Guernsey birds and moths

birds : Well there wasn't a Parula on Pleinmont this morning and it was quite disappointing to be honest, but I did see a species that I'd not previously seen before in Guernsey. However, since it was Grey Partridge, I was hardly punching the air in delight - put down for shooting no doubt, and there were also 3 Red-legged Partridges in the same area. At first light there was plenty happening with lots of Skylarks and Chaffinches passing through, along with some Fieldfares and plenty of Woodpigeons and a single Snipe. When this initial passage had finished it was clear that there were very few grounded birds. There were at least 6 Firecrests in the valleys but little else apart from the odd Chiffchaff and Blackcap. The local Bullfinches were unusually showing well but too distant for any decent photographs.

.

Bullfinches

.

Visible migration at Pleinmont can be somewhat confusing with birds seemingly passing over in random directions. Today most of the Skylarks and Chaffinches were coming in from the West from over the sea, most of the thrushes were arriving from the East and there were many Woodpigeons and the Snipe coming from the North. The annotated map below shows my thoughts on why this occurs.

.

birds : Wednesday morning looked excellent for migrants with low cloud and drizzle, and indeed it was with about 1000 Fieldfares grounded at Pleinmont according to Tony. Of course, I was at home looking after the kids but did see 3 or 4 small flocks of Fieldfare passing over. I have a mornings birding at Pleinmont tomorrow and I don't expect anything less than a Parula thank you very much.

.

moths : Even though it is getting very late in the season, I did put the trap out last night. An exceptionally late Swallow-tail Moth was the most unusual record amongst the c.30 species.

.

Swallow-tail Moth

.

White-speck - peaks in November here                                                 Red Admiral making the most of the late autumn sunshine

birds : After getting the kids breakfasted and Anais off to pre-school, we sat outside with our cuppas at about 9 am since it was a very mild day for the time of year. I soon noticed a few small flocks of Meadow Pipits passing through westwards, notable because they were migrating very low, just above the house roof level. With this "vismig" going on I decided a morning of pruning and clipping in the garden was in order. So for the next 2 or 3 hours as I worked away, I recorded over a hundred each of Meadow Pipit and Chaffinch going over, plus single Skylark and Grey Wagtail. Not massive numbers I know, but I wasn't watching constantly and there were more passing I'm sure. Then, just as I was packing away to have lunch at about 12:30, I heard a call from the other side of the house and I thought "that's the first Redwing of the day". I waited for the bird to appear over the roof and rather than seeing a small thrush, I was very surprised to see a pipit quite low above my head. Then it suddenly called again - a loud and clear "psseeeee" and I knew straight away that it was a RED-THROATED PIPIT. It headed purposefully SW and away and left me pretty shocked.

.

.

I have been listening out for this species in Guernsey for a long time as it has not been recorded here before, although it must occur from time to time. The initial thought that it was a Redwing was not surprising as they have a similar-toned call - but Redwings being more subtle and fainter - and I was lucky that it chose to call again when I was watching it other wise I would have assumed they were different birds. So I was well-chuffed as they say and another top bird for the house list. Whether a flyover bird calling twice is acceptable for a first for Guernsey is another question which the rarities committee may have to decide.

birds : There were signs that things were looking up on Friday with Goldcrests appearing at Le Guet and a Black Redstart at Pulias. Also Tony Bisson relocated my Water Pipit so I will submit it after all. If I say that it is probably the returning individual from last year, then I won't have to fill in another form . . . . .

.

nonsense : Now I am not one to make fun of people's appearance (!) but I think that it is totally justified when (1) it is clearly their own fault, and (2) they are American. So click on the link on the pic below to see America in all its glory.

.

.

We managed to win a tough game today 3-2 despite some dodgy thuggery by one or two of their players and despite a fantastic own goal by yours truly! Their striker fired one against the post, it shot back and hit me on the shin, and I neatly slotted it into the bottom corner. We are still second then and are exceeding our expectations since we were promoted into the top division.

.

