The last day of June has snuck up and we find ourselves well and truly into the summer of 2019. Today was sunny with a fairly strong south-westerly that occasionally gusted at 30mph, but the sun was out and you could get away with wearing a t-shirt.

Painted Ladies were out in force today with over 100 being recorded, and that is a conservative estimate. A Golden Plover was once again on South End just west of the lighthouse before flying off and away over Solfach. Also around was a flock of 17 Curlews that flews over the Narrows in the morning and a Cuckoo at Cristin, recorded during the moth trap check, plus an exceptional count for the year of 47 Starlings in the wetlands.

17 Choughs were recorded today, the South End pair are often seen and are the only pair this side of the mountain that don't seem to have any fledglings with them, besides them, the other pairs are still hanging around with their offspring each having three.

Taken right back in March on the south end, this bird seems not to have raised any chicks this year 

Sunset on Bardsey

The day got off to an early start as yesterday's full day of ringing merged into today's. The Observatory team went out to catch Storm Petrels and Manx Shearwaters. The net was placed at the bottom of Nant Valley and throughout the night 23 Storm Petrels were caught along with 30 Shearwaters. A good evening and very much worthwhile as it is likely to be one of the few gaps in the weather in the coming days based on the forecast.

Storm Petrel - Britain's smallest seabirds weigh in at about 25 grams, about the same as a House Sparrow. They are many peoples absolute favourite birds

Storm Petrel just after release at Nant Valley

Today being Saturday meant that it was changeover day, and so the accommodation was cleaned and tidied for the new guests. It's been a really enjoyable week with some lovely guests and some good nights ringing too. Also, an added big thanks to one of the guests; Dominic Ash who helped with seabird ringing as well as manxie burrow checks!


Birds around included: one Golden Plover, 16 Choughs, 108 Puffins, two Curlews and one Grey Heron.

The day technically started with a Manxy ringing session, which as well as producing the expected Manx Shearwaters also produced two dazzled Wheatears and a Pied Wagtail. After going to bed in the small hours of the morning, the day then got off to a later start.

Juvenile Wheatear caught on the Narrows

At about 10:30 the Observatory staff headed off to the East Side of the island to ring some seabirds. One of the aims was to darvic ring more Herring Gulls, but the chicks were too mobile and so the team moved further round the mountain to focus on Razorbills and Guillemots.

Razorbills at Bae Felon

 A few ringers from Sheffield (with Sorby Breck Ringing Group) are staying on Bardsey at the moment, ringing Manx Shearwaters and other seabirds... Definitely a treat when you're as landlocked as Sheffield is! A good day was had 'fishing' for Puffin chicks (using a leg hook to extract them from their burrows) and scrambling around boulder scree for Razorbills, as seen in the photo below...

Sorby Breck Ringing Group have come to Bardsey to join in with some seabird ringing for a few days. Here is Sarah with an adult Razorbill

Puffin Chicks are always a favourite! However, at this age they have quite questionable hairstyles...

More small signs of movement today with two Lapwings, 12 Swifts and one Golden Plover. Once again the weather was hot, probably the hottest it's been all year, air temperature being 19ºC.

Promising news was a juvenile Peregrine that flew over Cristin at midday, potentially one from the Bardsey pair.

Siân (the former trust warden) has been back on Bardsey for the past week and a half and got everyone together for a rounders match in the late afternoon. This included some impressive, some heroic and some comedic moments! One team was unfortunately outdone, due to some players' ability to smack the ball half way to Ireland. Everyone enjoyed it, especially the dog, and many went for a swim afterwards as even after 17:00 the sun was still beating down!

Rounders with the Bardsey dog; Moss. 

Other birds around include: one Stonechat, nine Wheatears, one Sedge Warbler, 17 Choughs and three Chaffinches.

Blue skies and sunshine! We carried on with the Manxy Productivity monitoring today, the focus was on a sample of burrow at the northern end of the island, all the sample had eggs, besides one which had yet another fluffy chick which was weighed before being returned to the safety of the burrow.

The evening unfortunately proved to be too windy and too bright to do Manx Shearwater ringing with any great success so it was postponed to another night. However, the previous evenings ringing session (early this morning) produced a re-trapped bird that was ringed 38 years ago almost to the day, ringed on 27/06/1981.

