Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday, 15 June 2020

Weird weather hung around the island today, a thick fog suddenly covered everything at about 06:15 and kept the visibility at about 40m until about 11:00, but didn't properly lift until the late afternoon!

George and Sam headed off in the morning, as usual. George headed north to Nant and down through the North West Fields, down the West Coast and to the Narrows, Before heading back up to the Obs via the Withies. Five Spotted Flycatchers in the Plantation were a nice bit of variety. Other than that, Whitethroats are food carrying above Nant Withy and a Willow Warbler was constantly singing in the Plantation along with a Blackcap and Chaffinch.

Spotted Flycatcher in the Plantation this morning

George saw a new pair of food carrying Willow Warblers in the Wetlands today, so it now appears as though there are two pairs of breeding in the Withies/Wetland area. Added with the three pairs Whitethroats and Blackcaps, this has been a good season for scarce Bardsey breeders, not to mention the three pairs of Great Tits.

Besides the scarcer breeders, our ubiquitous Wrens are feeding chicks all over the island

Sam headed to the South End via Pen Cristin, largely recording the usual breeding birds, a few juvenile Wheatears are now independent and flying around the narrows, there have been about 35 pairs across the whole island this year, making it a better season than 2019 for this uncommon breeder. A Redshank was flushed from Solfach, which was the first one since 29 April, making this the first returning bird. Just like that, the breeding season is coming to a close for some species and autumn is on the way...

Juvenile Wheatear, very mottled with rusty fringes to the flight feathers

A Golden Plover was seen on the southern tip of the South End, once again. It flew north and briefly landed on the narrows, where it stayed for a brief period before flying north into the fog. The third notable wader of the day was a Lapwing on the west coast which hung around for longer than the Golden Plover and was on the West Coast until at least 12:00.

Lapwing flying over the Narrows in the gloom this morning

The rest of the day was spent doing the Manx Shearwater burrow census, progress is nice and steady at the moment, and with the weather looking favourable, we should be able to do at least a few hundred burrows a day and be done in plenty of time. Once it's done, normality will resume for Sam and George...

Not the best of days for Butterflies, but a Painted Lady was seen at Cristin, just the one though, so we're still waiting for an arrival. Red Admirals were seen in small numbers today, too.

Red Admiral on a sprig of gorse

Moths this morning: Foxglove Pug 57, Green Pug 1, Marbled Minor 2, Heart and Dart 28, Bright-line Brown-eye 6, Middle Barred Minor 1, Dark Arches 10, Lackey 6, Grass Emerald 1, Light-brown Apple Moth 2, Riband Wave 4, Galium Carpet 2, Eudonia Pallida 1, Brown Rustic 4, Grey Pine Carpet 1, Large Yellow Underwing 7, White Ermine 7, Eudonia lacustrata 1, Shears 2, Mottled Beauty 6, Flame Shoulder 4, True Lovers Knot 1, Purple Bar 1, Clouded Bordered Brindle 1, Crampus perlella 1, Pempelia palumbella 1, Chrysoteuchia culmella 1

159 moths of 27 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, 15 June 2020

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