What's worse than a Guide in your pocket?                                                                                 Indoctrination - Stage 1

birds : In October, you definitely do not want the winds set in a southerly or south-westerly direction, blocking any rare migrants arriving from the East or from England. But they have been all week and I hope that they change for the half-term break next week. I heard tonight of an Eastern Crowned Warbler appearing in Durham - a dream-find for whoever did so. There will be plenty of squeaky-bums in the UK right now hoping that it stick 'til Saturday. If I was there right now, there would be a strong chance that I would chuck a sickie to see the first-for-Britain. In fact if I had the money and time, I'd fly over there tomorrow!

.

I had no luck yesterday searching for last week's briefly-seen Water Pipit at Fort le Crocq, and had to be content with adding some poor Rock Pipit photos to my poor Rock Pipit photo collection, and watching 5 Swallows battling south into the wind. If I don't see it again I won't submit it to the rarities committee as I couldn't make any notes or take photos of it, and so I have no 'evidence' to offer apart from that I know it was one.

.

.

Rock Pipits at Fort le Crocq

.

nonsense : Click here for the latest addition to the film page - although you may not get it unless you regularly went birding at Chew Valley Lake in the early nineties!

.

birds : Wasn't able to get out birding today as Rosie wasn't feeling too well so I spent the day at home. Throughout the day there were migrants passing over in small quantities, mainly Redwings, Chaffinches and alba Wagtails. A party of Long-tailed Tits visited at least twice and mid-afternoon a Marsh Harrier drifted purposefully East very high, so probably a migrant. People were out searching today but no rares were found.

.

moths : With the cloudy and pretty still night, there was a decent catch in the garden last night. There were 18 Blair's Shoulder-knot which was a record count for the garden (by 14) and 5 Barred Red was also the most ever. A Rush Veneer and a Dark Sword-grass were the only migrants and I had another Brindled Green/Sombre Brocade entity to sort out. A few photos from the garden today . .

.

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla - a plume moth

.

Dark Sword-grass

.

Red-line Quaker                                                  Barred Red

.

Common Green Shieldbug

.

nonsense : We lost our first football match of the season yesterday, 4-0 to the top team in the league. We played pretty well but they were clearly superior, skipping past our defence before we even noticed they were there. They have won the league for the last 'n' years and so will do again it seems, although we are still in second place. Most shocking was the blatent dive that their winger pulled on me along the touchline, winning them a free kick - I didn't even slightly knock him over. I see it on MOTD regularly but not seen it on the park like that before. Perhaps he has learnt from these guys how to do it properly - click here to view funny diving video (slight swearing at very end).

birds : A couple of good sightings at the end of the week. On Thursday during my brief visit to Fort Hommet, there were things moving, with a flock of 22 Skylark flying low past me as they migrated NE up the coast. I've noticed that if you are on the West coast headlands here in Guernsey in Autumn, the vismig birds generally take one of two routes. They either seem to come in high off the sea on an approx SSW heading as one might expect, or they seem to be going in the opposite direction, following the coast NE, generally quite low, like these Skylarks were doing. I suppose these groups of birds find themselves out over the sea, and head to the nearest land, before taking the quickest route back to France. But the main sighting was the female Goosander that powered NE over the headland, which was most unexpected. The last Guernsey record of Goosander that I can find was January 2006 and October is a very early record.

.

Then today, I whizzed round Fort le Crocq at lunchtime, and discovered a Water Pipit in the same area as last year, on the vraic by the slipway - in fact, it is possibly the same bird that wintered there last year. Water Pipit is still an official rarity on the island with about one per year on average at the moment, and I have found all of the the last six birds! Unfortunately, I had to get back to school so I couldn't take any snaps of it.

.

a montage of the previous 4 Water Pipits I have found (left photo Paul Hillion, right photo Barry Wells)

.

nonsense : Click here for an excellent Facebook news feed version of Hamlet I found. ('clip' below)

.

birds : Last night, after dark, the first of the winter Redwings were calling as they passed overhead. I find it one of the most exciting sounds in birding, as it tells you things are on the move up above and there could be anything dropping in. At school this morning a few groups went over and this evening there were flocks circling round the house, with one group of at least 100 birds noted. This all gave me impetus to pop out in my lunch hour to Le Guet to see what else had arrived but found there was little in the trees apart from a couple of Firecrests. It was worth the effort however as I picked out a Crossbill calling loudly from above the pines and I managed to get it in the bins as it flew strongly away North-east. I have been very unlucky with this species previously in Guernsey, and have only seen it once before despite regular influxes.

