Endangered birds seeking refuge in Sark

Bird numbers in Sark remain healthy and the island is becoming increasingly attractive to several birds recognised internationally as critically endangered, including hawfinches.

‘This is due to our lack of intensive farming and low pesticide use. Luckily the food chain here remains largely intact,’ said La Societe Sercquaise’s bird recorder Lynda Higgins.

La Societe Sercquaise made a presentation when the Prince’s Foundation visited Sark recently. It shared information about how numbers of a range of species of bird have changed over the past 50 years.

Mrs Higgins said Sark was now home to the largest breeding colony of guillemots in the Channel Islands.

‘The colony has grown from 76 breeding pairs recorded in 1968 to 400 breeding pairs in 2022,’ she said.

‘The main colony on Les Autelets in the north of the island became so crowded that a new colony formed on Les Burons on the other side of the island, with 200 breeding pairs in each location.’

Puffin numbers experienced a steep decline in the years following the Second World War, but Mrs Higgins said the decline was arrested by the 1970s.

‘750 pairs of puffins were recorded as breeding on Moie Fano, Moie de Breniere and L’Etac in 1946. By 1972 this had fallen to 20 to 25 pairs, but this number has remained stable since.

‘The best chance of seeing them is at L’Etac off little Sark in the summer.’

Other species of bird on the island include razorbills, of which Mrs Higgins said there were about 30 to 35 breeding pairs, and Manx shearwaters, of which there were two colonies, one on Great Sark and one on Little Sark.

‘They’re nocturnal birds, so can be hard to survey as they only come ashore at night.

‘We think we have heard their calls, but they could be the calls of other birds.’

She also said that fulmar numbers had increased and there were now between 20 and 25 breeding pairs on the island.

‘In 1972 the fulmar was listed as a non-breeding occasional summer visitor, but since 1986 there have been breeding pairs present on the ledges and cliffs around the island.’

Mrs Higgins considered bird numbers to be healthy due to the residence of a range of breeding apex predators on the island, including buzzards, peregrine falcons and barn owls.

‘They are also an indicator species, which means they are finding sufficient food to eat,’ she said.

Sark is situated on the main bird migration route, which results in some species occasionally dropping in temporarily.

‘[Recently] we had a visit from a hoopoe and we enjoyed a visit from a hawfinch.

‘I’ve been in contact with a nature reserve on the French coast about the possibility of finding a mate for the hawfinch.’