Issue 12012

Protecting Alderney’s Wildlife for the Future

Alderney

WATCH

WHAT IS

WATCH?WATCH is the junior part of the Wildlife Trust. Each of the 47 Trusts in the British Isles has a Watch membership, as Alderney has done since its founding in 2002, but in 2010 it was decided to make the island’s Watch Group a separate entity. Alderney has the only Wildlife Trust in the Channel Islands, and Alderney Watch has an advantage over almost every other Trust in the degree of independ-ence the young members have.

Watch’s activities in Alderney take many forms. Some are ‘for the public good’ (see page 4) – they are mainstays of Beachwatch and in the winter they play an important part in clearing poisonous brown-tail caterpillars, which would otherwise infest the beaches. They make bird- and bat-boxes, some for their own use but most to be sold by the Trust or used in recently developed sites. Almost all the island’s children have planted trees for the new Community Wood-land. Ormer House pupils have redesigned the natural history room in the museum and have planted up old containers with bee-friendly flowers at the recycling centre, and pupils of St Anne’s have rescued a disused garden site near their school and have turned it into a fine conservation area, now known as the Jubilee Garden.

Other Alderney Watch activities combine both entertainment and research. Pond dipping is popular but the analysis of what is in the many garden pools is valuable, as well as fun. Rock pooling is likewise done with great gusto but also with a wish to find new crea-tures, as well as familiar crabs and blennies. Locating hedgehogs at night, can be exciting even for those who have the animals as regular visitors to their gardens, but it is also important to know how many there are in Alderney and whether they are feeding up well for the winter. The numerous bat walks undertaken by Watch have identified new localities and even new species, and several young members have become skilful at using bat-detectors. The light traps run for the Moth Recording Scheme have helped contribute to the new Atlas of Moths and have also produced rare species that have made Alderney the ‘moth capital’ of the British Isles. The project on Luffia moths (p.9) has provided entertainment but has also broken new ground. It has already appeared in five separate magazines and journals, but we have put it in yet again, little changed, because people requested it! During 2012 Watch members have helped in fund-raising for the Trust, have broadcast on Channel TV and have entertained an adult audience of the Alderney Society. They plan to be even more active in the coming year.

We are fortunate in Alderney in having a Wildlife Trust staff with a genuine interest in what their younger members are doing, and Watch could not function with the same efficiency without the help of some very supportive parents, teachers and friends. We are also lucky in having patrons who visit us regularly and inspire everyone with their enthusiasm. Dr George McGavin and Miranda Kresto-vnikoff never let their TV fame get in the way of their enthusiasm for Alderney. We look forward to their regular visits.

‘The pictures on this page all feature events mentioned in the text – can you work out which?’Front cover: Some of the Jubilee gardeners, photo by Henry Rowe

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COMMITTEE: David Wedd, Robin Whicker, Henry Rowe, Alex Hope-Smith, Gab Hamon, Jack Etheredge, Deborah Etheredge, Jordan Shaw, Katie Shaw.With special thanks to Jane Aireton, Bill Black, Brian Bonnard, Suzy Weir, the Staff of Alderney Wildlife Trust and a host of parents, teachers and friends.

CONTACTS: Alderney Wildlife Trust: info@alderneywildlife.org 01481 822935; David Wedd: dwedd@cwgsy.net 01481 822673; Robin Whicker: r.whicker@virgin.net 01481 822487 Henry: 01481 823780; Gab: 01481 824542; Jack & Deborah: 01481 822443; Jordan & Katie: 01481 822322 AWT website: www.alderneywildlife.org

CALENDAR:December 1st: Annual Tree-planting Week at Les RochersDecember 26th: Boxing Day WalkAlso December: PuffinCam & PetrelCam showing & WATCH Christmas Party (tba) Provisional/approximate dates for 2013:January 12th & 26th: Browntail Clearing; Jubilee Garden ‘spring clean’ startsFebruary: Jubilee Garden, work starts making a new pondFebruary, March & April: Pond DippingMarch: Moth Trapping re-starts April: Rock Pooling & Bat Walks re-start To be arranged: Bird Watching, Snorkelling, Kayaking

WHO RUNS WATCH

THE WATCH ‘SEVEN’ The Committee meets several times a year, usually after the group has spent a morning at the Wildlife Trust office, packaging copies of Alderney Wildlife to be sent to members. They then repair to Nellie Gray’s Restaurant, where they are treated like royalty, to discuss policy. For those who do not know them, these are the Seven.