.

moths : An Oak Rustic at the back door was notable as was a further record of Mediterranean Flour Moth from the kitchen. This one looked like it had just emerged and the photo below shows its weird behaviour. It was protruding something from its nether-regions - now I don't know enough about moths to know what it's doing exactly, but I am thinking perhaps it is a female protruding its bits to release its pheromones into the air to attract the males. Perhaps it isn't but that's my best guess. Pity the nearest male is probably a km away at the pet food shop!

.

Mediterranean Flour Moth

.

nonsense : I was astonished to come across a recently-released song entitled "Leeds United". And rather than being a typically naff football song it is a piece of serious music by the singer Amanda Palmer from the group 'Dresden Dolls', who I have heard of but not heard. Watching the video, it has dancers dressed in blue and gold and also LUFC yobbos storming the stage! It doesn't actually seem to be about football and the woman is from America, so the Leeds United reference is a bit obscure, but it sounds a pretty good tune!

.

birds : With megas appearing all over the place, nothing is happening here. Marais Nord still had a solitary Firecrest but that's been it for the weekend, although it was a very blustery couple of days in general. It is a shame because it feels very rare out there and if I had any time, then I am sure I would be able to find something.

.

moths : With a Hummingbird Hawk-moth in the garden and flushing a Clouded Yellow from the 18-yard box during the footie warm-up, I thought it was worth putting the trap out Saturday night. There was quite a good selection despite it being late in the year - especially late for the 2 Dingy Footmen that were caught.

.

Blair's Shoulder-knot                                                    Common Marbled Carpet

.

Dingy Footman of the yellow form - or perhaps intermediate as it has a touch of a greyish cast to it

.

I also caught what may be my third Sombre Brocade (tenebrosa) - a new species that has appeared from the south in the last few years. I am not at all sure though as this one isn't too obvious and there does not seem to be any one unequivocal feature to check. The species is very similar to Brindled Green (eremita) and differs in being darker and a different shape, but this individual appears somewhat intermediate. It will require more studying I think.

.

which one?

birds : It's still very quiet here and no-one had reported anything to me since last weekend. A slight change in the weather on Thursday has improved things a bit, with a few Wheatears and Song Thrushes appearing and a Willow Warbler was at Fort Hommet today - but it is hardly a classic October so far. Three Spoonbills were briefly on the Old Aerodrome today but had gone before my lunch hour.

.

moths : A bit inclement for the trap tonight I think but I did find a Flame Brocade by the outside light this evening. The most notable insect around at the moment is the Crane Fly. There are hundreds of them flying about and even the kids at school have noticed them and are asking about them. They all call them 'Daddy Long-legs' but, as far as I'm concerned, that really is the name for the Harvestman. I call them 'Jimmy Spinners', the name my Grandad taught me when I was a boy. I thought it was just his made-up name for them but looking at the oracle that is Wikipedia, it seems that it is actually widely used.

.

Flame Brocade - another Guernsey speciality                                                                                        Jimmy Spinner

.

nonsense : Check out the new song page here and the new release by Gyr Crakes - "The Ballad of Leapy Lee" - a story of a young birder struggling to get ticks on Scilly until a strange, mystery birder appears . . . . . .

.

birds : It's still not really autumnal weather - I was in a t-shirt in the garden this afternoon - but I did have a few hours out this morning looking for migrants. I parked at Fort Doyle and walked south to Miellette and was impressed by the varied habitats and numbers of birds in these fields and gardens - it looked 'rare' - certainly a walk I shall try and do a few times this autumn. There were plenty of finches and Robins, with a few Chiffchaffs and Meadow Pipits. The most peculiar things I saw were Goose Barnacles covering a washed up log on one of the beaches. Moving onto Marais Nord there were a few more Chiffchaffs, Blackcap and a Firecrest along the back path, and a Cetti's called briefly. Then a quick look over Jaonneuse Bay, where there were 2 Bar-wits and a Grey Seal.

