It was a day of strong south-westerly winds, which meant that most attention was turned seaward. There was enough passing by to keep interest up, the highlights of passage being one Red-throated Diver, four Balearic Shearwaters, a juvenile Pomarine Skua, seven Mediterranean Gulls, one Little Gull and seven Common Gulls. The tallies of more common migrants included the following: two Fulmars, 11 Manx Shearwaters, 166 Gannets, 16 Common Scoters, 249 Black-headed Gulls, 698 Kittiwakes, one Guillemot and 150 Razorbills. The numbers of passerines was poorer than previous days, although a single Wheatear, one Reed Warbler, two Lesser Whitethroats, three Siskins and a Reed Bunting were recorded. The Hoopoe remained mobile around the mountain.


Moth trapping has been hugely successful in the last week, with mild temperatures, low winds and overcast skies encouraging some very decent counts and species lists. Invariably, the traps are 90% full of Lunar Underwings. For example, almost 400 were taken from the Cristin Withy trap on the 29th of September, whilst the rest of that catch was made up by just 50 other moths. The number of species caught has reached as many as 20, which has included species such as Red-green Carpet, Turnip Moths, Red-line Quakers, Pale Mottled Willow, The Delicate, Large Wainscot, Rush Veneer and Pearly Underwing.

Two noctuid migrants: Pearly Underwing on the left (around the 15th record for Bardsey) and Dark Sword-grass on the right 

As many as 400 Lunar Underwings have been taken from a single trap in recent days, and each catch has shown a dazzling array of variations in patterning and colour 

Agonopterix yeatiana 

Red Admirals have been moving through en masse this Autumn, At the start of September movements of up to 500 Red Admirals were estimated over the island. Counts have decreased quite steadily, but reasonable numbers (as many as 40 a day) have still been seen in recent days