Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 28 November 2009

And so endeth another year on the island for the staff of BBFO! Steve, Emma and Connor along with Rich E and Rich B left the island today leaving Ben at Ty Pellaf and Jim at the Obs to continue the birding over the winter. Jim will be posting regular updates on his blog (see link on right) and Ben will send a few images and highlights for me to put on this blog as and when he has any birds of note.

BBFO team of 2009 leaving the island today

Connor, Emma, Steve, Rich E and Rich B

So was 2009 a memorable year? Here are a few of the pictures of some the 2009 highlights in chronological order.

Hoopoe (c) Steve Stansfield

Hoopoe and Iceland Gull on 18th March

Jack Snipe 22nd March

House Sparrow 12 April

Grasshopper Warblers 16 April

Subalpine Warbler 18 April

Lesser Whitethroat and Whimbrel 24 April

Siskins 25 April

Whinchat 28 April

Hooded Crow 7 May

Black-tailed Godwit 9 May

Common Redpoll 10 May

Red Kite 10 May

Wood Warbler 14 May

Icterine Warbler 20 May

Quail 23 May

Common Redpoll 24 May

Golden Oriole 4 June

Cuckoo 6 June

Icterine Warbler 7 June

Another Oriole 8 June

Another Icterine Warbler! 10 June

Hawfinch 10 June

Razorbill 12 June

Guillemot chick 22 June

Puffin 24 June

Storm Petrel 25 June

Thrift Clearwing 28 June

Treecreeper 29 June

Red-breasted Merganser 3 July

Little Egret 28 July

Manxy Chick and Pied Flycatcher 10 August

Storm Petrel Chick 11 August

Melodious Warbler 20 August

Arctic Skuas 28 August

Wryneck 10 September

Little Stint 16 September

Paddyfield Warbler 17 September

Glossy Ibis 18 September

Hummingbird Hawkmoth 26 September

Grey Wagtail 27 September

Yellow-browed Warbler 27 September

Tree Pipit 7 October

Subalpine Warbler 10 October

Merlin 12 October

Risso's Dolphins 13 October

Another Yellow Browed 14 October

Brambling 15 October

Med Gull and Grey Phalarope 20 October

Lapland Bunting 26 October

Black Kite 26 October

Woodcock 27 October

Black Redstarts 28 October

Redwing and Risso's Dolphins 29 October

Richard's Pipit 30 October

Black Redstart 31 October

Merlin 6 November

Whooper Swan 8 November

Brambling 9 November

Wryneck 9 November

Woodlark 9 November

Snow Bunting 17 November

Little Gull & Kittiwakes 22 November

Arctic Tern 25 November

So with all that little lot to whet your appetite you should now have some idea when you would like to come to the island in 2010, and remember, these were just a few of the birds and beasties we managed to photograph - there were many more!

Steve

All images are copyright to the contributing photographer on the original Bardsey Wildlife blog pages

4 comments:

Anonymous29 November 2009 at 22:18
Fantastic! Great photos
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Anonymous1 December 2009 at 18:29
Well done on such a wonderfully produced and informative blog.some stunning shots; what a fabulous year you have had. Enough to make anyone envious!! Keep up the good work and hope that the 2009 team will be back together next year.
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Anonymous2 December 2009 at 09:36
I agree with anon, this is an excellent round up to what looks like a fantastic year on Enlli, the team have done an brilliant job - keep it up.

Diolch
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Steve Stansfield17 December 2009 at 13:25
Thanks for the wonderful comments. You will be pleased to know that Both Ricard B and Richard E have agreed to stay on in their respective posts for the coming year.

Steve
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Click to see inside!

Edited by Mike Archer, Mark Grantham, Peter Howlett and Steve Stansfield and published by T & AD Poyser, this fabulous book describes how much has changed since the first edition of Bird Observatories in Britain and Ireland was published in 1976. There are detailed accounts of the history and work carried out at each of the 18 observatories, with personal accounts by wardens and staff of the excitement of discovering a rarity, watching thousands of migrants attracted to a lighthouse after dark, and the pleasure and experiences that working at some of the country’s most remote and beautiful locations can bring. Click the picture of the book to see inside or to buy your copy.

