Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 20 July 2014

As autumn creeps ever closer, avian movements are becoming more obvious and one or two noteworthy species are beginning to turn up on the island. The star of the show on the 19th had to go to the fleeting Kingfisher which spent part of the aftrernoon in Solfach. This is the 19th record for Bardsey, after the last was seen very briefly in a gully near the Lighthouse in September 2009. After the thick fog had lifted somewhat on the 19th, a handful of waders were seen, which comprised a Ringed Plover, a Purple Sandpiper, five Dunlins, a Snipe, two Whimbrels, seven Redshanks, a Greenshank and five Common Sandpipers. Two Mediterranean Gulls passed over Henllwyn, a Grey Heron was seen on the South End, and five Swifts and a Sand Martin flew south.

A persistent bank of fog lay over the island throughout much of the day on the 20th, only disappearing towards the mid-afternoon. A juvenile Willow Warbler at Nant, is now the fifth of its kind to arrive on the island, although we can expect to see these arriving in their hundreds in the following month or so. Two Sandwich Terns were seen in Solfach, and a Whimbrel was present here too.

The family of Little Owls on Pen Cristin have been showing fantastically well for visitors in recent weeks. After remaining so conspicuous for three months (so much so that there were just one or two sightings of them up to May), the adults and two juveniles have been giving great views in the mature gorse bushes around Pen Cristin

The last few broods of Wheatears have been fledging in the last few days

Juvenile Peregrine Falcons from the two pairs on the island have been getting to grips with their power of flight, terrorising the fledged Chough chicks, Oystercatcher flocks and Ravens around the island

There are plenty of Six-spot Burnets still on the wing- alive (top) and dead (bottom)- feeding on the Thistle heads and Hard head flowers along the trackside. The numbers, however, are much lower than last year, with just 20 records a day at the moment.

The conditions at the moment are perfect for moths: warm, humid and no wind. This, coupled with the low cloud cover and moonless nights, have brought a vista of new species and decent hauls to the moth traps and day-flying censuses. The highlights from the moth traps, in island terms, have included the first Light Emerald for Bardsey, the second Minor Shoulder-knot for the island, and the first Zeiraphera isertana and Aspilapteryx tringipennella for Bardsey! In addition to these scarcities, a brilliant find on the wild thyme on the slopes of Pen Cristin was this Tebenna micalis...

Tebenna micalis is a scarce immigrant from Southern Europe, that can become temporarily established in certain areas. The distribution maps for this species show few records straying into North Wales, and a scan on the North Wales Lepidoptera database indicates that there is just one previous record in North Wales. This species feeds on Common Fleabane, which is a very common plant on Bardsey

Marbled Green

Zeiraphera isertana

Aspilapteryx tringipennella

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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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Sunday 20 July 2014

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