Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 16 October 2010

The 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament

Week 11: Competition Review and Results

Week eleven of the tournament saw the observatory fully booked with visitors in eager anticipation of the thrilling birding experience and breathtaking rarity bonanza that the legendary October new moon period was promising. Sadly, the week didn’t quite live up to such lofty expectations, but at least there were some more Wigeons and Reed Warblers to keep the tournament ball just about rolling. As well as Richard Brown, Richard Else, Ben Porter and Steve Stansfield, competitors this week were Steve Hinde (competing for his fourth and final week), Simon Hugheston-Roberts, Ian Wright, Rachel Porter (making her competition debut), and Bob Normand who has specifically requested to be mentioned “in heroic terms” in this weekly review.

Dawn had barely broken on Sunday morning when Rachel Porter, out for her brisk pre-breakfast circuit of the island, speed-walked into the lead with a couple of Snow Buntings (2 points) on the summit of the mountain. By mid-morning, some of the slightly less energetic contestants had rolled out of bed, lethargically finished their hot porridge and mugs of coffee, and notched up a few points for themselves. Stansfield found a Yellow-browed Warbler (1 point), a Firecrest (1 point) and some Crossbills (1 point) without leaving the obs garden; Ian Wright spotted some more Crossbills (1 point), also from the obs garden; Brown found a Reed Warbler at the lighthouse and another Firecrest when he arrived at Cristin; and Else found a flock of Eiders flying past at sea (1 point). Ben Porter found the third Firecrest of the day (1 point), but then, under much duress, had to leave the island for a couple of days of nail-biting rarity anxiety.

Monday was less eventful: a Great Spotted Woodpecker (1 point) for Brown, a Reed Warbler (1 point) for Stansfield and the first Fieldfare of the autumn (1 point) for Hinde were the only scoring birds. The visitors took command of the competition the next morning though. Hinde leapt straight into the lead with a Twite (the first 4-point bird for three weeks), followed by another new Great Spotted Woodpecker (1 point) and a Hen Harrier (1 point); and Hugheston-Roberts also completed a hat trick of scarcities with a Wigeon (1 point), a Black Redstart (1 point) and some Snow Buntings (2 points). These two competitors continued to score the next day too, with two Long-tailed Tit points for Hinde and a Common Redstart point for Simon. Richard Brown found another Reed Warbler (1 point) in his garden to stay in touch with the leaders.

Bob Normand heroically found a Rook (0 points).

Ben Porter arrived back on the island immensely relieved not to have missed much during his short sojourn to the mainland, and soon found the first Jacksnipe of the autumn for one point. Hugheston-Roberts, the week’s wildfowl specialist, found a Pochard on the west coast and received a fairly miserly two points for this considerable island rarity.

The final day of the competition began sometime in the wee small hours when Rachel Porter, crepuscular mountaineer and Snow Bunting finder extraordinaire, struck again in near-darkness to score two more points before most people had woken up. Simon’s duck of the day was a Wigeon (1 point), and Hinde found a Great Northern Diver (1 point) and another Hen Harrier (1 point).

At the end of the week then, it was Steve Hinde who ended his month-long visit in triumph by storming to victory on 11 points. Simon Hugheston-Roberts came second with a very respectable eight points, followed by Richard Brown on five, and Rachel Porter and Steve Stansfield on four points each. Ben Porter finished on two and Else finished on a pretty woeful one point. Bob Normand failed, albeit heroically, to score any points at all.

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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 16 October 2010

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