Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 28 August 2010

The 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament

Week 4: Competition Review and Results

Just the three regular contestants from last week took part in week four of the tournament: Ben – ‘I’m really not bothered about this competition, it doesn’t matter to me at all. Oh, by the way, how many points do I get for Pied Flycatcher?’ – Porter; Steve – suddenly a bit too bothered about the competition now that he can’t stop finding birds – Stansfield; and Richard – already wondering why on earth he thought it would be a good idea to start this flipping tournament in the first place – Else.

The week started very slowly, without a single point-scoring species being found during the first three days. On Tuesday the ‘one-week rule’ came into play: some birds for which only the first sighting of the autumn scores points can come back into play after a seven day period in which the species has not been seen by anybody. A full week having now elapsed since anyone saw an Arctic Skua, and with propitious westerly winds having been forecast, Else began a tactical seawatch at the crack of dawn and was soon rewarded with his target bird and one point.

Stansfield, upset at having been beaten to the available Arctic Skua point, responded by commencing seawatching immediately and proceeding to stare out to sea through his telescope for the next ten hours straight! This determined effort eventually resulted in him taking the lead with a Pomarine Skua (worth 1 point) and a Little Tern (three points), as well as more than a touch of bog-eyed blurred vision and some difficulty standing up straight.

Wednesday was a completely blank day for everyone: the island was well-covered, but, amazingly, even Stansfield failed to find anything despite spending most of his time in the field.

The following day was a bit more productive. Early-bird Porter received a point for a Pied Flycatcher on the South End, and a short time later Else struck back with a point for a Hen Harrier over the Narrows (only one measly, miserly, stingy point for a Hen Harrier! What was I thinking?). Arguably the best bird of the week though, arrived late in the afternoon and it was Porter who – without binoculars and riding a quad bike at the time – nevertheless bagged the two points for spotting an Osprey over the mountain ridge. In a welcome reversal of fortune, Stansfield, the King Midas of last week’s event, spent a second consecutive day doggedly thrashing the island without finding anything of any note, and was left disconsolately bemoaning the apparent desertion of his golden touch.

The last day of the week, however, proved entirely unfruitful and Stansfield’s four points from his marathon seawatch proved just enough to win him his second week in a row. Porter came a close second with three points, while Else finished the week on just two having been hoist once more by the petard of his own inconsistent scoring system.

The ongoing, whole-autumn tournament is not such a close affair after four weeks of competition. As it stands, it is Stansfield who stands fields ahead of the field on an almost unbelievable 18 points, while the other entrants are nowhere in sight. The leader board looks like this:

Name points

Stansfield 18

Porter 6

Else 5

Brown 0

Finally, some stats from the tournament so far:

A total of 36 points have been scored so far, of which the Obs staff have scored 23, other island residents have scored 5, and visitors to the island have scored 8.

Seawatching has been the most productive tactic, accounting for 18 (exactly half) of the points so far. 10 points have been scored on the Narrows, while the remaining points have been spread quite evenly over the rest of the island.

28/8/2010

The first Yellow Wagtail of the autumn was found on the South End early in the morning, along with a group of four Grey Wagtails on the Narrows, a couple of Spotted Flycatchers at Nant and a single Goldcrest. A sizeable movement of terns took place off the west coast of the island for most of the day, with 550 Common Terns and a dozen Sandwich Terns being logged heading south. A single Great Skua and seven Common Scoters were the only other notable seabirds seen. A Grasshopper Warbler was found later in the afternoon, as was the best sighting of the day – a Lapland Bunting at the north end of the island. This is the earliest ever autumn Lapland Bunting on Bardsey by about three weeks.

The Storm Petrel nest that was found earlier in the year was revisited yesterday for its tiny, downy occupant to be ringed. (c) Richard Else

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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.

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Saturday 28 August 2010

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