A very well travelled ring

Today produced some interesting records, nothing extreme, just small signs of movement including a Great Tit at Cristin, 21 Common Scoters, 2 Dunlins, seven Curlews, one Whimbrel, three Black-headed Gulls and a Skylark. 

The weather could hardly be better for day visitors to Bardsey

Summer Solstice on Bardsey

The heart of Bardsey is beating; the Summer is in full swing and the longest day of the year has arrived!

The Solstice welcomed a bright moon, clear skies and impressive sunsets. Although we have enjoyed gazing into the clear skies and picking out Jupiters 'Galileo' moons, it has been too bright to ring the Manx Shearwaters. Luckily enough the mist rolled in early last night and the team managed to ring 27 new birds along with a number of Retraps.


In other birding news, a healthy array of Juvenilles have been spotted as well as other species including 2 Common Sandpiper passing through, 13 Gannet off shore, 3 Lapwing flying overhead and 3 recently hatched Blackcap chicks. Also sighted were 2 Sedge Warblers with 2 juveniles in tow.

The first of the Meadow Browns have arrived approximately 2 weeks earlier than previous years.

Common Blue in the Nant Valley

Painted Lady by Solfach 

A handsome Garden Tiger caught in the Moth trap this morning

Moss the neighbourhood pup on top of the Mountain.

written by George Beadle

The weather was hot and humid today with thick cloud cover and a fog that set in from mid afternoon and hug around all night, keeping visibility at less than 100m.

Burrow check were done for a sample of Manx Shearwater burrows, the first eggs this year were earlier than last year and so unsurprisingly the chicks appeared to have hatched earlier too. Today three chick were found out of 19 burrows that were checked, along with two eggs that were in the process of hatching! 

Just about as vulnerable and fluffy as you can get, all going well this little chick will grow into a bird that will fly hundreds of thousands of miles in its long life.

Two Buzzards were soaring over the mountain and were heard 'mewing' on and off all day.  Also of note were families of Choughs that were seen on West Coast and around Pen Cristin, each with three chicks begging for food from the two parents.A night time Manx Shearwater ringing session starting at 00:00 and finishing at 02:00 yielded 26 newly ringed birds, allowing one of our guest ringers, Dominic Ash to practice ringing these locally abundant birds.

Other Birds around include: two Redshanks, one Curlew, one Common Sandpiper, one Little Owl, 16 Stonechats and 12 Wheatears.

It was the second day of the CBC today, another Common Bird Census, which records singing birds throughout the breeding season. Today concentrated on West Coast and a number of juvenile Wheatears were present along with a couple of well grown Oystercatcher chicks, beside that singing Sedge Warblers were heard around Carreg and Ty Pellaf reed bed, along with the usual chorus of buzzing Wrens. The weather today was beautifully sunny, with an easterly wind gusting around 19mph in exposed areas of the island.

There were some different birds around today, notably three Lapwings that passed over the Narrows and three Common Sandpipers too, one at North End and two at South end together. Also around were three Grey Herons on Solfach, two of which appeared to be immature birds.

Grey Herons over Solfach

Saturday is changeover day, meaning that old guests leave and new ones arrive. It also means that the Observatory staff spend the morning thoroughly cleaning the accommodation to make sure the incoming guests will be happy with what they arrive to. 

The drawbacks do mean that getting out and about is not really possible until later in the day, but a walk up to Nant and around North End and down West Coast yielded a Grey Heron, five Whimbrel, one Curlew, 37 Swifts, six House Martins, ten Rock Pipits, one Blackcap, one Whitethroat, as well as juvenile Stonechats and Wheatears. 

A juvenile Wheatear, note the mottled back 

We said goodbye to Josie Hewitt today, she has been volunteering for the past two weeks and has been very helpful ringing seabirds and entering data too! No doubt she will be coming back to Bardsey at some point, but for the time being she is going slightly further afield.

Another day of seabird ringing and the Observatory staff are starting to smell like a seabird colony... Once again the weather was calm and sunny with a slight south westerly, perfect weather for visiting the Gwylans, a small pair of islands 15 minutes from Bardsey.

