Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 24 October 2010

The 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament

Week 12: Competition Review and Results

As the tournament entered its twelfth week, October was still yet to produce a rarity and hope was beginning to dwindle, but perhaps the first eight-pointer was due to finally make an appearance. Richard Brown, Richard Else, Ben Porter and Steve Stanfield were all involved as usual, while visitors making it onto the score sheet this week were Mark ‘Igor’ Eldridge, Paul Doherty and Alicia Normand. Bob Normand was also present but, still indignantly reeling from the outrage of not scoring any points for his Rook last week, was unable regain enough composure to find any decent birds.

The first three days were a bit slow going. The 16th was very nearly a blank day, but Doherty managed to take the week’s first point for a Whooper Swan just before dusk. Two points were awarded to Brown for a fly-over Snow Bunting on the 17th, before Porter took the lead with a three-point House Sparrow in his back garden. Doherty spotted a distant Little Egret (1 point) from Cristin, while Eldridge found a Bullfinch (1 point) and the first Wigeon (1 point) of the week. Else scored the following day’s only point for a Bonxie off the north end.

The Tuesday was a considerable improvement in quality and a number of scarce birds were seen. Brown found the first Woodcock of the autumn (1 point) by the lighthouse before scoring another point for a Great Northern Diver over the South End. Else had a Hooded Crow (1 point) on the mountainside, and then he and Eldridge scored two points each for simultaneously stumbling upon a pair of Snow Buntings near the north hide, and Eldridge found another Great Northern Diver (1 point). Doherty and Porter both independently found a Pomarine Skua in the afternoon and scored a point each, before Ben continued a productive afternoon’s birding with a Leach’s Petrel (2 points) and some Gannets that, on closer inspection, turned out to be Whooper Swans (1 point). Stansfield meanwhile, after stating specifically that he was going to find himself a Sooty Shearwater, looked out to sea and promptly found one (1 point). He followed up this success with by far the best sighting of the day, and was perceptibly miffed to learn that his flock of Velvet Scoters was only worth three points.

Wednesday was another reasonable day. Richard Brown, who is still sticking to a resolution not to have a shave until he finds a five-point bird, happened upon some Snow Buntings (2 points) and a Twite (4 points) on the Narrows – a good find, but not quite good enough to reacquaint him with his chin. Paul Doherty had a lucrative morning seawatching session from the hide, with a Pomarine Skua (1 point), a White-fronted Goose (1 point) and a flock of Scaup (3 points), while Porter continued to tap into his rich vein of form to find a Little Gull (1 point), a Wigeon (1 point) and a Hen Harrier (1 point). Else, determined not to miss out on the rush of wildfowl points, eventually found a Red-breasted Merganser in Henllwyn for one point. Alicia Normand, to the chagrin of her husband, scored the day’s final three points for a House Sparrow in the observatory garden.

The next day, an early morning Pomarine Skua point for Brown took him into the lead for the week, and it looked very much as though it was going to be a tight photo finish between him and Porter. Stansfield though, still had his ace up his sleeve and the leader-board was about to be blown apart by the highest scoring bird of the autumn. Seawatching from his favourite bench, the warden dropped an eight-point Bonaparte’s Gull bombshell to take a gigantic leap into the lead, overtaking Brown and clinching victory for the week.

After its big finale, week twelve ended with Stansfield on 12 points, Brown in second place on 11 and Porter close behind on ten. Paul Doherty scored a good total of eight points before escaping back to the more familiar, and less eccentric, atmosphere of Spurn Bird Observatory. Igor Eldridge returns to his master’s sinister laboratory having tied with Richard Else on five points, and Alicia was easily the week’s highest scoring Normand with three points.

With just two weeks remaining in the long tournament, Stansfield is now more than 30 points clear at the top of the table; his Philadelphian coupe de grace surely putting him out of reach of the other competitors. Barring some sort of miracle, Else looks set to finish in second place, but the battle for third position is still a close-run struggle between Brown and Porter.

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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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Sunday 24 October 2010

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