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the only wildlife organisation working to preserve Alderney’s stunning natural heritage and sustain it for future generations
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Latest news 2010 (34) Tuesday 31st August Once again the Trust has been very lucky. Jersey had flash floods while wet weather spoilt public events in Guernsey. At the start of the week we had our own share of gales and rain, but by Friday evening the Peace Garden was opened in bright sunshine in a very moving service, with Miranda Krestovnikoff and her family starting their hectic weekend by planting the first tree. After which it was sunshine all the way for the Wildlife Festival (except for the Bat Walk, of course.) Everything seemed to go really well, with seashore and in-and-on sea events much appreciated and a wonderfully successful Fayre on Sunday, made especially memorable by William Tate’s brilliant and often hilarious commentary. Many stall holders said how much they had enjoyed what was apparently a successful day – and what a show they put on! Although earlier, people had wondered whether it could possibly equal last year’s inaugural event, general opinion seems to be that this one surpassed it. And of course the locally produced food could not be bettered anyway… Throughout the week-end the Krestovnikoff's managed not only to visit but also to take part in virtually every event Alderney loves having them here and it is obvious that they love Alderney. Clearly the Festival was the most important part of the week, but visitors and Trust members have also continued to record some worthwhile wildlife. Hedgehogs, dolphins, seals, shrews, slow worms have all been reported. Chris Gent noted three arctic skuas off Clonque on 26th August. On the same date Mark saw yet another hobby over Albert Hill. Numerous people have reported peregrines from many sites. On Longis beach on 30th some very exotic creatures appeared, in the sand sculpture competition, which was enterprisingly confined to wildlife. The expected hedgehogs and gannets were all skilfully done, but a hammerhead shark which had swallowed a bather was ingenious, while the magnificent Alderneysaurus had to be disqualified because its creator was married to one of the judges! Butterflies are still about in huge numbers, and with the wind swinging periodically to the east, swallowtails have arrived in unprecedented numbers. On the morning of 31st Lindsay saw the first, at exactly the spot along the Fret path where she had recorded one a fortnight before. Later, the total rose to five, all in the same area, highlighting the day for several excited ramblers. This is surely a record for the island. As soon as I have finished this newsletter I am off to the southern cliffs to see if any more have arrived! 2010 (33) Monday 23rd August After so many weeks of sunny, dry conditions, the change in the weather which we reported last week has been maintained in the past few days – and more so! Tuesday was foggy and wet, Saturday mainly cloudy and wet and Sunday was foggy and very wet with gales last night – although that did leave four beautiful sunny days. The island is green again and the garden water butts are full, the mail and papers are both in and the airport is back to normal. Sadly, one of those departing today will be Sarah Edwards. She has accomplished a huge amount in her five months here and thoroughly deserved the big attendance at the ‘party’ in her honour at Essex Farm on Friday. She leaves early to take up a prestigious conservation job in Namibia, one of her favourite countries, where she will be studying endangered brown hyenas. Our loss will be Africa’s gain. It is a pleasure to report that the Sightings Books are being very well used at present, both in the bird hides and in particular in the Victoria Street shop. We do like you to let us know what you have seen, either by ‘phoning us or by writing down the details. Last week we had numerous reports of blonde hedgehogs; this week it has been slow worms and shrews, with several more seals sighted. We are particularly indebted to Jon Hessman for his very thorough bird list both from Alderney and from his stay on Burhou, with repeat sightings of green sandpiper at the Bonne Terre dam – and also one of a whale, from a boat midway between Alderney and Guernsey! A week ago Henry Rowe reported a probable view of a black stork at Corblets, but thought it too unlikely to make much of. We ignore his reports at our peril, however – time and again he notes something very rare which is confirmed by other people’s sightings soon after. On this occasion perhaps it was coincidence, but three black storks have since appeared in Guernsey! Butterflies are still about in huge numbers, with a few painted ladies of the next brood starting to appear. The moth traps are continuing to produce massive catches, and this week we have had some very welcome extra recorders. Roger and Margaret Long, top Jersey naturalists, who have been coming here for over 50 years, always produce a meticulous list from Platte Saline and they note that catches this time are up enormously on recent years. Anna Le Long, who has been to Alderney less frequently but always finds interesting things during her visits, has already recorded our first oak processionary moth since 2006, while at Mannez she and husband Noel pointed out a big and very welcome swarm of peacock butterfly caterpillars feeding just in front of the bird hide – something none of us had noticed… Other important light trap moths have been beautiful hook-tip (very uncommon here) from Liam’s trap at Crabby, and 2nd brood maiden’s blush (also rare here, and aptly named!) from Henry’s at Trigale. We are becoming blasé about our numbers of splendid brocade, which is so uncommon in UK – another five this week and more than 40 for the year so far. Nothing to do with light traps, but those who haven’t seen the interesting article about Guernsey surgeon and entomologist Tim Peet in the current in-flight Aurigny magazine, should do so before the month is out and a new face takes over the cover. Tim is a life-member of our Trust and a brilliant all-round naturalist. Now