Henry has been a mainstay of Watch since he found a death’s-head hawk-moth in his garden. He has contributed to every edition of Alderney Wildlife since joining the Trust back in 2007. He has run a light trap for moths ever since, in which he has captured plenty of rarities and has also reared many species. He has become a skilful all-round

naturalist and is now learning bird-ringing. The only thing that will pre-vent him from becoming a top wildlife expert may be competition from a mass of other activities, especially music, dance, photography and art – but at present he seems able to manage everything at once!

Alex initially joined Watch because some of his friends were members, but he has quickly become invaluable in his own right. When tough and tedious jobs have to be done, he is always prepared to help, and he has been responsible for several of the main undertakings at the Jubilee Garden. He is a remarkably skilful rock-climber, whose exploits in some of the more hazardous parts of the island would be deemed dangerous if others tried

them. He is also a fine actor, so perhaps his laid-back attitude is a con!

Gab is a very practical member of the group, who has helped the Trust by mak-ing bird and bat boxes and bee frames, and then setting them up. His value to the development of the Jubilee Garden has been considerable and much of the well-constructed pathway that runs through the site is his achievement. He is a good all-round naturalist, who contributes much

to Watch as he cycles rapidly to and from all activities.

Jack is a reliable and efficient member of Watch, who involves himself in all activities and seems interested in everything he tackles. He runs a moth trap very conscientiously and this year his garden has proved the most successful of all the island’s light trap sites. He is gregarious and lives a busy life – although time-keeping is not his speciality!

Deborah is only ten, but is already the best writer we have in Watch, who has contributed some entertaining articles and poems to Alderney Wildlife. She is also be-coming a considerable artist and photographer, and won the competition to design Milly’s Wood in the new Com-munity Woodland. Like many of her colleagues she has a host of other activities which at present she manages to fit in successfully with her work for Watch.

Katie is confident and enthusiastic, with non-stop energy and an infectious sense of humour. She is becoming an accom-plished all-round naturalist and has an easy rapport with other Watch members, something she transferred successfully to her time as Little Miss Alderney during the summer’s festival events. In addition to Watch she has a mass of other hobbies, but seems able to juggle her time effectively. Her little sister Amber is already the youngest active member of the Trust.

Jordan used to lack discipline, but a change in attitude has enabled him to become one of the most efficient members of Watch and a very practical one. He has constructed bird- and bat-boxes (and put them up) and has helped make frames for the bee hives at Fraggle Rock. He has run a moth trap at his home and has been a leading light in the development of the new Jubilee Garden, which helped him to win the Horticultural Society Cup this year. He is

interested in all wildlife activities and in particular has shown consider-able skill in the use of bat detectors. He is a very keen fisherman.

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BEING USEFULThis page features some of the activities which the young people undertake for the benefit of the island.

Community Woodland

Browntail clearing

Clearing hottentot figs

Rearranging the museum Museum window

Beachwatch

Ormers recycling Making bird boxes

Willow WeavingRecycling Centre in bloom

Making bird food

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HEDGEHOGS

BAT DETECTING

Thanks to Jane and Mike Aireton, Watch members have spent many entertaining hours at Fraggle Rock learning the arts of bee-keeping.

Hedgehogs are captured at night and tagged, sexed and weighed. This enables the island’s population to be estimated and, in the autumn, to see whether the animals are feeding up well for hibernation.

During much of the year Watch’s bat walks take place on Fridays or Saturdays, after school work has finished for the week. Bats have been seen and heard in many parts of the island and new popula-tions discovered. Bat detectors can also be used to locate orthop-tera, especially the great green bush cricket!

BEE KEEPING

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POND DIPPING

SEA SHORE

In the spring Watch’s investigations have shown that the island’s garden pools contain large numbers of palmate newts (91 on one visit to Fraggle Rock), small carp (especially at Guildway Close), unbelievable numbers of frogs and a mass of invertebrates everywhere. We are grateful to our hosts for letting us dip their ponds and also providing welcome refreshment!

Almost all the island’s children and their visiting friends spend much time on beaches and exploring rock pools. Over the years the Trust’s maga-zine has frequently featured this activity and the wealth of strange inhabitants found at low tide. Each Watch outing produces new discoveries, especially when marine biologist Juan Salado is there as guide.

