. Alderney Nature Diary

(included to bring records up to date)

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Weather report for December 2007

Even with 15 dry days from 10th to 24th December and 2 others, rainfall almost equalled last year's and was 22mm up on the 20-year average. Since 1955 18 years have had a wetter December and 16 years have had more rain in total.

To compensate, sunshine was just over double that of last December and 30 hours above the long term average. Total for the year to date was 130 hours up on the 20-year average, making this the 9th sunniest year since 1955.

Barometric pressure, temperatures, humidity, wind speed and direction were all very similar to last year. The mean wind direction was again from the SW at around 15 knots.

Figures for comparison with December last year and the 20-year average

Year	2007	2006	20-year average
			1988-2007
Rain mm.	116.0	118.9	94.5
Sun hrs.	80.9	39.0	50.3
Max. temp recorded °C	14.1	14.6	14.3
Min. temp recorded	1.6	4.0	1.8
Mean day temp	8.9	10.0	8.9
Mean night temp	8.3	8.9	7.8
Total rainfall for year to date, mm.	775.0	549.5	719.1
Total sunshine for year to date, hrs.	1976.3	1904.1	1844.0

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Annual Summary by month

Maximum figures in each line in red type, minimum in blue

MONTH	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	TOTAL
Year 2007
Temp. highest °C	13.60	13.60	15.50	19.10	18.60	25.70	22.60	23.00	22.60	18.60	15.90	14.10
Temp. lowest °C	3.20	4.00	2.80	4.40	8.40	10.00	11.40	12.30	10.50	7.80	2.40	1.60
Average daily Max.	10.00	9.70	9.50	13.60	14.00	16.60	17.20	18.10	17.00	14.70	11.70	8.60
Average daily Min.	9.90	9.00	8.40	10.40	11.80	14.20	15.60	16.50	15.10	13.80	11.20	8.30
Monthly mean °C	10.00	9.40	9.20	12.20	13.20	15.90	16.80	17.40	15.60	14.10	10.50	8.90
Rain mm.	75.57	128.78	59.68	12.00	60.39	66.20	52.99	79.65	19.38	34.09	70.28	116.03	775.04
Sun hrs.	31.88	79.61	167.79	256.46	202.27	199.50	274.40	245.81	201.51	163.77	72.67	80.58	1976.25
Barometer highest mb.	1044	1045	1048	1035	1030	1033	1030	1038	1041	1043	1043	1047
Barometer lowest mb.	1003	987	996	1014	994	1003	999	1002	1012	1016	993	987
Barometer mean mb.	1026	1013	1023	1028	1018	1018	1020	1023	1029	1030	1029	1028
Humidity minimum %	66	76	70	72	76	67	75	79	56	80	75	75
Humidity average %	91.9	92.7	92.8	93.8	93.3	93.7	93.3	93.8	90.4	92.9	92.4	92.1
Wind direction mean °	257	203	226	161	225	237	267	212	192	175	211	220
Wind speed max kts.	58	58	48	34	50	40	38	36	42	30	42	56
Wind speed mean kts.	16.6	14	12.7	8.2	11.2	11.2	10.1	8.7	8.5	7.8	10.5	14.9

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Averages for the 20 years 1988-2007	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	TOTAL
Temp. monthly max	12.84	12.65	14.77	16.52	20.94	23.34	23.49	24.05	22.15	18.99	16.30	14.23
Temp. monthly min	1.50	1.15	2.48	3.66	6.73	8.83	11.16	11.45	10.64	8.13	4.71	1.80
(Max	9.30	8.99	10.17	11.61	14.32	16.81	18.48	19.19	17.87	15.19	12.11	9.98
Average daily (Min	7.17	6.61	7.34	8.02	10.50	12.81	14.81	14.59	14.65	12.83	9.88	7.87
(Mean	8.18	7.81	8.80	9.86	12.48	14.87	16.79	16.47	16.29	13.99	10.89	8.94
Rain mm.	77.17	64.13	47.84	51.23	39.98	40.87	41.46	48.89	48.11	82.10	78.48	97.44	717.70
Sun hrs.	61.00	79.11	126.27	188.31	243.04	245.22	251.68	239.40	181.91	113.17	75.05	52.03	1856.19

Alderney Weather

A prediction of a cold winter for 2006/7 was made last year and certainly December 2006 was a lot cooler than usual for much of the month, but January to April 2007 had above average temperatures and April was an unusually dry month, with only a quarter of the 20-year average rainfall and 68 hours more sunshine. Some spring flowers were earlier than usual, others were later by several weeks. Maximum and minimum temperatures were both lower than average from September to December. Sunshine was above average for each month except January and September and the year finished as the 9th sunniest since 1955 with 120 hours more sunshine in total and 58mm more rain than the 20 year averages

Primroses were in flower in November and Common Dog-violets in December, with many other summer flowering plants still flowering in December.

