Guernsey birds and moths

birds : Abigail's Christmas present was a trip to Yorkshire to visit her grandma and her cousins, so her and I flew to Manchester on Sunday morning for a four-day trip. Birding was not a priority but I did manage a few hours in the field. On Monday morning, Dad and I visited our old haunt of Fairburn Ings. It was such a cold day that almost the whole reserve was frozen over, with just a few ice-free areas of water. Most o...

birds : My plans to lop off all the tarts that I still need for my 2009 year list were suddenly scuppered when my car decided to kaput on the first day of the holidays. It was finally repaired yesterday and I managed a few hours out birding down the west coast this morning. At Fort le Crocq, the Water Pipit that I had found in October was finally behaving itself and I stayed a while there beca...

birds : Nothing new appearing in the last week on the island, but with the wind swinging to a cold NE in the last day or so, we may get some continental species arriving. The main troubles I've had were with divers - well one in particular. Stopping at Rousse on the way home on Tuesday, there was a distant diver on the far side of Grandes Havres and I was happy it was Great Northern, although it was too dull and dingy to be sure. Then on ...

birds : On Tuesday after work, I called in at Pulias as Tony had seen an unusually large group of Black Redstarts on the beach there. I counted 8 birds which is double my previous largest flock size. And they were actually behaving as a proper flock, sallying for insects from the boulders above the beach - quite nice to watch, especially since one bird was a superb male, with a jet black face ...

birds : I was hoping to plug a few gaps in my year list during the weekend, but due to circumstance I didn't get out birding at all. I did see a diver fly out of Perelle Bay which was probably a Black-throated, but it was too distant in the bins to be sure.

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moths : Not much activity in these chilly months, but I have had another Mediterranea...

birds : The winds finally turned North this week and so it was time to seawatch and pull out a Leach's. Not me of course though 'cos I had to be at work! I did manage a few brief efforts from Pulias and saw plenty of Kittiwakes each day. On Thursday I also saw two distant skuas which were probably Poms but I didn't have my 'scope that day. It was very frustrating because that day looked e...

birds : Rain, rain, rain! It's not even thinking of stopping at the moment. It has rained on 26 of the 28 days this month apparently and often heavy. Every time I've had a thought of popping out for a bit of birding at lunchtimes it has been teeming down. I have checked the bays from the car but nothing doing. The most notable bird item was at school on Friday when I noticed a Rabbit on the pl...

birds : The weather continues to batter us. It belts down every day and the wind seems continuously from the South which isn't much use to us. There are plenty of rare and uncommon seabirds in the UK it seems, perhaps when the wind swings at the weekend we may get some benefit. Top marks to my mate John though who only goes and pulls out a Black/White-bellied Storm-Petrel at Severn Beach of all places!! It has been great reading his email...

birds : Since football was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch, I managed to pop down to the Mare this aftenoon to check out the scaups again. Unfortunately there was a tournament on and this meant that the birds were just sleeping in the middle of the large lake. It also started raining and was very dull, so my plans of getting superb photos were dashed. Nevertheless I waited patiently with the camera for a wing-stretch which was quite ...

birds : I had another chance to go look at the mystery Aythya at lunchtime, which has since been joined by a second bird. I suspect that there have been two birds all along, and on Tuesday I briefly saw a second duck on the main lake which I didn't have chance to look at. No-one has sent me any more photos of the birds so I was keen to get snaps of the second bird and hoped for any wing pattern to show. When I arrived, both birds were tog...

birds : On Monday I received an email from Tony Bisson that he had found an interesting Aythya duck on the lake at Grande Mare Golf Course. He thought it was a juvenile female Scaup but he wasn't totally happy with the ID. When he sent me some photos later that day it did indeed look interesting and I immediately thought it was a potential candidate for Lesser Scaup, but of course the...

birds : I felt much better today and so late afternoon I ventured out in the gales to see if there were any seabirds sheltering in the bays. The gales were in the wrong direction though and so it wasn't hugely likely - I had a Sandwich Tern at Jaonneuse and the first Great Crested Grebe of the winter in Grandes Havres. It was high tide though and i...

nonsense : Well it has been a pig of a week. This has to be officially the longest-lasting cold I've ever had and it's sticking in my head, refusing to leave. I've had a headache for at least a week and its been bed-kids-work-kids-bed for ages, so definitely no chance of birding, especially with the totally crappy weather too. A female-type Black Redstart seen twice in the school courtyar...

moths : I have had a heavy cold all week and the weather conditions have been terrible to venture out so things are pretty quiet on the wildlife front. I did have the trap out last Friday night for probably the last time until Easter. I don't generally bother with the winter months at all as the catches are not worth the time and effort. Two Feathered Thorns were actuc...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN  and  HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDAN   -   five years old today.

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