Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 13 August 2016

A juvenile Marsh Harrier spotted during the morning was harried and harassed by corvids down the west coast. It alighted briefly when it spotted some carrion on the ground but was soon moved on by a group of Carrion Crows.

Other raptors seen today included a male and female Sparrowhawk, two Kestrels over the mountain and a Peregrine Falcon over the farm. Disappointingly both pairs of Peregrines failed to raise any young this season and have since been extremely elusive or have briefly left the island. Hopefully they will be more successful next breeding season.

Sparrowhawk stalking the Linnets around Nant

Reasonable passage again at sea amounted to 2,753 Manx Shearwaters, 54 Gannets, 10 Fulmars, 12 Common Scoters and a single Sandwich Tern. An Arctic Skua and a Great Skua were spotted off the west coast heading south as well as a flock of six Bar-tailed Godwits, a species which has been recorded multiple times in the last week. Gull numbers logged have risen over the past few weeks as birds pass through the island and roost in clumps around the island, today was no exception with good numbers present again. The most interesting concerning two colour ringed Kittiwakes picked out of the 950 seen today. Black-headed Gulls numbered 12, whilst other counts came to 56 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 286 Herring Gulls and 38 Greater Black-backed Gulls.

Passerines were fairly thin on the ground today. The Wood Warbler was present for another day, and spent its time flitting around the eastern end of the Plantation. Other Phylloscopus warblers today included four Chiffchaffs and 20 Willow Warblers. A couple of Blackcaps and Goldcrests, 12 Stonechats, mostly the resident pairs and their young, and 16 Wheatears towards the southern end of the island were noted. Linnet numbers were down on yesterdays count but a respectable 186 were still recorded along with 55 Meadow Pipits, 11 Rock Pipits, eight Pied Wagtails and hirundines numbering 55 Swallows and eight House Martins.

Not the greatest image but the only one obtained of the Wood Warbler as it flitted restlessly amongst the trees at the Plantation

Oystercatcher numbers have taken a tumble over the past weeks as birds presumably leave the island. Counts of over one hundred were common place during the breeding season as the island holds a healthy breeding population, the count was 45 individuals. Accompanying these were three Whimbrel, 23 Curlews, three Redshanks, two Common Sandpipers and 23 Turnstones.

The first Hummingbird Hawk Moth of the season feeding in one of the gardens around Nant

Using its extremely long proboscis to sip nectar from flowers

Other Lepidoptera news came in the form of nine Large Whites, 58 Green-veined Whites, two Common Blues, 11 Red Admirals, three Painted Ladies, one Small Tortoiseshell, 11 Peacocks, 34 Meadow Browns, and eight Northern Eggars scattered around the island.

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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 13 August 2016

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