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THE JUBILEE GARDENThis ‘secret garden’ was used by St Anne’s School for art lessons and horticulture from 1992 until about eight years ago, since when it had lain deserted until February 2012, when Watch began to turn the jungle into a conservation area. We have taken hundreds of photos of all stages of the transformation, and the interesting wildlife that has already occurred there. Birds that have nested in the garden this year include robin, chaffinch, goldfinch, great tit, dunnock and pheasant and we have seen sparrowhawk, buzzard, great-spotted woodpecker, siskin, brambling – and even a heron!. The list of Insects is a big one, including large tortoiseshell and long-tailed blue butterflies, pine hawk, lunar hornet and oak rustic moths, four dragonfly species and the rare shieldbug Graphosoma lineatum. An astonishing range of Flowers, both wild and ‘escaped’, has appeared, changing rapidly from month to month. The photos are in progression, from A in February to M in November when the pheasants had grown up. F and G are the same part of the garden, two months apart!

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INSECT PARADISETHE LUFFIA PROJECT

Alderney is apparently the top moth local-ity in the British Isles, based on the number of macro-moth species noted from every 10km square by the National Moth Recording Scheme, so it is as authentic as possible. And it isn’t just moths. Butterflies occur in Alderney in the sort of numbers some of us recall from 1940s England, dragonflies abound and we are gradually cataloguing the extraordinary variety of bees, wasps, ants, flies, beetles, shieldbugs, grasshoppers – which occur in profusion. Over the years Alderney Wildlife has pictured many of these invertebrates and has paid particular attention to the surprising number of species which have not yet been seen in the UK.

Watch has played a big part, locating insects all over the island, operating moth light traps, breeding and then releasing uncommon spe-cies and even helping in the creation of the popular series of Alderney’s insect postage stamps designed by famous artist Petula Stone. The Luffia article on the next page is a recent project.

Insect Day!With George McGavin

Moth trap tour

‘Top trap’ 2012

Johnson Trap in action

Graphosoma lineatum, unknown in UK

Clifden Nonpareil

Death’s-head Hawk

Clearwing moths are attracted to phero-mone lures

Amelie and bush cricket8 www.alderneywildlife.org

Lunar Hornet moth

THE LUFFIA PROJECTWilliam Ambridge Luff was a Channel Islands man, a Victorian naturalist so versatile that he had a fungus, a sand wasp, a mealy bug and a moth genus named after him in his life-time. The two Luffia moth species that bear his name are strange insects, both of which are common in Alderney. Luffia ferchaultella is wingless, parthenogenetic (only females exist) and spends its whole life inside a case made of the lichen on which the larva feeds, usually on tree trunks. L lapidella, which is even more abundant here, is found, as its name suggests, on rocks and especially Victorian walls all over the island. It does have a winged male form, but this is rare – and does not seem to be ‘needed’!

We wondered how such a tiny creature (7 mm at most) could move about Alderney and even cross roadways. Both species are numerous on the Continent and presumably were in the Channel Islands way back, before the isles were cut off by water. Watch mapped the distribution throughout Alderney and found that the weird moths were virtually everywhere, including many on walls in St Anne town and with big colonies on Fort Raz and Fort Tourgis. So how did they get there? The project devised by Watch was very simple. We used fibre-tip pens to mark where a Luffia case was positioned and another dot on the lichen case itself. The larva moves mostly at night, so it was easy to come back next morning and see where it had got to. We envisaged three or four centimetres as the maximum journey and were surprised to find that many had travelled over a metre. Shortly afterwards we discovered that some could cover more than three metres in a night, and the maximum was over five. This was far enough to cross streets and road-ways, especially with Alderney’s light traffic. We also learnt that they could travel down the walls, as well as up, simply by descending on a silken thread and climbing up again from the bottom. Throughout the Watch project, not a single Luffia was harmed and there was no dissection of specimens to discover the percentage numbers of the two species, which look identical. It was not a scientific project but the investigation did reach some positive (and, we believe, new) conclusions – and it was fun to do!

FLOWERS MY FLOWER CHALLENGEApparently more than 1,000 spe-cies of vascular plants have been recorded in Alderney, as well as innumerable mosses, lichens, fungi – and seaweeds. Brian Bonnard is our resident botanical expert and he has worked tirelessly to encourage young people to learn more about the variety of flowers in this beautiful island. Nine-year-old Deborah Etheredge took up his challenge...

Nearly one year ago a challenge I was set,To find and name the flowers that in Alderney we get.

To aid me in my quest Brian gave a book to me.I looked inside it eagerly but no pictures did I see!

