Alderney puffins: a birdwatcher's diary

At a glance

Where	Alderney and Burhou, northernmost of the Channel Islands
Cost	Flights from around £60-100 return from Guernsey; boat trips to Burhou/Les Etacs typically £25-45
Time needed	2-3 nights for a proper wildlife visit
Getting there	Aurigny flight from Guernsey or Southampton; seasonal ferry in summer only
Best time	Late April to early June for peak puffin activity; July-August for gannets and cetaceans

The northernmost of the British Channel Islands

Alderney sits at the northern end of the British Channel Islands archipelago, closer to the Cherbourg Peninsula in Normandy than it is to the nearest of its sister islands. It is the third-largest of the five Crown Dependencies — roughly 8 kilometres long by 2.5 wide — and it is, without much debate, the most isolated and the most particular. Getting there requires either a flight from Southampton or Guernsey on Aurigny’s small twin-propeller aircraft, or a seasonal ferry that runs in summer only.

None of this difficulty makes Alderney less worth visiting. It makes it more worth visiting. The island has roughly 2,200 residents, one high street, a handful of hotels, a collection of Victorian fortifications along its coast, and birdlife that is, for the serious or even the casually interested observer, among the most extraordinary in the British Isles.

I went in late July, a timing I would modify with the benefit of hindsight — the puffins, about which more shortly, are at their most numerous and most approachable in April and May, before the breeding season advances. But July has its own advantages, and the account that follows reflects what Alderney’s wildlife looked like in the height of a reasonable summer.

The gannet colony at Les Etacs

Les Etacs are a group of rock stacks off Alderney’s south-west coast, visible from the cliffs above the bay at Longis and from the island’s western headlands. They are home to one of the most southerly gannet colonies in the North Atlantic — around 8,000 birds at peak season — and observing them from the cliff edge with binoculars, or better still from a boat, is one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles available anywhere in the British Channel Islands.

Gannets are large birds — wingspan up to 180 centimetres — and the Les Etacs colony covers the rocks so densely that the individual birds almost disappear into a white mass from a distance. The noise reaches you before you can distinguish individuals: a constant low roar of calls that is audible from several hundred metres away. Up close, from a boat that positions itself to face the stacks, you can observe the birds at nest level — the territorial disputes, the courtship displays, the return of adults from fishing trips carrying sand eels for chicks.

The birds’ diving behaviour is best observed from boats. Gannets fold their wings and enter the water at speeds that can exceed 100 kilometres per hour, creating small eruptions of white water. Watching a group of a dozen birds working a shoal of fish, diving in sequence, is one of those experiences that registers on a level beyond intellectual appreciation — it is simply astonishing, viscerally, in a way that no photograph quite captures.

Boat trips to Les Etacs operate from Braye Harbour, Alderney’s main port, during the summer season. The same boats often go on to circle the island and visit the more accessible stretches of the north-west coast. Check locally for operators and booking — availability can be limited in high season.

Burhou and the puffins

Burhou is a small uninhabited island about 1.5 kilometres north-west of Alderney’s main coast, accessible by a boat trip from Braye Harbour that runs seasonally. It has been a protected nature reserve since the 1990s and hosts, in spring and early summer, a significant puffin colony.

The puffins return to Burhou from their oceanic winter around late March or early April. They breed in burrows in the island’s turf, and by May the colony is at its most active: birds coming and going from burrows with sand eels in their beaks, pairs displaying at burrow entrances, young birds beginning to appear. The boat trips that visit Burhou allow you to observe from close range without landing — the island is a protected reserve and landing requires special permission, which is rarely granted outside of scientific monitoring visits.

In July, when I went, the breeding season was winding down. Puffins were still present, but in fewer numbers, and the young birds had grown enough that the most active parental feeding was over. The adults were beginning to moult into their winter plumage, which meant they were slightly less striking than the bright-beaked birds of spring. A July visit is still worthwhile — the birds are there, the colony is active — but if puffins are your primary motivation, April to early June is the window to aim for.

Browse Alderney wildlife and island experiences on GetYourGuide

The cliff paths: birdwatching on foot

Alderney has a coastal path that circles most of the island, and sections of it — particularly the north-west coast from Fort Clonque to Fort Tourgis and along the clifftops above the Banquage — are excellent for observing seabirds from land without the need for a boat.

In July, the cliffs above the south-west coast near Hannaine Bay had resident populations of guillemots and razorbills on ledges below the path, visible with binoculars from the clifftop. Fulmars patrolled the cliff face with their characteristic stiff-winged glide. Kestrels worked the gorse-covered slopes back from the cliff edge. A peregrine flew along the clifftop once, briefly, pursued by a pair of very indignant jackdaws.

The east coast, from Longis Bay around to Braye, is quieter for seabirds but good for waders at low tide. Longis itself — a wide, sheltered bay with a freshwater pond (Longis Common) behind the dunes — attracts migrant waders and wildfowl during the autumn passage, and the variety of species possible in September and October makes Alderney one of the more interesting small islands in the Channel for migrant birding.

