Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday, 4 May 2020

Today was beautifully sunny throughout, although a gusty wind this morning meant that nets couldn't be opened until early evening.

Sam headed North up to the plantation and George went South. At the plantation, things were quieter than they had been in the past couple of days, and the same was found in Withies with only three Sedge Warblers being noted here, in comparison to the nine they held yesterday. The reedbed at Ty Pellaf still had four of these chaotic songsters present, though, so there hadn't been a complete clear-out of migrants (it may be that some of these birds are the island's breeding population).

Sedge Warbler singing away in Ty Pellaf Reedbed

However, over on the Narrows, wader numbers were up on what they have been. Ten Dunlins were recorded - the highest count this year so far - and with them were seven Turnstones. Two Ringed Plovers were feeding in Henllwyn and five Whimbrels were roosting out on the rocks. Grey Seals had their highest count of the year too, today, with a count of 227 from across the island.

three of the day's many Grey Seals

Early afternoon saw things get a bit more interesting at the Obs, there was a small arrival of Spotted Flycatchers - six were fly-catching from any available perches around the garden - with the day's sunny warm weather, they were spoilt for choice with flies! Steve was in the garden working and heard a scratchy Sylvia warbler singing in the garden, it sang again and he realised it was probably a Subalpine Warbler. With high pressure over the continent, and a light South-Easterly breeze, we had all been quietly hoping for one! Sam and George came out to try and find the bird, they heard it calling briefly from deep in some cover in the garden, but annoyingly the bird never showed and stopped calling after that. We all have our fingers crossed that it is still about tomorrow to get some views and confirm our suspicions...

Spotted Flycatcher at the Obs, all of the birds were in the Sycamore tree at one point in the garden.

The warm, sunny weather saw a reasonable amount of butterflies around the Obs in the afternoon too, five Large Whites, four Green-veined Whites, six Small Coppers, two Small Tortoiseshells and, the undoubted highlight had to be a male Orange-tip which was around the Obs only briefly, but long enough for Steve to see it, in 23 years as Warden, this is only the fourth one he has managed to see!

Orange tip records

a Green-veined White

The ideal weather for insects is also having a positive impact on the island's breeding birds and Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Meadow Pipits, Rock Pipits, Wrens and Wheatears amongst a few others have been food carrying so far.

male Blackbird in the Withies

Dunnock on the Obs track

Rock Pipit on the West Coast

While some birds already have chicks, some of which are probably well on their way to fledging, others are only just returning to hold their territory such as Swallows and Sedge Warblers.

Swallows are also back in good numbers with this male singing from a fence line near Ty Pellaf today

Other birds of note today were: one Grey Heron, one Peregrine, 118 Oystercatchers, two Curlews, one Little Owl, 12 Sand Martins, 55 Swallows, eight House Martins, one Robin, eight Stonechats, 19 Wheatears, one Whitethroat, five Blackcaps, 14 Chiffchaffs, seven Willow Warblers, two Goldcrests, two Great Tits and two Canada Geese.

Ringing today produced Sedge Warbler 1, Robin 1, Chiffchaff 3, Willow Warbler 4. Total 9 birds of 4 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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Monday, 4 May 2020

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