More of a mystery it was to me, an aim to be completed,So eager was I that I said “I will not be defeated!”

In December, mild and dry, I began this major task;I tried my best but family and friends I had to ask.I saw a world of beauty like I’d never seen before.

I thought I knew what grew round here but I found moreand more. There were flowers in the fields and flowers on the track, Flowers in my garden and in every nook

and crack.

My knowledge was so poor and my family’s no better. We used the internet and books; I wrote my gran a letter.

Every time I went outside, more flowers I did see:By April I was overwhelmed - it grew too much for me!

I had taken lots of photos, and put them in a book:So many names I did not know, and had no time to look!But from this challenge I have learned that North, South,

East & West,For flowers all year round, you’ll find that Alderney is best!

Deborah Etheredge

 

 

 

   

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PICTURES BY

WATCHMany of the photos throughout this magazine were taken by Watch members – and every single one on this page.A prize will go to the first person to identify what or where each photo is (except Henry, who took half of them!)

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A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE In August 2012 we had a family holiday staying with my grandparents in Alderney. On 20th August we went rock pooling in Longis Bay. Sud-denly I felt a terrible pain in my toe. The pain got worse and worse and the toe started to swell. Mummy and Daddy told me to stop fussing, because they thought I had stubbed my toe but I carried on crying and they realised

it was something worse...... I had trodden on a weever fish! Daddy took me straight away to the Mignot Memorial Hospital, where the nurse told me to go home and put my foot in a bucket of really hot water to draw out the poison. In an hour I was fine and I went back to the beach – but I was a bit nervous about paddling in the sea!

We thought it kinder to use this photo of Hattie & her sister in happier times than one of her suffering, with her feet in a bowl of hot water!

by Hattie Leaf, aged 9

FISHING SNAPSHOT

I fish off boats, from beach-es, from quays and from the breakwater, with Gab, Matt, Jack or Dean. We catch bass, rays, rockfish, mackerel, pollock, lobsters, crabs and a lot more. We use all sorts of lines, rigs and spinners. One of the best things about fishing is that

you can eat what you have caught, and if you eat it straight away it will be really fresh.

Teymor Buckley and his family come to Alderney every year and while they are here, they take part in a mass of wildlife activities. This summer they managed two bat walks and a moth tour, amongst other things. In the past Teymor has written some fine poems for Alderney Wildlife (look back and see!) He is now 13 and attends the American School in London, and we asked him to update readers on what he has done recently, while representing his school in a host of competitions and activities.

I have been coming to the beautiful island of Alderney every summer for my whole life. I have found many things to fall in love with there, some that are unique to Alderney and some that I can see, in varying degrees, elsewhere. Over the past two years I have been to Hong Kong, Shenzen, Munich, Paris, Snowdonia, Malham, Capri and of course my home, London. Much of my travelling was with my school: to Hong Kong and Paris for the Honor Choir Festival, to Munich with the Honor Band and to Beijing for a drama festival. I went to Capri to celebrate a friend’s birthday – and to Yorkshire and Wales with my school year group.

In China the wildlife is so different from Europe, for instance in Hong Kong it is incredibly humid and all the plants have a deep and lush green colour, making most trees in Great Britain seem pale. In Alderney you see wild creatures like rabbits, but in Hong Kong’s climate you can find wild lizards in the areas away from the city. Some of the flowers in China can put the rest of the world to shame. The bright oranges and pinks mixed in with the thick cover of green seen from the Great Wall make it obvious why this is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Europe is a big contrast to China. The tall and sturdy pine trees on the outskirts of Munich with the Alps in the distance make for a dramatic land-scape, but on a hot day, mosquitoes will swarm to the city centres. The forests and rivers in the outskirts make a great place to relax as the sun beams down, however, and there you can find varieties of frog hopping about looking for food and the occasional rabbit or squirrel can be spotted darting away from the path. In Paris things are much more like the UK. Squirrels pop up trees and the city is its busy self, but the wildlife is quite low-key and shy to come out.

Having said all of that, none of it is quite like Alderney. Yes, there might not be exotic lizards and all-year sun, but there are birds everywhere and whereas on my travels I was lucky to see one moth, here in Alderney I see hundreds, and though we do not have the most exotic flowers, there are many, many kinds and gazing down from Fort Albert or Fort Tourgis is a wonderful view. And looking through the floor of a glass-bottomed kayak is a sight of such beauty that I have yet to find a match for it.

by Jordan Shaw

TEYMOR’S TRAVELS* *

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