Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 29 September 2019

Bardsey has experienced several days of strong south-westerly winds which had just about swung round to north-westerlies yesterday.

Account of the Buff-bellied Pipit:
Just after lunch, Lewis Hooper and I decided to go birding together for no apparent reason. Credit to Lewis actually, because this late into a season of living on a small island, most people will do all they can to avoid any contact with me. Much less go on a walk of all things! Never-the-less, I would be glad of this decision in the coming hours.

We walked up to Nant and checked the Plantation, quietly hoping a Barred Warbler or some such thing would hop out. However, it was blowing a gale and after twenty or thirty minutes we came to the startling conclusion that there wasn't much there, so we headed down to the coast. We walked along North End. Lewis was sticking a bit closer inland than me, we did see a Golden Plover which is a decent bird for the island, so we were fairly happy with that small something. Lewis then got onto some Kittiwakes on West Coast that were circling erratically 100m or so out to sea, but one of them was just a bit further away and acting a bit more erratically than the others, almost looking like a Sabine's Gull. It was frustrating, the wind made it hard to stay fixed on the bird and the light kept catching its back in a way that made it look distinctly dark... It then flew upwards, turned its back towards us, perfectly displaying just how much of a Kittiwake it was. Perfect...

After that disappointment (not to knock Kittiwakes too much), Lewis said he would go a bit more inland again. He disappeared, and I pottered along the coast. I took a look inside each geo as I came to it, the first had nothing, the second, though, had a pipit at the bottom right next to the sea.
Even from 30 metres away, without bins it was different looking. The borders to the tertials and greater coverts were so much paler than the Rock Pipit I was expecting to see. I was looking at this bird for thirty seconds and by the time it hopped out of sight I had successfully forgotten what on earth a Rock Pipit/Water Pipit/Meadow Pipit/every kind of Pipit looked like, and I was just about losing my mind!
Lewis must have seen me scratching my head and crying into my binoculars from across the field because he had started to walk over to me. When he arrived I asked him what he thought of this pipit, he looked with his bare eyes and said "probs just a 'rockit', isn't it?" (paraphrasing slightly). I said "yeah, but it's weird...", he took a quick photo of it from across the geo and zoomed in, then he looked up at me, back to his camera screen, then back at me and exclaimed "mate, what is going on, your'e making me forget everything I know!". I was happy to hear this because now he was in my world! It flew back at us and he got a picture of its face, thank goodness! It was NOT a Rock Pipit and NOT a Water Pipit, no way on earth, I simply refused to believe it!
After a couple more minutes he asked; "are we both thinking the same thing? What are you thinking it is?", I said " a B...", he nodded along, and I finished "a B-b Pipit". He was happy to hear this and we spent about ten or fifteen minutes thinking of reasons why it wasn't a Buff-bellied Pipit. Lewis had the Collins app on his phone and everything was adding up! Dark legs that have a dark red tint when viewed closely, less streaked mantle and crown, pale lores, buff underparts etc... This was getting exciting!

I radioed Steve; "Steve Obs, Steve Obs, this is Sam", "Go ahead Sam", "hi, I'm down on the West Coast opposite Carreg with Lewis and we've got a really dodgy looking pipit, I don't want to get too excited but it looks pretty good for Buff-bellied..!". The next thing I heard was Steve radioing George (Dunbar) saying "George, grab my 'scope!!"

They arrived ten minutes later, Lewis showed Steve his photos, and he was pretty happy with them. We all saw the bird again, me, Lewis, Steve, George and Kevin (Clements). Steve then said the very satisfying words: "that's a first for Wales, Lewis". What Brilliant moment, the second 'rare moment' I've shared with Lewis, and although not as 'mega' or as good looking as that warbler in May, this felt much better than 'finding' the bird dangling in a net!

Sam Prettyman 2019

Photo: Steve Stansfield

Look how pale the pale parts are, especially the bright white T6!
Photo: Steve Stansfield

Photo: George Dunbar

This photo REALLY makes it look dodgy! The face looks very open and pale, as well as the mantle.
Photo: Lewis Hooper

Great full view.
Photo: Lewis Hooper

With that going on it was all too easy to overlook the other birds, which include: Wryneck, Long-tailed Skua, four Arctic Skuas, 20 Goldcrests, 40 Linnets, seven Stonechats, 65 Meadow Pipits, 56 Curlews, 24 Turnstones, four Redshanks, four Whimbrels, one Purple Sandpiper, two Sanderlings and three Golden Plovers.

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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 September 2019

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