At this point a comparison of the annual summaries of all the available Alderney rainfall figures since 1851, which I have collected over the years, makes an interesting demonstration of the declining rainfall figures across the British Isles generally and no doubt across many other areas. The first figures 1851-60 followed by 1865-71 were recorded at the Breakwater during its construction, the next block 1906-16 were recorded in Le Huret in St. Anne by the island Greffier. The next block from 1955-1980 at the Airport, those from 1982-97 at the Lighthouse and the remainder at my house on Platte Saline.

. a. Note the steady decline of amounts in years of high rainfall, average rainfall and low rainfall since 1960

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. Alderney Botanical Report 2007

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The Alderney Wildlife Trust, of which I was re-elected President in May, continues to flourish and expand its activities and has cleared considerable areas of bracken/gorse/bramble scrub to the benefit of the low growing plants formerly smothered. The trust has also cleared scrub from several footpaths, especially along the coast to give access to naturalists and other walkers. We now have two areas designated by the Alderney States as Nature Reserves to maintain. The much larger reserve consists of the east coast, Longis Common, Corblets Quarry and Mannez Hill, where a second bird hide has been installed, this one at Mannez Pond at the south-eastern end of the island. The steep, watered and wooded, Val du Saue (Willow Valley), half way along the south coast has become the second and scrub cleared and part of the area replanted with native deciduous trees. A third reserve at the Giffoine on the SW tip of the island is under negotiation.

The States Agricultural Team has also revised its mowing and spraying schedules after consultation with myself and the AWT and hopefully some of our frequently mown public open land will bear better crops of our smaller and more special plants as a result, especially the Pyramidal and Autumn Lady's-Tresses orchids. Our single colony of Bee Orchids which had suffered considerably from mowing over recent years has, as a result of these negotiations, been excluded from the spring and summer mowing schedules and 25 plants in flower were counted here on a single day in July.

The Essex Farm house renovation was completed and the derelict outbuildings reroofed and put in good order. The accommodation has been occupied throughout the year by 2 and later 3 postgraduate students who, amongst other things have contributed considerably to the species recording. Several Wildlife Weekends have been well attended by both members and visitors. Daytime Wild flower and evening Bat Walks both proved very popular and several hundred people attended them over the summer.

The Ramsar site has been resurveyed for both plant and animal species and expanded species lists published on the Trust website <www.alderneywildlife.org>. Recording both the Flora and Fauna has been given considerably more attention this year and several new (or only the second record) plant species noted. (See below). Literally hundreds of new moth species and several dragonflies have been added to our earlier lists thanks to the recent move to the island of a skilled entomologist, newly retired.

An Alderney Record centre has been set up on the Internet and in the AWT office with public access to the lists via a touch-screen computer set up in the AWT shop. Starting as an offshoot of the recently formed Guernsey Biological Record Centre managed by Dr. Charles David and Bridget Ozanne (Guernsey BSBI recorder), it was soon combined with the Alderney Society Museum records to form a single Biological, Historical and Archaeological record, accessible from both the AWT and Alderney Society web sites. It is currently being managed by one of our postgraduate students doing a year's "Work Experience".

Bridget had recently updated the Alderney Bryophyte, Lichen and Fungi records and her untimely death in July has lost the Bailiwick one of its best botanists. Jennie Page (JP, now Jennie Grange (JG) after her recent marriage, a former chairman of La Société Guernesiaise's Botanical Section, retired from teaching during 2006 and moved to Alderney. She has been of considerable help in expanding the number of recorded sites of some of our rarer plants and ran two botanical evening classes at the school during the year. Her remarriage towards the end of the year caused her to move back to Guernsey, but, having a daughter and grandchildren here, she is still a frequent visitor. Margaret Long (ML), one of the two Jersey BSBI recorders has continued her many years of regular visits to Alderney and also noted several new sites for established plants.

Most of the area belongs to the Alderney Society, who have owned the derelict Watermill for many years and are now trying to revive it. The rebuilding of the waterwheel itself is well along the road to completion. The dam wall, has been extended and repaired by the States and about 1-metre thickness of silt removed from the area behind it to increase both the catchment area and depth and allow most of the silt to settle before it goes to the filters and pumping station further downstream. AWT are also managing two areas of, mainly States, land as Conservation areas, the larger of which is home to several of our Red Data Book rare or endangered species, and hope to add a third area during the current year...

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.....Carex paniculata stools & Bonne Terre dam.

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During the year Lindsay Pyne, (LP), one of the Trust volunteers, has spent much time in familiarising herself with the island flora and has drawn my attention to two species not previously recorded and one not seen for many years, as well as noting new sites for several other species. Further details of these will be found below.

