Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday 8 November 2010

The 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament

FINAL WEEK: Competition Review and Results

Here we are then, finally, at the grand culmination of the inaugural Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament. After 13 gruelling weeks of intense competitive bird-spotting, there remained just six days for a late upset; six days for a miracle. The final week began with Steve Stansfield 23 points clear of Richard Else at the top of the leader board, Ben Porter 35 points behind Else, and Richard Brown looming just two points behind Porter. The Rt. Revd. David Hawkins, Bishop of Barking, was also present to play his part in the tournament’s denouement.

Ben Porter, desperate to defend his bronze medal position from Richard Brown, got the week off to a flying start in characteristic crack of dawn fashion with a Ring Ouzel (1 point)and a Hooded Crow (1 point) to open up a four-point lead over his rival. These efforts were soon frustrated though, when Brown struck back in style with a Pallas’s Warbler at Ty Nesaf – one of the best birds of the autumn and worth a whopping six points. Not too disheartened, Porter responded quickly with some Long-tailed Tits (2 points) to get back on level pegging. The battle for third place was getting tense, and was clearly going to go right to the wire.

Not that it makes much difference to anything, but Else found a Bullfinch (1 point) and Stansfield saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker (1 point).

After an exciting start, the week then fell desperately flat with four consecutive days of frustrating bad weather and not even a glimmer of a point-scoring bird to be seen. Could the final day produce anything better?

Else managed to end the tournament with a half-decent find: a Great Northern Diver (1 point) from the north end of the island was shortly followed by a Black-throated Diver (3 points) – a very nice bird, but it was far too little far too late to worry Stansfield. The Bishop got his name on the score sheet with a couple of Whooper Swans over the South End, and Brown made a late move into third position with a flock of Eiders (1 point). Porter now needed to score and was frantically scouring the island for points but, despite racking up a fair species list, just couldn’t find anything to increase his score. As the daylight began to dwindle, even a desperate last-chance sprint over the mountain and around the coast in the rain failed to produce the hoped-for late equaliser. As night fell, it was all over. The final results were as follows:

Name Score

Stansfield 113

Else 94

Brown 59

Porter 58

The Award Ceremony

On the evening of the final day, the entire island population descended unannounced, amid a cacophony of bugling fanfares and the clattering of ceremonial crockery, upon the living room of the tournament winner to present a magnificent trophy to the champion. The Bishop, wearing a swirling cape and brandishing a bugle, delivered a rousing and flamboyant speech to the assembled islanders before conducting the prestigious and slightly surreal presentation ceremony.

Ben Porter, so narrowly beaten into fourth place, received a consolation flapjack; Richard Brown was presented with the bronze trumpet of third place; and Richard Else was the recipient of the runner-up’s silver spoon, purloined earlier in the evening from the obs kitchen. Then it was time for the main event: the grand culmination of the autumn’s contest. The great prize was brought forward and the veil lifted to reveal, in all its glittering plumery, the Bardsey Birding Crown. The slightly bewildered-looking observatory warden was ushered forth to receive his magnificent trophy and, on donning the crown, officially accepted the prestigious title of Bardsey Birding Champion.

And so, with the crowning of Steve Stansfield as Bardsey’s first birding king, endeth the great tournament of 2010. Can anybody challenge him for the title in 2011?

The coveted Bardsey Birding Champion’s Crown: a bespoke, handcrafted coronet with faux-ermine lining, genuine argenteus adornments and a centrepiece jewel of the purest green. The crown must be worn by the reigning champion at all times during the next season’s tournament.

“Hear ye, hear ye, honourable islanders... witness history in the making... the inaugural, the very first award ceremony for the 2010 Bardsey Autumn Birding Tournament”.

The winner exultantly lifts the bejewelled prize from the presentation pillow.

Steve Stansfield: Bardsey Birding Champion 2010.

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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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Monday 8 November 2010

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