Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 1 February 2014

January 29th
The beginning of this period saw a change in the wind direction: an east wind brought a chillier feel to the day, although this did little to change the species composition on the bird front. The flock of Kittiwakes returned to their usual spot, with a total of 95 birds feeding between The Narrows and Carreg Yr Honwy, along with one Black-headed Gull.

A Greater Black-backed Gull battling it way through the spray past the South Tip

January 30th
Some calm weather on the 30th gave a chance to take a bit of breather, before the storms began to roll in again in the ensuing days. The chilly easterlies encouraged a few slightly different species onto the island: three Teals were seen in Henllwyn in the early hours; a Mediterranean Gull and seven Common Gulls were amongst the Kittiwakes off The Narrows; and a Woodcock was flushed from some Gorse bushes near Plas.

There have been some good candidates for Scandinavian Rock Pipit amongst the usual island birds. This particular bird was amongst a flock of 30 or so Rock Pipits which were feeding near the boathouse. This bird possesses a very strong supercilium, cleaner streaking and paler-toned underparts.

January 31st
With winds gusting over 80 kph, coupled with heavy rain, it was very difficult to any birding on the last day of January! Needless to say, a handful of birds endured the conditions, with a small number of waders and gulls congregating around The Narrows at high tide: a Dunin was amongst some 55 Oystercatchers, 50 Curlews and five Turnstones, whilst 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls sheltered behind a gorse bush with six Greater Black-backed Gulls.

Unfortunately, the recent storms have exacerbated the situation around The Narrows in terms of Chough-foraging sites. Solfach and Henllwyn have been completely stripped of any seaweed, leaving the Choughs to find food around the banks, and on the mountain.

February 1st
Gale force winds and a 10.2 metre high tide meant that waves once again crashed over the banks of The Narrows, causing further erosion and deposition of debris on the tops of the banks. Avian wildlife was restricted to non-passerines, with the smaller residents of the island well and truly hidden away in any sheltered spots inland. A good gathering of 185 Herring Gulls was noted at high tide, with 42 Kittiwakes and 70 Guillemots battling their way southward out to sea. Seven Purple Sandpipers and a Whimbrel were amongst the usual suspects in terms of waders.

Large waves once again battered the banks of The Narrows, and took a large amount of sediment away from the beaches.

Some impressive-sized waves were also crashing all around the island, particularly on the West Side (above) and over Carreg Yr Honwy

Greater Black-backed Gull (top) and Herring Gull (lower) above high seas

A small passage of Guillemots included some 70 birds flying South in loose flocks

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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 1 February 2014

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