We had been fortunate to have Jennie Page from Guernsey, move full time to Alderney in 2006, but she returned to Guernsey in late autumn 2007 after her marriage. A friend of almost 25 years, from when I lived in Guernsey, she ran the Botanical Section of La Société Guernesiaise for many years, was closely associated with the late David McClintock and contributed many of the Bailiwick records to his Wild Flowers of Guernsey published in 1975 and to the Annual Transactions. of La Société. She has already contributed some new records to the Alderney list. She also organised and taught a Wild Flower evening class on Fruits and Seeds in the Guernsey Education Department's Adult Education programme at St. Anne's school this autumn, with associated Saturday morning walks, to put what we had learnt into practice in the field. About 10 people attended the first sessions and these will possibly start again in the Spring, almost certainly with a larger class, as a lot of interest has been generated. I look forward to having her expert help in increasing our knowledge and distribution records of the island flora, as she hopes to spend as much time as possible on short visits.

Further work on Alderney's Ramsar site has added to the records of both the terrestrial and maritime flora lists and those of various fauna, noted in the site area.

Several visits from Bridget Ozanne (also the Guernsey BSBI recorder) and Dr. Charles David, who run the recently set up Guernsey Biological Records Centre, have given further impetus to our recording and, thanks to Dr. David, my entire 11,800+ database of Alderney records since 1824, of which he has modified the grid references to account for a long term discrepancy between the grid references obtained from the States of Alderney map and the true satellite co-ordinates, can now be mapped, printed out and manipulated to produce various printed records and species distribution maps on both the GBRC and the Alderney Wildlife Trust Dismap and Digimap programmes. Paul Griffiths at Aditsite, who created my recording programme, has converted my former map references in that programme to fit into the corrected UTM grid positions and I have created a new A4 map, with the corrected grid on it. This can be obtained in printed form from the AWT office or downloaded from my website <flora.org.gg> (File Alderne.gif) and is now included in all new copies of my Alderney Flora lists, books and CDs.

We were all greatly saddened by Bridget's sudden and unexpected death in June and some months later Jennie has now agreed to act as BSBI Recorder for Guernsey.

In the past year I have produced a 256+ page book on CD-Rom A Very Wild Island. An outline of the Ecology of Alderney This is also available to special order as an A4 ring-bound computer print. A much expanded update to my 1988 Flora of Alderney booklet finally made its appearance in September, now entitled The Wild Flowers of Alderney. Also about 258 pages with the several maps including the corrected island map and some colour photographs, this is in A5 size, ring-bound with laminated covers. A more professional "perfect-bound" version with a completely updated plant list and 95 colour photos (see the "Books" page on this site) will be published in March. All are available from the AWT office.

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New plant records 2007

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Helichrysum angustifolium. Found BB & JG 9.5.07. 2 plants on S. facing bank Bluestone hill, Origin probably garden escape. (I think this is the first C.I. record).

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Conyza bilbaoana. Found BB. 10.8.07 confirmed by ML. Several places around island in waste ground and neglected gardens, mixed with Conyza sumatrensis. Probably not differentiated before. First island record ..

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Digitaria sanguinalis. Found LP 11.9.07 Identified by BB. 8-10 plants along roadside wall bottom, Chemin du Meunier. First island record .

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Lythrum salicaria. Found LP 1.11.07 Identified by BB. About 200 plants in the corner of a damp filed off the Longis Road. This part of the odd-shaped field is surrounded on three sides by a hawthorn/sycamore hedge. The whole field was ploughed and reseeded with a "Wildflower Seed Mix" about 4 years ago and part is now used to grow vegetables. The rest is a virtually untended meadow. The owner has never seen these in flower but it is strange that virtually all the Lythrum plants in the field are in this small area. Perhaps a few plants in the first year have set and spread seeds here, whilst others may have been weeded out or cut or mown down

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New sites

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Helichrysum petiolare. Found BB 6.5.07 Several large plants and many smaller, self seeded from garden escapes noted in 1987. Bluestone Hill. Also now on Platte Saline and in 2 other places some considerable distance away. .

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. Anchusa arvensis. Found BB 8.8.07. 6 plants along side of track to the Frying Pan

Anchusa arvensis. Found BB 9.8.07. 1 large plant in tipped soil by Gravel Works at Platte Saline. .

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Petroselinum crispum. Found BB & JG 9.8.07. 10+ plants amongst rocks in front of German bunker at E. end of Platte Saline beach. .

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Conyza sumatrensis. Found BB. 10.8.07 confirmed by ML. whose first record here was in 2000. At least a dozen sites scattered round the island, often in some quantity

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Atriplex portulacoides. Found LP 7.9.07. 3rd site. Low down on cliffs Hannaine Bay, Several plants

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Erigeron karvinskianus. Found BB 26.9.07. 3rd site. 4 or 5 large plants growing amongst Ivy near the top of the old roadside stone wall round the Island Hall.

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Plants refound, not recorded for many years

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Arabidopsis thaliana. Found BB 7.5.07 near Frying Pan Battery. About a dozen plants along trackside. Previous records 1902, 1954. 1987, 2000. .

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Echium plantagineum. Found BB 20.7.07 3rd island record. Roadside field near Fort Tourgis, 100+ plants, with blue, white pink and mauve flowers, probably from seed impurities in a Borago and Phacelia crop sown by a Bee keeper. Previous 1956 and 1996.

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