Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 29 April 2018

This spring it seems like we've had to slightly lower our standards as to what we can consider a 'glorious' spring day, but today must have come pretty close. Rain clouds moved in off the Irish Sea throughout the day but all of them seem to skirt the island and head straight for the Llyn Peninsula, leaving Bardsey bathing in sunshine.

It was an exciting day to be out in the field looking for birds. There was a significant increase in migrant numbers on yesterday, and it felt like anything could turn up at any moment. In the end, the first Spotted Flycatcher, Cuckoo and Common Redpoll (the latter ringed at the obs) of the year were probably the avian highlights of the day, although it's always fantastic to witness high numbers of common migrants passing through our little island.

Today's fantastic supporting cast included four Fulmars, a Gannet, a Grey Heron, a Sparrowhawk, a Buzzard, a Kestrel, a Merlin, two Peregrines, four Ringed Plovers, a Snipe, 14 Whimbrels, three Common Sandpipers, three Collared Doves, a Little Owl, six Sand Martins, 60 Swallows, a House Martin, a Tree Pipit, a Black Redstart, three Stonechats, 96 Wheatears, a Grasshopper Warbler, 12 Sedge Warblers, six Reed Warblers, 59 Blackcaps, 23 Chiffchaffs, 130 Willow Warblers, five Goldcrests, a Pied Flycatcher, a Rook, a Hooded Crow, four Chaffinches, three Siskins, 43 Goldfinches, 47 Linnets, seven Lesser Redpolls and two Bullfinches.

It was unanimously agreed by all that log be delayed by ten minutes so that we could watch the sun go down. It was particularly good one. We could clearly see the outline of the Wicklow Mountains.

This stunning Pied Flycatcher was ringed at the Observatory and spent much of the afternoon feeding in the surrounding gorse.

The first Spotted Flycatcher of the year.

Most of today's Wheatears were very richly coloured
Greenland birds (Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa).

The local breeders of the nominate race (Oenanthe oenanthe
oenanthe) are much paler.

Good numbers of Whimbrels are passing through, heading north to their breeding grounds in Iceland.

An interesting 'Common' Redpoll - probably from one of the northwestern populations (Acanthis flammea islandica).

1 comment:

Muhammad30 April 2018 at 12:56
This is such an informative post. You have a lot of really great points. I wish I had this post as a resource when I started blogging.
Bird Watching.
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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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Sunday 29 April 2018

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