The target birds for the day were Herring Gulls, they are being darvic ringed to increase the amount of data generated. But as well as this, Puffin chicks were caught along with Guillemots and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Herring Gull chick with a darvic ring

Puffin chick

Guillemot chick

Great Black-backed Gull chick

Seabird ringing again today! The Observatory staff are making the most of this calm weather to get to the East Side and ring as many seabirds as possible while they are still young enough to catch. 

The team set off fairly late in the day at 15:00 and stumbled across an accessible Shag nest and so ringed them with darvic rings as well as metal rings, there were three birds in the brood but only two were large enough to ring. The north side of Bae Felon is where the vast majority of the ringing took place. 37 Guillemots were ringed in total, including six adults, mainly ringed by Josie, as she had the joyous job of crawling around between the boulders.

Hard to capture on camera but this is what is imaginatively named 'The Hole'. A deep, dark (and smelly) crevice amongst the boulders where Guillemots nest. 

A Ringed Plover was seen on the guided walk which is the first small wader in about a week now. A Buzzard was circling over the Lowlands in the morning, at the start of the season, there was some nesting activity going on with this species, but as the year has progressed we have been seeing less and less of them.

Gwylans today! Always fun and it really was a productive day. The team set off at 09:30 and began ringing Shag chicks straight away. As before, each Shag that gets a metal ring also gets a darvic, these mean that the birds can be identified as individuals in the field. As apposed to metal rings where the birds really need to be re-captured in order for the number to be recorded, meaning that darvic yield far more data.

Other birds targeted today were Great Black-backed Gull chicks. They hide in the long grass on the Gwylans so you simply have to slowly walk around the colony area and check for chicks. 30 were fitted with metal and darvic rings today and will soon be out and about slaying puffins and other seabirds. 

Josie, George and a Great Black-backed Gull chick

The inevitable consequences of being around seabirds! 

A well developed Razorbill chick 

Some of the team catching Shag chicks

The team departed the islands at 16:15 with their hands in tatters, but it will always be a pleasure to enter a seabird colony, especially one such as this on an uninhabited island.

Sunny skies and minimal wind today meant that ringing was a possibility in the morning. Josie went up to Nant to open up the nets and caught a few juvenile birds including Blackbirds, Chaffinches and Wrens. As well as those caught a cuckoo was once again seen flying in and around the Plantation, once again it appeared to be a male though.

In the afternoon, some of the team went over to the East Side in order to do nest counts and ring some Shag and Herring Gull chicks. 12 Shag chicks were ringed which is not bad going as many of the nests are inaccessible. The Herring Gulls tend to nest on the flatter rocks close to the sea and ringing the chicks is simply a matter of finding them hunkered down under a rock and putting a ring on their leg, often without picking them up.

Shag nest with young chicks

Adult Shag on East Side

Razorbill on East Side

It was Rhys's (the Trust warden) birthday today, and so the residents and volunteers on Bardsey all gathered for a party. It turned out to be a perfect evening to sit outside Ty Bach and watch the sun go down.

Calmer today, still a bit of cloud cover but when the sun did come out it really was warm! Some early walks up to the plantation yielded a Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Willow Warblers,  1 Blackcap, 2 Chiffchaffs and a juvenile Chaffinch.

Later in the morning, volunteers George and Josie began tidying up Cristin garden with the strimmer. Quite a necessary job, because as well as making the place look nice, it stops the staff getting soaking wet feet every morning as they walk through the long grass.

Plans have been made too, to visit the Gwylan Islands, hopefully on Wednesday to ring some more seabirds as well as count nests of various species such as Great Black-backed Gulls and Puffins which nest in burros on the slopes.

The Chough chicks have started to fledge now, in fact the first ones fledged over a week ago. Today the West Coast pair was seen with three juveniles down near Solfach, which is good news for the species as most of the pairs this year that have attempted to nest have produced three fledglings.

Welsh Choughs are very well monitored, many are colour ringed to allow individuals to be identified in the field

Yet another windy day with the south-westerlies sweeping across the island. However, still not much rain except for the early evening. 

The Observatory team got round to repairing the portable Heligoland trap this afternoon, which is going to be used to catch species that feed down on the beach, such as: Pied Wagtails, Rock Pipits and waders. The small poles needed replacing, along with the large poles at the entrance. It hasn't been used yet, but hopefully within the week it will have been taken for a test run...

