Sunday 3 June 2018

What an brilliant way to end yet another action packed week in late spring. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for the best part of the day, but there was certainly wildlife on the land! Today was as much about invertebrates as it was about birds, with the amazing discovery of a Broad-bodied Chaser on the South End - a completely new species to the island. It pitched up on the tiny puddle just below the Lighthouse, presumably having only just made the short hop across from the Llyn Peninsula, and spent the best part of the afternoon sticking faithfully to its new found favourite water body! Why such a common species has taken so long to reach Bardsey will remain a mystery. Fingers crossed this is the first of many records.


When you first set eyes on it, you could be mistaken for thinking that the South End pond is nothing more than a stagnant puddle with lots of algal blooms. However, today it pulled out all the stops by attracting the island's first Broad-bodied Chaser!

There was still plenty of excitement to be had on the bird front too. Two unseasonal Barnacle Geese which flew silently over the island at 05:30 whilst we conducted another breeding bird survey constitute the 21st record for the island. There was a flurry of excitable flurry of radio messages late in the afternoon as everyone across the island attempted to connect with a low flying Red Kite, the second of the year. It did what so many birds of prey seem to do on Bardsey by coming in off the South End, heading straight up the island being mobbed by Oystercatchers and Herring Gulls before departing off the North End as quickly as it arrived. 

A female Whinchat was on the South End, and in the rush to watch the Kite, a stunning Turtle Dove was found beside the Lime Kiln. An increasingly scarce sight across many parts of Britain nowadays, our first of the year comes only days after bird news services announce that they now consider this species a rare breeding bird, and will no longer report individuals unless they are considered migrants. A sad sign of the times.

Today's Turtle Dove, a species we see too few of in Wales.

Other birds logged today included four Fulmars, 403 Manx Shearwaters, 14 Gannets, a Grey Heron, 15 Common Scoters, a Sparrowhawk, a Buzzard, a Peregrine, a Ringed Plover, two Dunlins, two Bar-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel, a Curlew, four Collared Doves, four Swifts, a Whinchat, four Stonechats, eight Wheatears, four Sedge Warblers, a Reed Warbler (trapped and ringed at the obs), a Blackcap, three Spotted Flycatchers, a Chaffinch, a Goldfinch, 17 Linnets and a Lesser Redpoll. Migrant lepidoptera was represented today by a Clouded Yellow on the South End, seven Painted Ladies spread across the island and 68 Silver Y moths.

It turns out that the Ragged Robin display in the lowland fields is even better than it is in the wetlands. 

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