Bardsey's Wildlife

Wednesday 18 October 2017

With the winds switching to easterly overnight, it was no surprise but nontheless very welcome to have a busy day's birding on all fronts. It was highlighted by a Great White Egret that headed south down the South End, before doubling back and returning North. This is the fifth ever record for Bardsey, following singles in October 1990, July in 1998 and 2006, and August 2015.

While it's been almost possible to take them for granted in some recent years, the three Yellow-browed Warblers today were our first since late September, and carried with them the real promise of a siberian waif, which sadly never materialised. Other Warblers were just 13 Chiffchaffs and two Blackcap, while Goldcrests increased to 66, with three Firecrests seen amongst them. It was probably the busiest day for Thrushes of the whole autumn, with 136 Redwings including one overhead flock of 102, and grounded totals of 42 Blackbirds, 32 Song Thrushes and two Mistle Thrushes. An arrival of Chats included 56 Robins, seven Stonechats and three Wheatears. Meanwhile, 160 Starlings made them the commonest migrant of the day.

Yellow-browed Warbler, Ephraim Perfect; Ephraim's Bird Blog

Overhead there was also plenty of action during the morning. The best day's finch passage of the year, numberwise, featured 118 Chaffinches, five Bramblings, 79 Goldfinches, 61 Siskins, 30 Linnets and seven Greenfinches mostly overhead or moving swiftly through the island. 87 Skylarks and 93 Meadow Pipits made them the other two commonest diurnal migrants. Wagtails are now well past their peak, but 22 "alba" Wagtails and six Grey Wagtails still trickled through overhead, as did six Swallows, as we reach the tail-end of hirundine migration. A single party of 15 Rooks headed south over the South End, while high totals of 46 Magpies and 31 Carrion Crows strongly suggested corvid migration was taking place. In particular, several groups of Carrion Crows passed south over the Mountainside, while one group of eight restless Magpies were flying around the very tip of the South End, presumably trying to find the courage to cross the sea! A few other odds and ends rounded off the day's landbird migration; four Reed Buntings were present, Rock Pipits increased to 41, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Great Tits had both increased to two, three Water Rails, three Sparrowhawks and two Merlins were around, and a Grey Heron passed south over the South End. All in all, one of the busiest day's passage so far this autumn!

The only seawatching done today was an hour and a half off the South End early on. It was pretty good, but logging land migrants had to eventually take priority on a good day like today. Gull passage was impressive, with 520 Black-headed Gulls, 465 Kittiwakes, 37 Mediterranean Gulls and 11 Common Gulls. Additional highlights were a Great Northern Diver, two Great Skuas and an Arctic Skua. 540 Razorbills were logged but just 40 Gannets, however a noticeable passage of 63 Shags and 37 Cormorants took place. Seven Common Scoters and seven Guillemots were the only other sightings of note.

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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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Wednesday 18 October 2017

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