and put the news out, by which time Mark G had already seen the bird further over the headland.

I carried on walking the fields at Mont Herault but migrant-wise I could only find a few Wheatear, to go with the single Whinchat I’d seen earlier. The next grapevine message was that the Black Kite was now circling over Trinity Cottages, and I could see it from the top of the hill by the watchhouse. As I walked back westwards it kept appearing and I eventually saw it drift inland and seemingly head off eastwards.

Because of this, the next message that came through was a surprise - there were now three Black Kites circling over the headland! I was back near the car now so I drove off to get a closer view. Parking by Vic’s field I joined Wayne and Mark and we watched all three birds soaring in the blue skies high above the headland. Superb stuff. There has never been a ‘flock’ of kites in Guernsey before - there was once a pair seen but all others have been singles. It was such a thrilling experience, highlight of the spring.

Wayne & Mark watching Black Kites whilst socially distancing.

I thought that maybe these were new birds, different from the first sighting, but looking at photos, I think the first bird was probably one of these three - they eventually drifted off inland again. I drove to Raptor Ridge in case they had settled there but there was no sign, but a Hobby went through whilst I was there. And then I saw another Hobby fly over Bailliff’s Cross Road as I drove home - a great day for raptors.

Previous to this I’d had a few good sightings in May, starting with a Hobby which flew over the garden whilst I was gardening on 2nd. Luckily, as with most birders I suspect, I was gardening with a pair of bins at arms reach. I went up Pleinmont on 3rd May as that would have been the day of the annual bird race which was of course cancelled this year due to the virus. I was dreading that the headland would be dripping with migrants and we’d missed out on a top day, but it was not, with just a male Redstart of note. In fact it was so foggy up there, we wouldn’t have been able to scan the fields. A Sedge Warbler was seen in the pines at Fort Hommet on the way home.

The highlight of my ‘lockdown walk’ on the 4th was a singing Garden Warbler out in the open in the scrub near the Track Marais, but a low-light was seeing that the Greylag Geese there had bred and no doubt the place would be soon crawling with them. On the same walk two days later I flushed a Tree Pipit from the path by Les Nicolles which was a surprise migrant sighting.

On 10th May I walked round the Grand Pre and heard two male Cetti’s singing - one in the usual spot by the pool and one right next to the car park. With these two, the ones in the Track Marais area, plus birds singing at Claire Mare, Rue des Bergers and Mark’s odd out-of-habitat one at Saints, this makes at least 9 possibly 10 singing Cetti’s this year which is a record count for the island. I had a brief Hobby buzz the hirundines over the pool and a cluster of Altar-lilies growing in the marsh (escaped from a nearby garden) brought me up to 2300 species identified in the ‘wild’ in Guernsey.

During the first half of the month, many people here were very scared about leaving the house and the everywhere was very quiet. The vibe seemed to change a lot in the second half of April when there appeared to be much more activity out and about. It may have been to do with sunnier weather or that the virus did not appear to be spreading much on the island, but there were a lot more people spending their 2 hours exercise in their favourite haunts and it was almost busy in some areas. I suppose that people thought that, so long as you stay away from people it would be fine, although from my observations plenty of folk have no idea what two metres is - especially the older folk (but that may be something to do with decimalisation). We shall see I suppose.

On 17th April, I got up very early to spend my two hours at Pleinmont and it was really quiet up there. Usually it is a case of dodge the dog-walker but not this time and I was pleased to see a nice selection of spring migrants. In my dash round the headland I saw 2 Whinchat, 2 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Tree Pipits, Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Wheatears. The highlight though was the three Ring Ouzels which were flying round the cliffs, clearly just arrived. I love looking down from the cliff tops watching Ring Ouzels down below, at home in the rocky habitat. If you can’t watch them on an upland Yorkshire hillside, then this is almost as good.

Dog walker-free Mont Herault fields, 17 Apr 20

Driving back I called in at a couple of car parks. At the shingle bank a group of 14 Whimbrel were new in, feeding in the vraic with the White Wagtails. In the field at Pulias a Tree Pipit flew up and landed in the Tamarisks, a much-valued addition to the appallingly impoverished patch year list. Back at home, in the quiet still air I could here the same Firecrest singing away from the conifer down the street. This was another addition to the house list and, with distantly-calling Pheasant and flyover Greylag Goose also added this month, that made five new birds this year, after none at all new in the previous two years.

On 19th April I was up early for a walk down to the Track Marais. My original plans of visiting every couple of days this spring don’t look very likely, especially since restrictions on movements were not as strict as originally thought, and so I would not be totally limited to walks from home. Nevertheless I am determined to visit at least weekly to keep fit and keep an eye on the birds there. Today the Cetti’s Warbler was still singing near the prison, a Tree Pipit flew over the football ground and a Bullfinch was new for the route. Later on that day, when I took Anais out for a drive, as we passed Perelle I looked out of the car window and recognised a familiar shape flying distantly over the water. Pulling up in the Catioroc car park I scanned across to see the famous Royal Tern fishing the bay. I watched it for a while through the car window and managed a few snaps from my seat. Then as usual it suddenly disappeared - it always seems to vanish without warning.

The Easter holidays ended and I was back at work on 20th. But not actually back at work of course since the schools were all still closed. I was working from home, sorting out the “virtual schooling”, or distance learning as we call it, for all the year 10 Science students. It means a lot of sitting at the desk at home staring at a computer screen, but it does mean that I have a little bit of flexibility when I do the necessary work. On 21st I took my lunch break at L’Ancresse. It was a lovely day and I thought I’d try the golf course since there would be no golfers on it. L’Ancresse golf course would be an excellent area to bird more regularly but usually it has golfers on almost every hole from dawn ‘til dusk, and being a public area too has the obligatory dog walkers too. Today, apart from a few Wheatear, I saw my first Swifts of the year feeding over the fairways - always a thrill.

Golfer-free L’Ancresse golf course, 21 Apr 20

The first Swift of the year - L’Ancresse GC, 21 Apr 20

On 23rd April I had another bash at Track Marais. There was nothing much new but I was really chuffed to hear at least 4 different singing Cetti’s Warblers, perhaps even 5. This is a huge number locally and more than was known about on the whole island last year. As well as the regular one along the prison path, I explored the scrub to the east of the marsh where an extra bird was singing, then on my way back I heard one from over the road by the Chateau des Marais. I have tried to plot these on the map below, a red X where I have heard singers. I am not sure whether bird C is actually just birds A and D moving around a lot, hence why not definitely five birds. Studying these birds properly, it is amazing how quickly they move between singing spots, and it would be very easy to overestimate numbers.

Pond with Water Dock, Track Marais, Apr 20

I saw a few bits and bats in the final week, including the long-staying Whooper Swan still at Claire Mare on 23rd April, and on 24th a Reed Warbler was singing in the small reedbed at Pulias Pond and a cracking male Redstart was feeding in the gardens at Rousse.

Some nice early-year moth trapping continued and undoubtedly the highlight was a splendid Lunar Thorn on 16th April. A new species for me with only a handful of previous Guernsey records. The same night I had my second Dotted Border of the spring but the rest of the month was quite ordinary for species.

Willow at sunset, Les Amarreurs, 23 Apr 20

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

May 2020 part i

April 2020 part ii

Just A Bird