Migrants

Being sited on the main migration route of many species, Bardsey (or Ynys Enlli in Welsh) is a well-known site for migrant birds, turning up many scarcities and rarities, as well as large numbers of common migrants. The island’s list now stands on 326, after the recent addition of Citrine Wagtail in October 2012.

Although Bardsey’s reputation for rare birds may not quite match that of some observatories, it is almost certainly the best site in Wales for rarities. Among Bardsey’s rarer visitors are the first Summer Tanager (1957) and Yellow Warbler (1964) to have been recorded in Britain and Ireland, as well as American vagrants such American Bittern, Sora, Kildeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Grey-cheeked Thrush, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Blackpoll Warbler. To add to this impressive list of rarities, Black-winged Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, Lanceolated Warbler, River Warbler, Western Orphean Warbler, Booted Warbler, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Eyebrowed Thrush, Thrush Nightingale, Red-flanked Bluetail, Isabelline Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Collared Flycatcher, Blyth’s Pipit, Pine Bunting, Rock Bunting, Yellow-breasted Bunting and White-throated Sparrow have all been recorded.

Besides the rarities, Bardsey regularly attracts large numbers of weary migrants during 'fall' conditions in Spring and Autumn, largely a consequence of the fully operational Bardsey Lighthouse. In 2011, for example, a single grounding of migrants resulted in over 1000 Willow Warblers making groundfall on the island in August. In the not-so-distant past, a single attraction of 40,000 Redwings occurred in late October at the end of the last century.

Breeding birds

Bardsey is home to some 26, 000 pairs of Manx Shearwaters, which can be heard on dark nights from mid-March to August. They breed in their excavated burrows, which are scattered all over the island. Chough is the most important species of conservation concern, with between four to eight pairs nesting around the coastal cliffs most years, and a wintering flock of up to 50 individuals. A pair of Peregrines breed on the island, and a 1-2 pair of Ravens also nest most years. There are several species which nest only occasionally, such as Sparrowhawk and Little Owl, along with Afro-Palearctic migrants like Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. Up to ten pairs of Stonechats can nest in the isolated gorse patches around the island, along with many Linnets and Meadow Pipits. Corncrakes were once a common breeder on the island, although since 1970 there have been no confirmed pairs nesting. In recent years the likes of Lapwing, Yellowhammer, House Sparrow and Starling have also all become extinct as breeding species. In contrast, Shelduck, Puffin, Long-eared Owl, Grasshopper Warbler and Goldcrest have been added to the breeding bird list since 1998.

Ringing

Ringing is a very important part of the observatory’s role on the island. Since 1953, the observatory has ringed over 315,00 birds of 198 species. The highest number ringed in a single year was 1988, with a total of 11, 301 birds ringed of 93 species. There have been many days in the observatory’s history when several hundred birds have been ringed in one day; these occasions have mostly involved breeding seabirds, although these numbers can also easily occur with migrant species.

Lepidoptera

A total of 561 species of moths have been recorded on the island. Bardsey is not an overly good location for scarce moths, although the existence of Thrift Clearwings (Nationally scarce) has been established on the Thrift plants around the coast in recent years, after first being recorded in the years 1980 and 1996. Migrant moths arrive in small numbers every year, for example the annual arrival of Hummingbird Hawkmoths in the autumn; rarer immigrants in the past have included Death’s Head Hawkmoths, Vestals, Crimson Speckled and Red-necked Footman.

In recent years, a greater emphasis has been placed on recording and identifying the so-called ‘micro-moths’, which has resulted in the finding of 41 new species for Bardsey since 2011. In 2012, the coastal subspecies of Eana penziana (E.p.colquhounana) was re-found on the island, which was the first time that this Nationally Scarce species had been recorded on Bardsey since 1966. Apotomis semifasciana is also amongst the scarcer species of micro-moths to inhibit the island (also Nationally Scarce).

Butterflies are present on the island in small numbers, with species such as Common Blue, Small Copper and Small Tortoise-shell being the most common. A scarcer breeding species is the Grayling, which can be found in small numbers on the top of the mountain. Migrant butterflies such as Painted Lady can arrive in their hundreds, although other migrants such as Clouded Yellow and Dark-green Fritillary are quite rare.

Bardsey's Wildlife

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Saturday 28 November 2009

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