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Updated: May 28, 2025
Captain Hubback, however, informed me that a few were breeding on the rocks to the south of Alderney in 1878, but when Mr. Howard Saunders and I went with him to the spot on the 25th June, we found no Kittiwakes there, all those Captain Hubback had previously seen having probably departed to their breeding-stations before our visit, and after they had been seen by him some time in May.
The autumnal visitants are mostly young birds of the year, some of them, of course, having been bred on the Islands and others merely wanderers from more distant breeding-stations. No young Terns appeared to have flown when I left the Islands at the end of July; at least, I saw none about, though there were several adults about both Grand Havre and L'Ancresse Bay.
During the breeding season the Puffins keep very close to their breeding-stations, and do not apparently wander more than a few hundred yards from them even in search of food; so that, unless you actually visit the islands on which they breed, you can form no idea of the number of Puffins actually breeding in the Channel Islands.
Very soon after they have left their breeding-stations, however, both old and young birds may be seen about the harbours and bays of Guernsey and the other islands seeking for food, in which matter they are not very particular, picking up any floating rubbish or nastiness they may find in the harbour.
As far as I can make out the Manx Shearwater does not breed in any part of the Channel Islands, but being rather of nocturnal habits at its breeding-stations, and remaining in the holes and under the rocks where its eggs are during the day, it may not have been seen during the breeding-season; but did it breed anywhere in the Islands more birds, both old and young, would be seen about in the early autumn when the young first begin to leave their nests; and the Barbelotters would occasionally come across eggs and young birds when digging for Puffins' eggs.
The cosmopolitan Turnstone is resident in the Channel Islands; throughout the year its numbers, however, are much increased in the autumn by migrants, many of which remain throughout the winter, leaving the Islands for their breeding-stations in the spring.
Many of the green feathers of the adult are making their appearance amongst the brown ones; this one I shot on the 26th June, 1866, near the harbour Goslin, at Sark, near a large breeding-station of Shags and Herring Gulls: if it is, as I suppose, a young bird of the year, it would show a very early change to adult plumage, but of course it might have been a young bird of the previous year; but, as a rule, young birds of the previous year are not allowed about the breeding-stations, any more than they are by the Herring Gulls.
The purpose that it serves depends largely upon the conditions in the external environment the climate, the supply of food, the supply of breeding-stations, and the presence of enemies. Hence its purpose varies with varying conditions of existence.
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