Bardsey's Wildlife

Friday 6 October 2017

After a spell as windy as we've had in recent days, any calm day will do to allow migration. As it was, the gentle North-westerlies resulted in an overnight arrival featuring fairly small numbers but excellent diversity, while diurnal migrants poured through in good numbers throughout the morning and early afternoon. These resulted in an excellent log by the end of the day, with totals of diurnal migrants including 334 Meadow Pipits, 47 Rock Pipits, 119 Skylarks, 54 Swallows, 11 House Martins, 51 "alba" Wagtails, 11 Pied Wagtails, one White Wagtail and six Grey Wagtails, with three Merlins also passing through. A decent finch day saw 53 Goldfinches, 39 Chaffinches, 30 Linnets, six Siskins and four Lesser Redpolls, with four Reed Buntings also present. Watching the South End and the Narrows carpeted with Pipits during the morning was particularly impressive, and the chirruping of Skylarks passing overhead was a near enough constant soundtrack for the morning, the spectacle of visible migration making today a fine day to be out.

Alongside this, a very good selection of species showed up on the land. By far and away the highlight was a Nightingale seen briefly at Nant Withy, the first seen since 2014 and only the 47th sighting for Bardsey. A Lesser Whitethroat in Cristin Withy appeared very sandy brown on the back, with the brown colour extending into the nape. It thus appeared a good candidate for an eastern subspecies like Blythii, but, typcially, it disappeared as soon as we got cameras to the scene and opened up mist nets! It was surprisingly the first of the autumn, and a good sighting at any rate, but one we can't help but feel got away.

Other highlights of a fine day included a small arrival of atypical migrants, with four Great Spotted Woodpeckers, two Blue Tits and two Coal Tits. A Pied Flycatcher was in the Obs garden, a Whinchat was near Ty Capel and a Mistle Thrush briefly on the Mountainside. However, more common migrants were thin on the ground, apart from 130 Goldcrests and 46 Robins. Warblers seen were six Chiffchaffs, five Blackcaps and reasonably late singles of Willow Warbler and Whitethroat. Also seen were four Song Thrushes, and a single Water Rail remained in the Withies.

Stonechat, Ephraim Perfect; Ephraim's Bird Blog

Gulls were, once again, the only obvious signs of migraton on an otherwise quiet sea. 1100 Kittiwakes and 735 Black-headed Gulls were seen, the latter being the peak count so far this year, and another very good day for Mediterranean Gulls saw 49 seen mixed in with these flocks. Eight Common Gulls were also to be seen, while off the South End in the morning two Sabine's Gulls went west in relatively quick succession. Five Sandwich Terns and two Arctic Terns were also mixed in with the gull flocks, while several of the six Arctic Skuas and two Great Skuas were harrying this bonanza of potential victims. Otherwise six Common Scoters, 82 Gannets and 119 Razorbills moved through, amongst the latter was just a single Guillemot.

The highlight of a small selection of Waders was two Lapwings on the North End, the first sighting in almost a month. A Ringed Plover flew over the Wetlands, from which a Snipe flushed up, while on the Narrows were 64 Curlews, three Whimbrels (including the colour-ringed bird that's been ever-present for 13 months now!) and two Sanderlings.

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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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Friday 6 October 2017

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