The Heligoland trap in all its glory. Birds feed at the entrance and are funnelled through to the catching box at the end by a group of ringers

Birds around today include: three Whimbrels, one Peregrine, five Shelduck, one immature Grey Heron and one Collared Dove.

Changeover day, every Saturday new guests arrive which means that the Observatory staff and volunteers have to clean the lodge in time for their arrival. 

After the cleaning, a walk up to Nant yielded a couple of Spotted Flycatchers and a male Cuckoo around the plantation, the latter was being mobbed by Meadow Pipits. 

Also around were a few more juvenile Wheatears, Stonechats and Linnets. One wheatear nest appears to have moved onto its second brood and now has two pale blue eggs just about visible in between rocks on one of the walls.

Juvenile Stronechat

Today was the last day for BBFO volunteer Ed Betteridge, hopefully he will return to the island soon. His enthusiasm is going to be missed, along with his birding skills, finding a Golden Oriole on his first full day and a Greenish Warbler not long after. 

Today was the calmest day we have had for a while now and the rain held off until the evening. The forecast has been all over the place and far from accurate over the last few days (useless weather forecasters!) but this week has been far better than expected.

The nets were opened early and we were rewarded when a male Cuckoo was caught at the observatory, a seemingly late bird. The bird showed no signs of breeding so many on its trip home already or a non-breeder. Another highlight today was a Skylark seen heading south over the narrows, a surprisingly hard to see bird on the island this spring. Other birds included a couple of Redpoll, a Grey Heron and still lots of juveniles from Rock Pipits to Ravens.

The main events of the day was a group going around the east side of the mountain to ring more sea birds. The ringing was spread over a few Shag broods, lots of Guillimots and Razorbills, plus Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Today was the first day we targeted the adult Guillimots and the chicks too.

Male Cuckoo

Guillimot chick learning behaviour from its parent

Still windy today, and although it was a bit muddier than preferred, the assistant wardens went to check the call back rate of occupied Manx Shearwater burrows. This involves finding a burrow that is know to be occupied and playing a Manx Shearwater call into the burrow. By seeing what percentage of shearwaters respond to the call, it's possible to estimate the call back rate of apparently occupied burrows. 

At 16:00 the Observatory team headed to the North End gull colony to ring Herring Gull chicks, in total 80 chicks were ringed, along with a few Razorbills that were caught as nice bonuses. In total there were 156 Herring Gull nests in the North End colony, they prefer nesting on the flatter rocks near the sea, compared to Lesser Black-backed Gulls that nest on the grassy slopes.

Adult Herring Gull at North End

In the evening a Storm Petrel and Manxie ringing session took place, which meant a late night (or early morning) finish. Six Storm Petrels were caught, of which three were re-traps, and 25 Manx Shearwaters were ringed, with plenty of recoveries including a bird with an 'E' ring which would not have been ringed on Bardsey, where we use Fc rings.

Storm Petrel caught at Nant Valley

Once again the weather really stopped play today. A stiff breeze from the north and rain in the morning means that no ringing can take place which is where the focus is at this time of year as more and more juveniles are appearing especially in the sea bird colony.

The number of family parties around the island are increasing with large fluffy Oystercatcher chicks being seen following their parents and copying their every move, as well as small parties of Linnets, Pied Wagtails and Wheatears.

The guided walk still went ahead in less than ideal conditions but with a good group of people it didnt put anyone off. The moth Trap held very little but a Small Angle Shades and White Ermine are always crowd pleasers as well as the Small Elephant Hawk moth that we still had from the trap the day before. The highlights of the walk included good views of Choughs and young Linnets being fed by their parents as well as the Golden Hair Lichen and the famous Sharp Rush.

Chough flying past

Grey Heron

The weather turned on us today, no rain but strong wind meant that mist-netting was not an option. Instead, a brood of Swallow chicks was ringed at Ty Pellaf, compared to previous years there are considerably fewer nests this year, with only three being active. Many of the old Swallow nests have been modified by Wrens, with mossy roofs fitted over the top of the Swallow nest to fit the Wren's needs.

