Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday 25 September 2017

We haven't managed any top drawer rarities amongst this latest pulse of migration, but when the island is as full of birds as it was today we can't have any complaints! It was fantastic to be out today, with migration really seeming to be in fuller swing than its been all autumn, and a great diversity of species logged.

Among the most numerous were 293 Goldfinches passing through overhead. They were the headlines of a decent finch day, with 23 Chaffinches, six Siskins and five Lesser Redpolls also around or overhead. Until today we'd had just one Reed Bunting all autumn, so a minimum of seven today was a considerable improvement. A brief Lapland Bunting also dropped into the Narrows early in the afternoon, but moved swiftly on. 398 Swallows and 79 House Martins were streaming north, while Meadow Pipits seemd to be constantly on the move, with the 208 logged underestimating the real numbers by an unknown rate. 44 Rock Pipits were around the coast, while Pied Wagtails seem to have firmly supplanted White Wagtail as the dominant species, 30 of the latter and just one of the former were seen today, the first time that Yarrelli has been moving in any great numbers this autumn. An additional 17 alba Wagtails passed through overhead, alongside 14 Grey Wagtails and 23 Skylarks, the largest passage of the latter this autumn. Two each of Buzzard and Sparrowhawk (including a young male trapped at the Plantation) also moved through, alongside a cream-crown Marsh Harrier, the third of the year.

first-winter male Sparrowhawk, trapped and ringed at the Plantation this afternoon

Its impossible to know just how many Goldcrests were moving through the island today, with birds constantly on the move along the Mountainside and the lack of retraps in the Obs Garden suggesting few were hanging around. 198 was the final total at log, but the real number must have been considerably higher. 73 Chiffchaffs represented the largest movement of the autumn so far, with other Warblers noted just nine Blackcaps, five Willow Warblers and two Grasshopper Warblers. 45 Robins, 25 Stonechats, nine Wheatears, four Spotted Flycatchers and two Song Thrushes were also noted. A Wryneck was around the Plantation/Ty Capel area, and a Water Rail was in Cristin Withy.

Two Sabine's Gulls were noted again today, with one off the South End early in the morning and one, probably the same as yesterday, briefly flying over the Narrows and heading towards Carreg Yr Honwy. The first notable arrival of Black-headed Gulls of the autumn saw at least 320 offshore, alongside 2100 Kittiwakes. An excellent 102 Common Scoters was the other highlight of species moving through. Otherwise, sea passage was represented by 55 Razorbills, seven Arctic and two Great Skuas, two Common Gulls and a single Arctic Tern. Waders for the day featured 70 Oystercatchers, 52 Curlews, 34 Turnstones, five Redshanks, five Whimbrels, two Dunlins and a Snipe, with two Grey Herons including one adult that was new in.

Finally, some mention should be made of the "hidden migration", species we might not even suspect to be on the move if it wasn't for daily censusing. However, counts of 175 Herring Gulls, 36 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 38 Carrion Crows and 15 Blackbirds were all sufficiently higher than recent counts to firmly suggest passage of all four species. Both Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls tend to pass south high over the island or along the coastline throughout the day here, but if it wasn't for the fact it's almost all "one-way traffic" you could very easily assume they were just on local movements.

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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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Monday 25 September 2017

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