Lihou, Saturday 5 March

It’s the time of year when resident birds are pairing up and other birds that have spent the winter further south are returning for the breeding season. Lihou forms part of Guernsey’s Ramsar site and is used by gulls and other seabirds as a breeding site as it is relatively undisturbed.

To keep visitor disturbance to a minimum, the Ornithological Section of La Société Guernesiaise rope the footpath to encourage people not to stray too far. This year, ACLMS (the States departments for Agriculture, Countryside and Land Management) have supplied new hessian rope for the job. The red and white stakes loaned by the Guernsey Biological Records Centre were also very useful, not least for rolling out the rope from the drums.

To the seaside, this will give some protection to the Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Greater Black-backed Gulls, Shags, Cormorants, Oystercatchers and, with luck, Ringed Plovers. When the land side of the path is roped off (we ran out of stakes) it will be good news for ground nesting birds such as Meadow Pipits.

The largest gull: magnificent but not to be messed with. An adult can catch and eat a rabbit whole

The Lesser Black-backed Gull: smaller and slaty grey on the back. Light can make it hard to distinguish colours. It’s useful to compare the colour of the back with the wings tips and tail which are darker. Also, if the legs are on view, they are yellow.

The Herring Gulls were photographed earlier in the winter with strong streaking on the head. They are now in full breeding plumage and adults will have pure white heads. They are still a common sight locally but not as numerous as they once were and are now red-listed because of a decline in the breeding population.

Visitors to the island still have access to the Venus Pool – nobody was swimming there today which was no surprise as the temperature was around 8 degrees – and the remains of the Priory. Check the tide times at https://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=148854&p=0 as there are days when the island is closed. the island is now run aby the Lihou Charitable Trust and the house is open in the season, offering hostel type accommodation: https://www.lihouisland.com gives more details.