A recount of the South End apparently occupied Manx Shearwater burrows took place, it is one of least densely packed areas of the island but there are still hundreds of burrows to be counted.

The birds of the day have to be a male and female Cuckoo that were up at Nant, getting endlessly mobbed the resident Meadow Pipits. Also around were four Spotted Flycatchers and two juvenile Goldcrests. Juvenile birds of all species are being seen daily now, with plenty of Linnets, Stonechats, Magpies, Blackbirds, Dunnocks and Chaffinches being recorded. Hopefully, the next few day's weather won't prove too much for them to contend with, strong wind and heavy rain have been forecast, which is not the best introduction into the world!

Juvenile Stonechat caught at Cristin in recent days. Photo - Ed Betteridge

At 00:00 members of the Observatory crew headed out to catch and ring Manx Shearwaters at the north west end of Bardsey, the weather became fairly unpleasant (to say the least) at around 01:30. However, 41 birds were ringed and 25 re-traps were recorded, one of which was originally ringed in 1997.

The weather today was to be the best of the week to come, the sun was out and for most of the day with wind was down in the low teens from the north.

Due to the weather and the weather to come this week the opportunity was taken to go round the east side of the mountain to ring sea birds, namely Choughs, Shags and Razorbills. One brood of shags and Choughs were ringed but the Razorbills held the number with 114 birds ringed including some adults caught in the rocks. This involved climbing down to an area called seal cave where large boulders have formed lots of crevices, perfect for nesting Razorbills. The nests are normally fairly obvious with large amounts of  excrement in the area and the little chicks squealing away from the cracks, this, however, does not mean they are easy to get to! So, the vast majority of the day was spent sprawling ourselves across the rocks looking in every crack and crevice before reaching your hand in, often up to your shoulder, to either pull out a cute fluffy ball of a Razorbill chick or to get savagely mauled by the adults! All good fun...

In other news around the island, a Black-headed Gull spent the day again, Shelduck chicks were seen in Solfach which must be a new brood, and a Spotted Flycatcher was trapped and ringed at the observatory.

Adult Razorbill

A very young Razorbill

A not so young Razorbill

We got the nets open at Cristin today and although it was quiet (quite expected in June), a Robin and House Sparrow were amongst the birds caught. Robins severely dropped in numbers ever since the beast from the east, none are breeding this year so it seems, so any recorded here are birds that are moving around. House Sparrows are rare on Bardsey, the male that was caught today has been around for a couple of days and was simply caught by chance. 

Taken for granted on the mainland, however, male House Sparrows are
undeniably handsome birds

After ringing in the morning we went round to the East side to ring Chough chicks, they nest in fairly inaccessible places and so some scrambling is required to get to the nests!

Chough chick, juvenile Choughs have orange bills and legs, unlike
the adult's characteristic bright red bare parts! Photo - Ed Betteridge

Along with the Choughs, Razorbill Pulli were also ringed and some nest counts were done for Kittiwakes and Fulmars. 

Today the weather started a little miserable but cleared up and after the new guests had arrived it turned into a stunning evening.

Birds were thin on the ground but a Knot on the beach with a single Dunlin was only the second record of the year, this bird however was not in summer plumage so presumably a young bird. Other counts included now two Grey Herons, three Whitethroats, three Blackcaps, three Spotted Flycatchers and three Canada Geese.

Clouded-bordered Brindle in the moth trap

The weather today was dreadful, rain was on and off all day and the wind picked up to over 20mph by the evening so the main focus was to catch up on some paper work.

After the excitement of yesterday today was the polar opposite. The House Sparrow was still around the observatory garden and a notable new bird was a Lesser Whitethroat at nant which is the first for a while and a late record. Other than this juveniles seem to be more common and although numbers are down on recent years young Linnets, Carrion Crows and Wrens are being seen regularly now.

Rock Pipit in the Thrift

Yellow Rattle - This is a species that has had huge peaks and troughs on Bardsey due to the change in farming over the years. In 1956 it was considered common in pastures, then 30 years later it was considered very scarce and in 2000 none was found on the island, the decline had continued and extinction was possible. This year there is one prominent hay-meadow field that is full of this species along with Cuckoo Flowers, Meadow Buttercups and various grasses, how it should be!