Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 15 July 2018

Top on the agenda today was a trip around the East Side to check up on the progress of the Kittiwake nests. The Guillemots that lined the cliffs only a week ago have all but vacated their ledges, leaving behind just a few adults that are still feeding late chicks. It's a similar situation with Razorbills, and the East Side feels unusually quiet because of it. These birds will now spend the rest of the year at sea, not returning again to the cliffs until next year's breeding season. Guillemot numbers appear to be down on last year, with 1112 pairs (or Apparently Occupied Ledges) counted this year compared to 1574 last year, but what they've lost in the number of birds appears to have been made up for in the number of chicks fledged. From an anecdotal point of view, ledges this year have been alive with the sound of juveniles begging for food, and specific counts in recent weeks have turned up impressive numbers of juveniles. As an example, a ledge on Pen Cristin that in 2016 was known to have fledged one juvenile and in 2017 fledged four juveniles, has in 2018 fledged at least 18 large juveniles. It's an encouraging sign. A whole East Side tally of 113 fledgling-size juveniles is more than were known to have fledged in both 2016 and 2017 combined, although this may be partially due to increased recorder effort this year.

Back to the Kittiwakes, and it's not looking quite as good. This year there are only 90 nests compared to 125 last year; a downward trend that appears to be mirrored throughout the UK breeding colonies. However, similarly to Guillemots, there are more chicks in nests at the moment than there were at this stage last year. The two colonies visible from land, 'Tornado Ledge' and 'Little Kit Colony' didn't fledge any juveniles last year, but currently have 10 chicks (5 chicks at this point in 2017) and 37 chicks (14 chicks in 2017), so we're still hopeful for at least a partially successful breeding season. The main colony with 41 nests is not visible from land, and will need to be surveyed from a boat in the coming week or so.

Asides from seabirds, birds logged today included 50 Manx Shearwaters, a Grey Heron, a Kestrel, a Lapwing, three Whimbrels, a Curlew, four Redshanks, a Common Sandpiper, a Black-headed Gull, a Common Gull, 16 Swallows, two House Martins, a Stonechat, two Wheatears, a Sedge Warbler, four Chiffchaffs (including three newly fledged juveniles in the Plantation), two Willow Warblers, two Chaffinches, a Goldfinch and 23 Linnets.

Looking down over the East Side from the top of the mountain. It feels weird looking down and not seeing thousands of Razorbills whirling around.

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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 15 July 2018

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