Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

With the Easter holiday’s arrival, this meant a few extra midweek visits to Pleinmont to look for rarities. The first visit on 10th April was quiet but a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the trees by the camping field was a new species for Pleinmont for me, they are certainly spreading throughout the island nowadays. Just 3 Willow Warblers and a Wheatear indicated that spring migration was definitely delayed this year. A Bar-tailed Godwit was at the Shingle Bank.

The next day things seemed similar but whilst I popped out in the afternoon the temperature weirdly changed to suddenly being very warm - from coat to T-shirt in 20 minutes. I don’t know whether it was this front that brought down some birds, but there was an arrival of birds on Rousse beach. There was a loose flock of c.20 Wheatears as well as a superb Ring Ouzel flying to and fro below the car park. In the bushes there were a few Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and, moving to Pulias there was another 10 Wheatears plus about the same number of White Wagtails. Offshore here a male Common Scoter bobbed around quite distantly, which had a very visible yellow splodge on the bill. It was so bright I decided to go back the next day with my ‘scope but it was no Black Scoter disappointingly.

I was again back up at Pleinmont on 12th but it was again disappointing. A single Skylark landing in a field, the first Whitethroat of the year flying across between blackthorn patches and a few Sand Martin were the most notable sightings. There was a more exciting sighting on 13th when a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew low NE over the garden - bird number 97 for the house list. A brief stop at La Societe fields at Pleinmont on 14th saw lots of wagtails feeding on the recently turned soil - about 8 Yellow and about 25 White Wagtails were present.

A glutton for punishment, I was back up at Pleinmont on 16th where, if anything, things had got worse with just 2 Wheatears to show for a couple of hours walk in the early afternoon. Well really there was 2.5 Wheatears as I discovered a half-eaten corpse lying in the grass by the cliff path. Imagine flying all the way from Africa just to get decapitated in Guernsey. I did spy both of the Choughs together for the first time, feeding low down on the cliffs near Mabel’s.

Marsh Harrier - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22 - It’s a trap!!

WHEATEAR (DECEASED) - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

Since the day was the warmest of the year, I spent quite a bit of time searching for insects on the clifftops as there seemed to be a lot of activity. The jumping spider Aelurillus v-insignitus was quite common on the slopes and the red-spotted carabid beetle Panagaeus bipustulatus ran across bare ground, a new species for me. I also found three new ants and a new crane-fly amongst the rest of the critters found, using my most recent book purchases. I also spied something that I have been looking out for for ages. The blackthorn twigs on the west-facing slopes at Pleinmont are always dripping with lichens and I glanced up to see a deep orange blob amongst the cream and ivory. It was a tiny patch of the rare Golden-eye Lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus), an uncommon and rarely seen species, but quite distinctive.

Golden-eye Lichen *(Teloschistes chrysophthalmus)* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

*Aelurillus v-insignitus* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

*Panagaeus bipustulatus* - Pleinmont, 16 Apr 22

On 18th April, just a week after the first-ever sighting, a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew NE over the house. This time I managed to watch it land in a tree a few gardens away. There is a patch of very large trees in a large garden to the NE of the house so perhaps there is a chance that they may have a nest in there. The same day, I visited Rousse at very high tide and saw a single, and pretty late Purple Sandpiper on the lone rock as well as 2 Common Sandpipers on the shore.

On 22nd I tried a few different spots and it was quite productive. The Purple Sandpiper had relocated to Jaonneuse beach where it fed with 15 Turnstone. A Common Sandpiper was at Vale Pond, along with a singing Reed Warbler plus the 6 Canada Geese were still present. Across the car park, a group of 3 Whimbrel in Grandes Havres were my first of the year. I moved on to Rousse where I found a Tree Pipit, a Whinchat and a Yellow Wagtail all in the space of a few minutes in the grounds of the Peninsula and the adjacent gardens - all quality migrants for the patch. The Whinchat was especially showy. Rousse has been the most productive spot this spring so far for me.

On 24th I had a quick scoot round the island, starting with seeing the Rook that had turned up at Pleinmont, the first I have seen here for ages. Driving past Albecq a Marsh Harrier flew over - new for the patch for the year. Whimbrels were present on a few beaches and finally there was some hirundine passage with all three species moving east along the coast. A small flock of at least 13 Yellow Wagtails fed in the lawn area behind the tennis courts at Jaonneuse.

As usual there were lots of records in April but there was not anything really rare or even a bit rare to go see. Perhaps there will be something to find or twitch in the late spring.

The two weekends in this time period both followed the same pattern - an extremely frustrating Saturday, followed by a much improved Sunday. After seeing the Chough on the Friday evening, I was busy all Saturday with the family and so was unable to go out birding. This, of course, coincided with something of a purple patch at Pleinmont, with the Choughs now increasing to 2 birds, a showy Hoopoe was seen and, worst of all, an Alpine Swift spent quite a while tearing around the headland before news got out. It would’ve been nice to see any of these but especially the latter as it would be a Guernsey and British* tick - most frustrating.

