Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 16 March 2014

March 15th

A beautiful sunny day saw temperatures rocketing into double figures, although the movement of migrants was not quite as red hot...several large flocks of Meadow Pipits were seen flying southward over the Narrows and South End during the morning, amounting to around 226 individuals. A small number of warblers saw a total of seven Chiffchaffs and 20 Goldcrests frequenting the island's gardens, and just a single Wheatear was present on The Narrows. A Merlin was seen on the South Tip, whilst two Red-throated Divers and a Common Scoter passed by the island's coast. Overhead, a small movement of corvids involved a Rook and six Ravens, and the Hooded Crow was in its usual situation.

Moths
The first Common Quaker and Silver Y of the year were trapped in the moth trap at the North End, along with a Pale Pinion and a Parsnip Moth:

The presence of a Silver Y indicates the movement of migrants, although none have been seen during the daytime as yet. The lower image is an enlargement of the 'Y'

Common Quakers should begin to turn up in the moth traps very frequently in coming days and weeks

Pale Pinion

March 16th

Considering the calm and clear conditions, it was surprising that were so few migrants on the island. Not one Wheatear was seen during the day, and the number of Meadow Pipits had decreased into double figures. A single Chiffchaff and 18 Goldcrests were recorded in the island's gardens and withies, along with singles of Goldfinch, Siskin and Greenfinch. Corvid passage in the early hours comprised three Jackdaws, three Rooks, and the Hooded Crow, whilst the usual Merlin lay wait for any passing prey on the South End.

In other news, a very, very late, or perhaps very, very early Grey Seal Pup was discovered on the South End! It seemed to have only been a day or so old on discovery, although the mother was not seen during the day. Whether this unfortunate pup will survive is not certain, but it is certainly a record for the island!

On top of the island's breeding Meadow Pipits, migrant flocks of up to 180 birds have been recorded around the island's coast in the last week or so

A single Dunlin has been frequenting The Narrows in recent days, although there are very few other migrant waders on the island at the moment

Only a small flock of about 25 non-breeding Oystercatchers remains in Henllwyn at the moment. The rest of the birds have dispersed around the coast, taking up their positions near their respective nest sites.

Ringing

In other news, we have recently received details of where some of our 'controlled' birds from last year had first been ringed. A control is essentially a bird with a ring on which we have not put on...i.e. it has been ringed somewhere else, by a different ringing scheme. Some of the origins were quite surprising!

Perhaps most unusual was that of a female Great Tit, which was initially trapped and ringed in North Somerset in March 2012. We re-trapped the bird 393 days later, on 20 April 2013. That is a total distance of 199 km; rather a lot for a Great Tit!

We trapped a total of eight Lesser Redpolls which had been ringed elsewhere in the UK last year. The origins of these birds included many different locations, such as Suffolk (372 km away), Merseyside, Shropshire, Lancashire and Wrexham. One of the more impressive controls involved a bird which had been trapped and ringed in Icklesham on 16 October 2011. We trapped the bird two years later, on 1 May 2013, after it had travelled 428 km (as the crow flies).

One control Goldfinch involved an individual which had been trapped and ringed in West Sussex. This bird then found its way into a mist net on the island on 22 April 2013.

Another interesting recovery concerned a Chiffchaff, originally ringed in Wexford (Ireland) on 23 September 2013. We trapped the bird four days later, after it had travelled 117 km, and amazingly only lost 0.3 grams!

This screen shot outlines the ages of some of the Man Shearwaters which we re-trapped on Bardsey last year. As can bee seen, on of the birds was just over 32 years old! And this age does not take into account the fact that the bird was ringed as an adult. We can therefore assume that is at least 36 years old, perhaps older.

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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.