Image: Lesser Yellowlegs – Photo credit : Romano da Costa
July is where birding gets going again! After the quiet of June, many migrant birds start moving again during July, signalling that the start of autumn is almost here.
The first to arrive are the small Gull species, Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls. Both these species use Jersey and the Channel Islands as an important stop off on their southbound journey, utilising our food rich waters to feed up either for a day or two or others for a few weeks before they continue. Likewise, the same for Sandwich Terns which breed in large colonies along the Belgian and Dutch coasts, as soon as their young have fledged, they bring them here to out south-east coast to use as a sort of ‘nursery’. They leave their young in large groups to wait on the offshore rocks while the parents head out to feed in Grouville Bay. If you’ve been down to La Rocque recently on a high tide you will have definitely heard them, there noisily waiting for a parents return.
On the rarity front we have been lucky enough to have several reports on Common Quail, often heard calling in the evenings from barley or wheat fields. There has been a large influx of them into the UK this summer, our visitors will have been part of that. Keep your ears open when walking in the countryside as you may be lucky enough to hear one!
Our first Caspian Gull arrived on a very early date, two weeks earlier than the usual, the juvenile bird had been ringed in central Berlin only a few weeks earlier.
Biggest and most exciting rarity though was Jersey’s first record of Lesser Yellowlegs, this North American sandpiper spent one day on the Scrape at St Ouen’s Pond and was luckily enjoyed by a few bird watchers before it had departed the next day.
Author: Romano da Costa – Ornithology Section – Bird Recorder
Ornithology@societe.je
Image: Mediterranean Gull – Photo credit : Romano da Costa