is the time to look for Autumn Lady’s Tresses, the last of our native orchids to appear. This delicate little plant can be found in the short coastal grasslands of the Longis Reserve and even in gardens at Braye, Picaterre and Platte Saline. Saturday to Monday 28th to 30th August is our Wildlife Festival. The details are on this website, so do please see what is on offer. With our delightful patron Miranda Krestovnikoff here for the week-end, much of Saturday’s and Monday’s Festival programme is sea-related, with events for all ages. Sunday’s Alderney Fayre at Essex Farm will show you a different Alderney – and it is FREE. Last year’s inaugural Fayre was a massive success and we hope this one will be even better. You will be astonished at the skills, crafts and entertainments that are on show. Do please come! 2010 (32) Monday 16th August We have had some proper rain at last! Tuesday was very wet and so was Friday night with showers on Saturday. Otherwise it has been pleasantly sunny, but noticeably cooler. With the change of weather and variable winds have come some interesting birds and insects. On 13th August Jean Possnicker reported a probable melodious warbler at Crabby and on 14th Chris Gent recorded a dotterel on the airfield. Chris always finds something unusual on his visits, and Alastair saw this bird later. Also on 14th there were many sightings (and photographs) of two mute and one black swan, at Platte Saline first, then at Mannez and finally at Corblets. They had gone by the following morning. Where they came from or went to, we have no idea. And to cap a spectacular week, on 15th Lindsay saw a swallowtail butterfly by the Fret path, our first this year. (Chris has just called in to say that the dotterel is still there, and to report two green sandpipers. Never let it be said that this newsletter doesn’t try to be up-to-date!) Our island’s birds seem to be having a successful breeding season. Coots, moorhens and mallard all have young in many sites, with the mixed group at Longis being particularly easy to watch in the rather confined space – and actually getting on quite well together, now the pugnacious little grebes seem to have left. On 15th August 23 greenfinches and 13 goldfinches came to drink there at 15.30 and made the small pond incredibly crowded. Mark also recorded four juvenile pied wagtails in Longis cemetery on 9th and on 15th he noted ten Sandwich terns over Braye and eight Shelduck over Longis bay. Ravens are still going around in family parties, with Elizabeth Gauvain recording five at Clonque on 13th. There have also been several reports of barnacle geese on the island recently – but these have almost certainly escaped from a private collection. A red kite was reported on 15th and there have been several more reports of the light-phase buzzard. With the recent influx of holiday-makers there have been numerous reports of blonde hedgehogs, with several sightings at the campsite at Saye. Noticeably the three found dead on the roads in the past fortnight have all been typical brown – the blonde ones are much easier to see from a car… On 11th August a slow worm was seen at Clonque. The bat walk on 12th proved very successful, with bats appearing early and in large numbers, making a good prelude to Michael Maunder’s Meteor Watch at Essex Farm. Lindsay’s swallowtail is obviously ‘insect of the week’, but there are butterflies in great profusion all over Alderney at present. There are also many ‘webs’ of Glanville fritillary caterpillars to be seen and in some places they have completely devoured their food-plant, plantains, in the area. No doubt they will survive. Earlier, we wondered if the cold, wet winter would harm them and they came through in record numbers. Moths are continuing to have a brilliant summer, although with few migrants, to date. Catches in all the Garden Moth Scheme traps are producing between 200 and 400 per night for the ‘official’ recording list, without counting some of our Channel Islands’ specialities, which are (understandably) not included. Most interesting species at present is the aptly-named splendid brocade, of which another five specimens have appeared this week to light. The moth is still very rare in UK, and even in the Channel Islands it is new for it to produce a second brood. The newsletter last week remarked that the ‘yellow’ Jersey tigers were not appearing with their usual Alderney frequency but they are now making up for lost time. Recent light trap counts from Trigale and the Valley had typical orange and yellow forms in equal numbers. Plants to look out for this week include the tall yellow spikes of great mullein, which thrive on dry soils and are truly splendid this year, and the smaller vivid reddish-orange spikes of Montbretia, of South African origins and a garden escapee. About half way up Tourgis Hill, on your right there is a clump of bright blue Agapanthus, another garden escape, and there are further plants as you walk towards the Guns. The bat walk this week will definitely be on Thursday evening, but times vary, so please check nearer the date. 2010 (31) Monday 9th August After Alderney Week Victoria Street was very quiet as I walked up this morning to write this newsletter. It has been a brilliantly successful eight days. The weather was pretty fair overall, and the wildlife events were very well attended, with 60 coming to the Bat Walk (and lots of bats); 40+ at 5.30 a.m. for the Dawn Walk followed by a gargantuan breakfast; 70+ for the Teddy Bears’ Picnic, despite that being the one wet morning; more than 60 to the Rock Pooling (with plenty of interesting creatures). The kayaking lessons were so popular that three extra sessions had to be arranged. The Trust float won ‘best floral display’ for Radio Caroline in the Cavalcade. Chris and Frances, who have now joined the AWT/Alderney Society respectively, took part in that event but also in a mass of other activities; they should have a less hectic time this week! Wildlife also featured, although less obviously, at some other Alderney Week events, with the Rain or Shine’s brilliant production of The Importance of Being Earnest attracting several Jersey tiger moths to the stage lighting in the