.

Bar-tailed Godwit, Jaonneuse Bay

.

Grey Seal, Jaonneuse Bay

.

One interesting bird which was resting on the beach there was a young Herring Gull which was surprisingly pale. It looked like a first-year bird but was whitish-plumaged with sparse pale brown barring. You often see very pale first-year gulls in late spring or summer, just before they start to moult into second-year plumage, but by October, second-year birds should have more or less completed their moult and be mostly in fresh-ish feathers. So this is either a bird which has had a delayed moult and is still in very, very worn first-year feathers, or it is a leucistic bird with abnormal pigmentation. Either way it's interesting to a gull-nerd.

.

unusually pale Herring Gull, Jaonneuse Bay

.

moths : Had a new species of moth for the house list this week when an Indian Meal Moth was found in the utility room. No doubt this is another escapee from the Guinea Pig food, especially since the last one I saw was on the ceiling of the Guinea Pig food shop. Had the trap out on Friday night but there wasn't too much in the blustery conditions.

.

Indian Meal Moth                                                               Beautiful Gothic - a local speciality

.

nonsense : Police F.C. continued our good start to the year with a fine 2-0 win against PWC, a team that beat us twice last year in division 2. So after 3 matches we sit in second place - how long it will last, who knows?

.

nonsense : A couple of minor disasters in the last day or so. First of all I was demonstrating to my year 7 class how reactive Calcium metal is in acid and explaining that I couldn't let them do it themselves as it is too dangerous . . . . .  So I had some kind of brain-malfunction and instead of dropping one or two grains of Calcium in the test-tube, I dropped in one or two hundred grains. Of course I was just holding the test tube in my bare hands so all the class could see and the fiery-hot acid erupted out of the test-tube and all over my hand! Of course, I couldn't just drop it as it may have splashed all over the kids in the first row (I know, what a hero) so I had to make my way across the room to the sink. By this time, small pieces of Calcium metal had been pushed out of the tube and were now stuck to my skin, reacting with the acid still foaming out of the top. It was a few giant steps beyond agony. I eventually washed it off and taught the rest of the lesson with my hand under the cold tap - the kids of course all thought this was hilarious - and I taught the rest of the day with my hand in a cup of cold water. After about 4 hours the pain ceased but it did not look a pretty sight. At least my class should now be very careful with their acid experiments this year.

Then this morning the shower decided to break on 'ON'. Now our drain is only at a shallow angle and the water doesn't disappear very easily and the base fills up if you stay in for too long. So I am in my soaking clothes in the shower trying to get the valve-thing closed as the water sprays all over my head and is lapping over the edge onto the bathroom floor. Eventually we turned off the water at the mains just before we flooded the place. Its a laugh a minute here!

.

Ca (s)  +  HCl (aq)  =  IDiOt (d'oh!)                                                           A paper cutting in case you didn't believe me!

birds : Well it is the end of September and there are officially no birds around - not a single Swallow, Wheatear or Chiffchaff seen on my local headlands today. It was bright sunshine all day and I was wandering around in a t-shirt which may go some way to explain it. If the birds can see France so clearly, why bother making landfall on an overpopulated island.

.

I have been making further progress using photoshop to improve my photos and have been trying to teach myself new tricks. Once you get the hang of it, it makes such a massive difference and means that you don't have to waste too much much time in the field trying to get perfect shots. I just try and get as many shots as I can with the bird in sharp focus and let the computer do the buffing-up later that evening. Here is an example from earlier in the year.

.

Snowy Owl - original                                       Snowy Owl - photoshopped

.

Digiscoping rather than proper camera-work produces a greyish cast across the whole photo, so it is important to brighten it up a bit and improve the contrast (probably I did a bit too much here!). Of course, the sharpening and cropping is a given, but I also decided to make the shot more dramatic by darkening the background to almost black making it look like it was in front of a cave or something with the sunlight just hitting it.

I went one step further with some of the recent Sibe Stonechat shots and have started to try and remove ugly or distracting objects using the 'clone' tool.

