Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday, 18 April 2020

The weather today was much the same as yesterday, with even stronger gusts in the morning coming from the South-East. It also seemed cooler today, although the winds were coming from the same place as yesterday.

George and Sam headed out promptly this morning, Sam heading South and George heading North. The wind was strong across the North West Fields and the North End so George headed for the North Hide to see if there were many seabirds passing. Initially, it was quite quiet with just a smallish feeding flock of gulls and Gannets out to the North-West. A quick scan through them though saw a Black-headed Gull in with the group, these are uncommon on the island in Spring, with this being only the second record of this species so far this year. A second bird passed the hide closer in later on flying Southwards, allowing a few pictures to be taken as it went.

Black-headed Gull heading past the North Hide, both of today's birds were in Summer plumage.

Things over the sea got a bit busier with Auks passing the hide on their way back to the ledges on the East Side of the island, some Manx Shearwaters began passing too and 62 passed in just over an hour. The highlight of the seawatch came soon after, with an adult Great Northern Diver passing in full summer plumage, a really stunning bird; it was relatively close in too, so some nice views were had before it flew off to the North. A Sandwich Tern was seen flying North too, not long after the Great Northern Diver, both the diver and the tern were new birds for the year.

The passage didn't stop there, though. A group of 14 Whimbrels flew North quite far out, they then turned, circled the island for a few minutes, and eventually landed on the rocks just outside of the hide. They began feeding actively straight away, presumably these birds had been on the move for some time and needed to feed up before they could go on any further. As the birds were calling to each other while they fed, other Whimbrels passing the island seemed to be attracted and came in to join this group on the rocks - 22 were counted in total.

Whimbrels were present in good numbers today with 27 noted

Migrants were relatively thin on the ground in comparison to recent days, though birds seemed to appear once a rain shower had passed through in the afternoon, as they did yesterday. 30 Blackcaps and 25 Willow Warblers had dropped into the Obs garden and were fly-catching in all sheltered areas. The rain had also brought down a couple of large Goldfinch flocks and 90 were in the garden, too. Yesterday's Pied Flycatcher had moved to Ty Bach where it was re-found by the Island Trust Wardens, Mari and Emyr.

the Pied Flycatcher was feeding well at Ty Bach, finding all sorts of things in the

walls, including some huge spiders!

Nets were opened once it got a little calmer and the rain had stopped, a good number of Goldfinches were ringed, taking us to 100 exactly so far this year and a few Blackcaps too, taking the total ringed past 200 for the year.

another Bardsey sunset, they'll just never get old...

Other sightings of note today included: 35 Gannets, two Grey Herons, one Buzzard, 83 Oystercatchers, two Snipe, two Curlews, 30 Kittiwakes, 94 Razorbills, 18 Puffins, one Collared Dove, 12 Swallows, two Robins, 44 Wheatears, 55 Blackcaps, 5 Chiffchaffs, 42 Willow Warblers, one Pied Flycatcher, eight Choughs and 114 Goldfinches.

Ringing today produced: Goldfinch 32, Blackcap 9, Chiffchaff 1. Total 42 birds of 3 species.

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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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Saturday, 18 April 2020

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