Island Hall’s gardens, while at the fantastic Torchlight Procession on Saturday night an egret flapped slowly over the Island Hall while torches were being lit, and later, on the Butes thousands switched their gaze from the bonfire to watch a shearwater wing across the field and out to sea. Also during the week the Royal Signals, on their umpteenth visit here and always so welcome, have worked on the proposed education bunker, cleaning it to a level probably not seen since the war. Recent bird records have been mainly routine, with numerous sightings of parents with juveniles (buzzards, kestrels, stonechats.) No sparrow hawk nest has been found but a parent bird has been observed carrying prey. There are still up to four herons most days at Corblets reservoir, although what they are feeding on is uncertain – they were definitely catching young wildfowl a few weeks ago. This week a team of eight professionals (doctors, lawyers etc) will be living on Burhou and creating an artificial storm petrel wall – more about this later. Alderney has another new dragonfly record. The willow emerald damselfly Lestes viridis has been seen several times at Longis pond and on the common in recent weeks, and now one has been captured as proof. The species is common in Jersey, so it is no surprise that this very attractive bright green insect has appeared here. Moths have continued to come in big numbers to the light traps, with numerous scarce chocolate-tips (they are very scarce in UK) and several of the beautiful micro Evergestis limbata. Last year the Jersey tigers were out earlier, and the balance of orange and yellow forms was about 4 to 1. This year, of the first dozen or so recorded only one has been of the yellow form. Perhaps we should research this! While the tigers are late-appearing after the cold winter, oak eggars seem to be early, and have now almost ended their season. Yesterday we took a newly-emerged female eggar to several sites to ‘assemble’ males, of which we saw only 11 in all. In July a similar occasion saw more than 40 appear. In each case we paired the female moth with one of the males, in order to obtain eggs for the next generation. Whilst many plants elsewhere are suffering from the extreme dryness, those along the seashore are thriving and a walk along the top of many of our beaches is rewarding. Look out for the tall yellow-horned poppy, lavender sea rocket, bright green sea spurge, brilliant blue sea holly and greeny-yellow rock samphire. The latter used to be a very popular vegetable in Shakespeare’s time (see King Lear, where gathering it from the Dover cliffs is a notoriously dangerous occupation.) It is still harvested in some parts of the country, often for pickling, although it is also delicious steamed and can be eaten raw in salads, although it is rather peppery… This week’s Bat Walk will again be on Thursday, but will start from Essex Farm, so that it can tie in with astronomer Michael Maunder’s Meteor Watch from the lawns at Essex Farm. If it is a clear night, both parts of the evening are highly recommended! 2010 (30) Monday 2nd August This week’s newsletter will be short, not because there is little to report but because it is Alderney Week, when the island goes (pleasantly) mad. It is an exciting time, with innumerable events, many of them to a standard of entertainment and skill quite astonishing for such a small place. Today is Carnival Day and as I write this the ‘team’ who usually help with the newsletter are busy completing the Trust’s float for the procession. This afternoon we shall see what they have achieved – certainly their efforts deserve success, and the weather forecast is good after a week of sunny days, with two foggy mornings and three welcome spells of overnight rain. Alderney is still looking parched and yellow. One of the greener parts of the island is the increasingly large reed-bed surrounding Longis pond, a haven for dragonflies and young coots, moorhens and ducklings. It is also a good place for several species of wainscot moth, the larvae of which tunnel in the reed stems. Their presence can be easily detected because the top shoots of the occupied reed turn yellow and die. The family of goldfinches coming to drink at Longis has swelled to a crèche – on 30th July there were two adults and nine youngsters. It is becoming an outstanding ‘butterfly year’, without many rarities but with common species, in particular gatekeeper, grayling and common blue flying in clouds in many parts of the island. Those doing the Butterfly Transects are finding it very difficult to count accurately| Numbers were particularly high in the Houmet Herbe area on 29th July, and among myriads of common blues at least two long-tailed blues were noted, the first seen since one in the spring. It is possible that we may yet have a good year for these very attractive migrants. Many of the day-flying humming-bird hawk-moths have passed through, and are being recorded in UK in small numbers, although we still have plenty in Alderney. Moths to the light traps have been arriving in impressive numbers, with four pine hawks to a single light in the Valley on both 30th and 31st July (not the same ones!) The Trigale trap beat its own record from last year, with 115 shuttle-shaped darts on 31st. We are still waiting for the mass of Jersey tigers to appear, with only four recorded so far. In an early season they would be at peak numbers by now. As with the butterflies, there have been few migrant moths, and even the year’s first tree-lichen beauty on 1st August may well have been a resident. Volunteer work for the next few days will be concerned with Alderney Week. Robin has already done his first stint as Town Crier to get things started – will they ever let him retire? Roland is coaching kayaking most days and yesterday he, Caroline and Lindsay managed a long stint with the Trust’s contribution to the town’s street market. There is a bat walk tonight and a dawn walk tomorrow morning, and later in the week Mel, Keris, Jen, Sarah et al will be organising a Teddy Bears’ Picnic at Essex Farm. Etc etc… By this time next week things will be (almost) back to normal.
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