The next day, Sunday 27th March, I managed to get out mid-morning and went to see if I could find any of these birds. Driving up Valniquets, I pulled into the side of the road and looked over the gate into the garden where the Hoopoe had been seen yesterday, and it was just there, on the lawn, right in front of me! It was really close and didn’t seem bothered by me leaning on the garden gate and taking lots of photos. I don’t think that I have ever seen a Hoopoe this well anywhere, especially not locally.

This is the gate I was leaning on taking most of these pics, and the bird was on the lawn behind the Silver Birch.

Buoyed by this great sighting, I parked up on top of the headland, mostly to have a wide vista in case of the unlikely event of the Alpine Swift deciding to come back. Walking around, there wasn’t a great deal of migrants in but two Black Redstarts fed with two Wheatears on the cliff slope, one of the former a superb male bird. Apparently I just missed two Choughs which had just flown around the corner so I wandered off again. The original bird had been joined by a second bird from Jersey the day after I saw it. A breeding attempt was not likely though since the birds were both females. They had returned to Jersey in the mean time and so a 25 mile round-trip to feed isn’t much of a trip for a Chough it seems. The only other interesting migrant I saw was a Skylark but I had excellent views of a Peregrine. I also happened upon a nest of Glanville Fritillary larvae by the cliff path. It is very surprising that these are the first Glanville cats I have ever seen, despite knowing what to look for. There haven’t been many this far west along Pleinmont recently, so maybe they are making a comeback here. Returning to look for the Choughs again I apparently just missed them again, so I sat and waited for half an hour but they did not return.

Glanville Fritillary larva - Pleinmont, 27 Mar 22

Back at work on Monday and I was very unimpressed to hear that the Alpine Swift had not only turned up again but had been twitchable. Of course, by the time my work-day was over and I toddled on down to Perelle where it had been putting on a show, it was nowhere to be seen. During the week, there was a few Wheatears and Chiffchaffs new in on the patch but no extras.

The next Saturday, early afternoon, it was a huge surprise to get the grapevine message that the Alpine Swift had turned up again, after a five-day absence, and was feeding low around Rocquaine Bay. The timing of this could not really have been worse since I was just entering the cinema with my daughter to watch the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie! After a couple of hours of watching one speedy creature I was hoping to head down to tick off another but, by the time I was back out in the daylight, the bird had disappeared. It had been twitchable again but it chose the worst time to appear - I was not destined to see this bird. I went down later in the early evening in case it returned but there was no sign.

On Sunday 3rd April I was up early at Pleinmont to try and catch some migrants but it was pretty quiet, although I did see my first Willow Warbler and Swallow of the year. However, there was a Chough in the same area as last week but this was a different one than the one I saw last week. It was showing very well on the slope below me and was pretty close, but it didn’t seem to want to show the whole of its body for photos.

Mark G and I walked the fields at Mont Herault and had excellent views of the wintering Hen Harrier as well as a few more Swallows. We tried to get photos of a very pale Stonechat that Mark had found the previous week but it was very flighty and never gave us the chance. It was very sunny but quite chilly in the wind and it didn’t really look like any new migrants would appear so I headed off.

It was late morning, about 10 50 am, as I left Pleinmont and I thought that it might be worth waiting around Rocquaine for a while. If the Alpine Swift turned up just after lunch yesterday, there was a chance that it might do something similar today - an outside chance, but still a chance. So I pulled up at the fish factory as that was quite a central spot for scanning both north and south. As I envisaged a long, unsuccessful wait, I grabbed my flask of tea and stuck in my earphones to listen to a podcast, and settled down on the seawall for some scanning.

After just five minutes and barely a few sips of tea, I was scanning towards L’Eree when I saw something zip into my bins-view in the distance. Was it a falcon? No - it swooped round and I saw the clear swift shape and white belly - it was indeed the ALPINE SWIFT! The bird was about a kilometre away but it looked like it was showing really well from L’Eree. So rather than be satisfied with distant views, I jumped in the car and raced to Rocque Poisson. From here I saw it just a bit further north and drove round the corner to L’Eree beach car park when it suddenly appeared behind the cottages, before flying round over my head. What a result!

I managed to watch it for only about five minutes and it was very difficult to photograph as it raced round so fast. It was surprisingly low and regularly whizzed past me at eye level. Such astounding views of a species I’d only ever seen flying high in the sky. This was my first Alpine Swift for Guernsey and I have never seen one in the UK either - not even had a sniff of one. It flew off to the south but it was seen on and off for a couple of hours after this. It seems that this was the final sighting of this bird and I consider myself very lucky to have finally seen it - perseverance paid off in this case.

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