Bardsey's Wildlife

Friday, 8 May 2020

Today was remarkably calm, with a breeze only beginning to pick up in the early evening. Thick mist shrouded the Lowlands and the Mountain first thing, but this quickly burnt off and made way for yet another clear and sunny day on the island.

Sam was up first thing to open the nets at the Obs, and the calm morning provided ideal conditions for this. There were more warblers around than there have been recently, and after yesterday's Garden Warbler, there was another today singing away at the Obs throughout the morning. Four Spotted Flycatchers were also dotted around the garden and a mixture of Phylloscopus warblers made for an interesting morning at the Observatory. The first fledglings of the year at Cristin had also appeared, with a juvenile Dunnock and Blackbird both being caught during the morning.

more Common Blues emerged today and this individual was one of three at Cristin today

George headed off to the Wetlands first and there were a few more Sedge Warblers than usual, there were nine singing throughout the Withies and the Wetlands with a further four in Ty Pellaf Reedbed. The Meadow Pipit nest we found a week or so ago now has hatched young and they are in pin, it's amazing how quickly these birds can grow at this age! A few 'Greenland' Wheatears were in the Wetlands too, these have been absent for the past week or so, so it's nice to see a few on the move again.

female 'Greenland' Wheatear on the narrows

The Narrows held a good variety of waders today, best of the bunch was probably three Sanderlings on Solfach which were the first of the year. There were also 11 Dunlin and four Turnstone there amongst the high tide roost of 85 Oystercatchers and two Whimbrels, a few less waders than recently, but still a good selection to be had. Over on Henllwyn, there were a couple more Whimbrels and another 11 Turnstones, a total of 20 were counted today which is the highest for some time. Elsewhere, 25 Purple Sandpipers were sheltering from the breaking waves at high-tide with a few Turnstones and a Whimbrel for company.

the three Sanderlings on Solfach

spot the sandpiper! 10 of the 25 Purple Sandpipers from today.

Turnstone, stopping on Bardsey's shores back on their journey to Iceland, Greenland or Canada.

Other birds of note today included: one Grey Heron, 122 Oystercatchers, one Common Sandpiper, three Collared Doves, one Little Owl, six Sand Martins, 26 Swallows, six House Martins, one flava Wagtail, one Robin, seven Wheatears, 16 Sedge Warblers, five Whitethroats, two Garden Warblers, 30 Blackcaps, 11 Chiffchaffs, 11 Willow Warblers, three Goldcrests, five Spotted Flycatchers, two Great Tits, one Greylag Goose and two Canada Geese.

Ringing produced: Blackcap 15, Whitethroat 3, Sedge Warbler 3, Chiffchaff 9, Willow Warbler 6, Goldcrest 1, Spotted Flycatcher 1, Dunnock 1. Total 39 birds of 8 species.

No comments:

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

Pages

Friday, 8 May 2020

No comments:

Post a Comment

Pages