Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 3 October 2010

The 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament

Week 9: Competition Review and Results

With many scarce species having turned up at this time of year in the past, late September has much birding potential on Bardsey and a high-scoring, rarity-crammed week of fast-paced competition might have been justifiably anticipated. This year, however, a complete dearth of noteworthy birds made it one of the least exciting weeks of the autumn yet, and it is only thanks to a handful of very minor one-point scarcities that there is anything to write about here at all. Sharing in the week’s anticlimactic disappointment were the regular quartet of Richard Brown, Richard Else, Ben Porter and Steve Stansfield; Steve Hinde competing for his second week; and visitors Keith Belson and Colin Smith.

The Saturday morning was actually fairly reasonable. Brown kicked things off well with a Short-eared Owl on the South End (1 point), before Else found a Firecrest (1 point) and a Yellowhammer (1 point) at Nant. Stansfield discovered another Firecrest (1 point) in the withies and Porter soon joined in the action with a Reed Warbler (1 point) and a Great Spotted Woodpecker (1 point). Three more Great Spotted Woodpeckers arrived the following morning and it was Brown who took full advantage of this major influx and somehow managed to find all of them (1 point for each), before extending his lead with a Reed Warbler (1 point). Steve Hinde got his first point of the week for another Reed Warbler, and Porter scored another single point for the first Redwing of the autumn.

It’s been a very good year for Treecreepers on Bardsey, and another new one early on Monday morning earned Stansfield two points, before Else caught back one point for yet another Reed Warbler. Hinde scored a point for some Crossbills flying overhead the next day, and Stansfield managed to cash in on the next of an unusually long line of Reed Warblers to score one point as well.

The 29th was a very quiet day until Porter happened upon a spectacular leucistic Wheatear on Pen Cristin. As this was by far the most exciting bird of the week, the magnanimous decision was made to award Ben a point for this limited edition Oenanthe – even though neither he, nor anybody else for that matter, was able to say with confidence what species of wheatear it actually was. Colin and Keith got onto the score sheet in the afternoon with a point for a Wigeon; before quickly finding some more Wigeons to double their tally.

The next day began well, with Stansfield finding a Barn owl (2 points), some Crossbills (1 point) and the autumn’s first Brambling (1 point) before breakfast, but day ran out of steam at this point and nothing else of any interest was found for the rest of the day. The 1st of October was a fairly woeful and birdless affair, before bad weather then delayed the changeover of visitors and added a day to the week’s contest, providing a windy opportunity for some last-gasp seabird points. Porter found a little gull (1 point) and an Arctic Skua (1 point), Brown found a Bonxie (1 point) and Hinde bagged the final point of the week for a Wigeon.

So with no proper scarce birds at all, the week’s event was ultimately decided by who could find the most ‘one-point dross’, and it was Stansfield who inched to victory with a grand total of eight points. Brown and Porter both scored six to tie for second place, and nobody else’s scores are really worth mentioning.

This means that Stansfield has further increased his lead in the long event and is now on 79 points – 23 clear of Else in second place. It remains neck and neck between Brown and Porter, who are still level in joint third (or last, depending how you prefer to look at it) place on 26.

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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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Sunday 3 October 2010

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