The island’s Alderney Bird Festival, which runs in October, is organised around this autumn migration period and attracts serious birders from across Britain and mainland Europe. It is a genuinely welcoming event for participants of all experience levels, with guided walks, talks, and an atmosphere that is more convivial than competitive.

Other wildlife

The grey seals that haul out on rocks around the island’s coast are a reliable sight from the cliff paths, particularly on the north-west coast. They are large, conspicuous, and surprisingly unbothered by human presence at a reasonable distance — the seals on the rocks below Fort Tourgis were visible from the path above, sleeping in the afternoon sun, without any apparent awareness of or interest in the walker above them.

Red squirrels have been re-introduced to Alderney and are present in the island’s scrubby woodland areas, particularly around Le Val and the southern interior. They are harder to spot than the seals and gannets, but the population is establishing itself, and a patient morning walk through the island’s interior in early summer can produce sightings.

Alderney’s offshore waters, in season, attract common dolphins and harbour porpoises. Boat trip operators will often position their routes to take advantage of known sightings, and a morning on the water in July or August has a reasonable probability of cetacean encounters in addition to the seabird colonies.

Practical notes for birdwatchers

The Alderney Wildlife Trust is the best source of current information about colony status, boat trip availability, and any changes to access. They maintain a website and are responsive to email enquiries from visiting naturalists.

Accommodation on Alderney is limited to a handful of small hotels and guest houses. Braye Harbour area has the highest concentration of options. Booking well in advance for peak season (July and August) is essential — the island’s limited accommodation fills quickly, particularly during the Bird Festival in October.

For birdwatchers considering a Channel Islands trip that incorporates more than one island, Alderney combines well with Guernsey: Aurigny flights from Guernsey take around 25 minutes, making a two-island itinerary feasible within a week.

The flight from Southampton is around 45 minutes. Aurigny, which operates these routes, has a good reliability record for its main routes — less so, in my experience, in strong winds on the Alderney-specific services, which use smaller aircraft more susceptible to the island’s gusty approaches.

What the island gives you beyond birds

Alderney has the warmest community of any of the British Channel Islands — a quality that is difficult to quantify but immediately apparent. The high street in St Anne, the island’s only town, has a cluster of pubs, a good general store, and restaurants that serve food at prices markedly lower than comparable places in Jersey or Guernsey. The Braye Beach Hotel, which directly faces the main harbour beach, has a restaurant and terrace that is one of the better lunch spots in the Channel Islands by any measure.

The island’s Victorian forts, built in the 1840s and 50s when Britain feared French aggression that never came, are in various states of restoration and open to visitors in different ways. Fort Clonque, on the south-west coast, is now rented out as holiday accommodation by the Landmark Trust. Fort Albert, above Braye, is used by the island’s government.

The WWII fortifications that overlay the Victorian ones — Alderney was the most heavily fortified of the British Channel Islands during the German occupation, and also the site of the four forced-labour camps — are present throughout the landscape, and their history is documented at the Alderney Society Museum. This is one of the most important and least-visited WWII sites in Britain, and the museum’s coverage of the Alderney camps is sober, honest, and significant.

But I came for the birds, and the birds delivered. The gannet colony at Les Etacs alone is worth the flight. The puffins on Burhou, seen from the boat at close range in spring, would qualify as among the memorable wildlife encounters available within the British Isles. Alderney is a small island, easily underestimated. Its wildlife does not underestimate it.

Timing a return trip properly

Having gone in July once, I would plan differently a second time, and it is worth being specific about why. The puffin window is narrow: birds are present on Burhou from roughly late March, numbers and activity peak through April and May, and by late June the colony is visibly thinning as adults and fledged young disperse back out to open water. A visitor whose primary goal is puffins should treat June as a fallback and July as too late, whatever a July trip offers in other respects. For a fuller seasonal picture of the archipelago beyond just Alderney, our best time to visit the Channel Islands guide sets Alderney’s wildlife calendar against the rest of the islands’ events and weather.

If your trip has to be built around the Alderney Bird Festival in October instead — often the most convenient time to combine flights, talks, and guided access — go in with the expectation set correctly beforehand: October is a migration and gannet festival, not a puffin one, as covered in our festival preview. The two experiences (spring puffins, autumn migration) are genuinely different trips.

Combining Alderney with the rest of the islands

Alderney rewards a dedicated trip more than a rushed add-on, but it also combines efficiently with Guernsey given the short flight time. Visitors building a longer Channel Islands itinerary should read how to travel between the Channel Islands for the realistic logistics of stacking Alderney alongside Guernsey, Sark, or Herm, and things to do in Alderney for a fuller list of what fills the days around the wildlife-watching sessions.

Frequently asked questions — Alderney puffins

What is the best month to see puffins on Alderney?

Late April through May, when the Burhou colony is at its most active and adults are still in bright breeding plumage. By July, when this account is set, numbers have already declined and the birds are starting to moult.

Do you need a boat trip to see the puffins, or can you view them from land?

A boat trip is effectively required. Burhou is a protected reserve with landing restricted to rare scientific visits, and the puffin burrows are not visible from Alderney’s own coastline at a useful distance — the seasonal boat trips from Braye Harbour are the standard way to see them.