.

original shot from camera                                                                        photoshopped pic

.

In the above photo, as well as cropping, 'curving' and sharpening the pic, I managed to remove the unnecessary sticks and leaves to the left and right of the bird. If the bird is against the sky, this is so easy to do.

.

original shot from camera                                                     photoshopped pic

.

Here, I thought the three pale objects around the bird were distracting and ugly so I removed them using 'clone' and was very pleased that you could not tell at all. If I had more time, I would have probably removed all the sticks from above the bird.

birds : After a quiet week it was encouraging to see my first Firecrest of the autumn on Friday, peep-ing away in the pines at Fort Hommet. There were also a few more Robins around so birds had clearly started to arrive again, and I hoped for a bit of quality over the weekend.

Then today, I arrived home from football to get a call from Mark G that he and Julian were watching a Siberian Stonechat up at Pleinmont. I had not seen Siberian Stonechat since I was in Israel and never in the UK, so Rosie very kindly delayed tea and I whizzed up there. After an initial failure on first circuit of the field, I soon found it on top of the Blackthorn bushes and it then showed exceptionally well, coming quite close and allowing excellent photo opportunities. Siberian Stonechat is an eastern race of Common Stonechat and some consider that it should be classed as a species in its own right. Its plumage is indeed quite different from the local Stonechats, being very pale overall, with a white throat and, most importantly a peachy-white rump with no streaking. It was a beautiful bird to see and well worth the effort. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

moths : The trap was out on Friday night but it was just typical autumn fare.

.

Frosted Orange                                                                          Clancy's Rustic

.

nonsense : We had a tough football match today against Port City which we won in the last minute, and I actually scored a goal! We were losing 2-1 with about 15 minutes left, so I went up for a free kick. After a couple of headers, the ball fell to me in the 6 yard box and I controlled it and span round, slotting it neatly between the keeper and post. I was really chuffed as I have only ever scored one goal before. This made it 2-2 and we scored another right at the end. A win and a draw so far in our first two games in division one, better than we honestly expected.

birds : Not exactly been a terrific week all told - I've had too much work to do, too little sleep (eg its now 4 am) and I've had a niggly throat/cold to annoy me. And there seems to be a late-September lull in migrant activity which can happen here in Guernsey. The majority of the 'summer' migrants having passed through, and the 'winter' migrants will not arrive until early October. But of course this doesn't stop rarities turning up so one has to keep plugging away just in case.

Last night I spent an hour waiting for Barn Owls to show at Chouet but didn't even get a sniff. The main reason that I wanted to see them was that someone had seen a 'dark-breasted' Barn Owl there with 2 normal ones, and I wanted to study the plumage, since BB has just published an article on the ID of Dark-breasted Barn Owl. We have recorded quite a few dark-breasted Barn Owls recently here in Guernsey (race 'guttata') but I have been thinking that we may have been over-simplifying the situation. The identification criteria that we have been using on the rarities committee is that any Barn Owl which shows dark on the breast and also darker plumage above should be classed as guttata. But the article suggests that there are lots and lots of integrades in central Europe and that if there is any whitish colour below it is not pure guttata. Looking at a couple of photos of recent birds, these both show signs of being integrades and so I think we need to review our records. It's not that vital since DBBOwl is only a race rather than a species and unlikely to be split. Below is a photo from a couple of years ago showing what we thought was a straightforward guttata, it looking very dark in the field, but I now notice the white thighs and very white face so maybe just an integrade.

.

'dark-breasted' Barn Owl, Chouet, Sep 2007

.

nonsense : Browsing about football on the interweb, I came across some interesting stuff about the well-known Dutch football club NAC Breda (currently 8th in the Eredivisie). The club from the city of Breda was formed from the amalgamation of two local teams - NOAD and ADVENDO - the 'C' meaning 'combination'. These team names were themselves acronyms, and so the full name of NAC Breda is the quite spectacular "Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning Combinatie Breda". Even more bizarre is the English translation of this which is loosely "Never Give Up, Always Go On, Pleasant for its Entertainment and Useful for its Relaxation, Combination of Breda". You're welcome.