Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday 30 March 2020

Another chilly day! It makes such a difference when the wind switches round to the North, last week was t-shirt weather, now we're all in multiple jumpers! Although it was biting, it was a slighter breeze than yesterday, gusting at a fairly modest 21mph.

View of Bardsey from behind Ty Pellaf

A walk up to Nant produced more bizarre Bardsey birds in the form of two Great Tits, five Coal Tits and one Blue Tit. This influx of tits is really rather odd, to give a little bit of context, the last high count in spring for Coal Tits in single a day was eight back in 2009, this year we have had 17! As well as these, a Willow Warbler was a nice migrant to see along with a couple of Chiffchaffs, one Jackdaw and two Black Redstarts. The ringed Black Redstart from several days ago is still hanging around Cristin, often perching around the vegetable patches in front of the obs, much like a Robin would.

Chaffinches are in full song at the moment, calling from the Plantation as well as the garden at Cristin. In fact, there is one that's acting as a rather effective alarm clock for the assistant wardens at the moment, blasting its voice through the top floor of the obs at 06:30 every morning. Hopefully, this means we'll get some breeding pairs this year?!

Male Chaffinch in song in the Plantation

As well as the tit influx, another species (perhaps a less welcome one?) that you wouldn't normally associate with a place like Bardsey is Canada Goose. Last year a couple of pairs were often seen in the small pools around the island, as well as at the North End gull colony. A dead gosling was even found on the Gwylans. This year seems to be much the same, two pairs have been seen regularly since we arrived and they could potentially settle down to breed.

Seafaring Canada Geese at the North End

In the early afternoon, the island residents teamed up to help Gareth (the Bardsey farmer) round his sheep up from the mountain where they have been for the winter, and get them down into the fields. It's quite a fun job, but can be frustrating if the sheep get confused and double back on you. Luckily that didn't happen today and it went about as smoothly as anyone could have planned.

Rounding the sheep up from the mountain, most were round on the East Side,

as you can see (or not see) from this photo

All day there have been a decent number of finches in the garden, especially given the northerly winds we've been experiencing for the last few days, these include 12 Goldfinches, 15 Chaffinches and two Siskins. George couldn't resist unfurling a couple of the more sheltered nets and seeing what could be caught. During the two-hour impromptu session in the late afternoon, two Goldfinches were caught and ringed, not much, but at least it's something!

To cap off a quiet-ish day was another gorgeous sunset, and so of course, here is another obligatory Bardsey sunset photo for you all.

Other sightings today include: one Gannet, 56 Oystercatchers, two Redshanks, one Stock Dove, one Collared Dove, 48 Meadow Pipits, four Black Redstarts, 14 Stonechats, two Willow Warblers, nine Chiffchaffs, 16 Goldcrests and one Raven.

Ringing totals today: Goldfinch 2

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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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Monday 30 March 2020

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