Mammals
Birds
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Reptiles
In this edition of Durrell Diaries, Charlotte Dean, shares her day as a bird keeper and chough coordinator at Jersey Zoo.
I joined Durrell in 2021 as a Red-billed Chough Intern but was lucky enough to be offered a position to continue my work with the chough project as a Bird Keeper in 2022.
After I officially joined Durrell, I was trained on the softbill section, where I care for various songbirds and pigeons, many of which are of conservation concern. I start and end my day with bird routines and my role gives me the best of both worlds; as I work both at Jersey Zoo and at sites around the Island.
Most days, after doing the rounds at our aviaries at the zoo, after lunch, I’ll pack my bag together with pellet, insects and leave for Sorel in the ‘chough car’, where I monitor the Jersey Red-billed chough population. I am lucky enough to be joined by our Chough Intern to assist me with my daily activities at Sorel, whilst they also gain valuable field experience.
When arriving at Sorel point, we head to the aviary via the coastal path, where the choughs will usually be waiting patiently on the aviary roof. Servicing the aviary at Sorel involves much the same as in the zoo; cleaning, watering and supplementary feeding. One of our weekly tasks involves mowing the grass in and around the aviary. Choughs forage in short grassland, therefore it's important that we keep the grass in the enclosure cut back for foraging opportunities. We are also incredibly grateful to the local shepherd who moves the Manx sheep around the fields periodically to keep the grass suitably short for the choughs and other farmland birds.
The choughs are target fed in the aviary (by whistle) with a supplementary feed, this allows us to monitor the population size, identify the choughs to an individual level (via colour rings) and allows us to catch them for ringing purposes. As our current population stands at 66; it can be challenging to identify all the birds when they arrive, but thankfully we rarely have more than 40 show up in one day.
For our chough project, I not only go to Sorel; I also travel all around the island, especially in breeding season (March – July) where I search for new nest sites. Breeding season is the busiest time of year for me and requires a keen eye on behaviour changes as well as liaising with various stakeholders. This includes Ronez Limited who allow us access to their site to ring the chicks, hire out equipment to reach the nests, and give us regular updates on chough activity.
Although my role is mainly field based, there is plenty of record keeping tasks with my two roles. An important part of the chough project is giving the public up-to-date reports, chough ID lists and collecting public sightings through-out the year. These can be found on the ‘Birdsontheedge’ website which we manage along with the National Trust for Jersey and Government of Jersey. The website also allows the public to send in chough sightings. So, if you see a chough on the island, do get in touch; as I can’t be in two places at once!
This article was originally printed in the Jersey Evening Post on Friday 22 November.
