Bardsey's Wildlife

Thursday 16 July 2020

Last night George headed out again to try and ring a few more Manxies, it was another busy night with most walls being covered all across the island. He processed 110 birds of which 48 were new and one was re-ringed which was originally ringed back on 23rd July 1996 and hadn't been seen since until tonight! Birds like this amaze me, and give you an idea of just how many there actually must be on the island...

a busy wall in Nant Valley

Today's weather was very pleasant, sunny at times with only partial cloud otherwise.

Mark was up and out early, having swerved Manxie ringing last night, and it would appear that autumn is now here, as 23 Willow Warblers were dotted through the Withies with a few more up at Nant too, as well as a Spotted Flycatcher. He opened a net down in the Withies while he was going through his moth trap too, (totals at the end of the post for both the moth trap and ringing!)

Later in the morning, the first proper day trippers arrived on the island, before leaving at around 3pm. Later on, Josie and George headed out to check some of the Manxie Growth Monitoring burrows, it has been a week since the last checks so it was time for the next ones! Some chicks have been doing some serious growing, with the largest increase over the week period being just over 170g!!

around three days old...

around three weeks old...

they really are just the best!!

Whilst checking some of the North West Fields burrows, there was a little heart-in-mouth moment for Josie and George when a small skulky warbler was flushed from some long grasses after they had crossed over a wall. It proceeded to run along a stone wall, tail in the air, and jumped in and out of various Manxie holes as it went, eventually, after around fifteen minutes of trying to re-find it, better views were had, and it turned out to be the first Grasshopper Warbler of the autumn - it had us going for a minute there..!

Again, back in the garden, Mark opened a couple of nets while he worked on there solar panels, as there were still some Willow Warblers moving through here, too. Later in the evening, we had a Barbecue to properly welcome Mark and Josie now that they have finished their isolation.

Other birds seen today were: five Common Scoters, four Black-headed Gulls, two Sandwich Terns, one Cuckoo, three Sand Martins, seven Sedge Warblers, two Blackcaps, two Chiffchaffs, 41 Willow Warblers, seven Great Tits and eight Linnets.

Ringing totals today were: 1 Blackbird, 1 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Great Tits, 48 Manx Shearwaters, 17 Willow Warblers: Total 70 birds of 6 species.

Moth Totals from the Withies trap: 4 Drinker, 4 Chrysoteuchia culmella, 13 Garden Tiger, 71 Dark Arches, 22 Large Yellow Underwing, 105 Crescent Dart, 5 Clay, 7 True Lover's Knot, 3 Ingrailed Clay, 5 Smoky Wainscot, 2 Rosy Rustic, 2 White Ermine, 6 Bright-line Brown-eye, 3 Buff Arches, 12 Common Rustic, 19 Uncertain/Rustic, 4 Yellow-tail, 5 Scarce Footman, 1 Scalloped Oak, 6 Lackey, 1 Triple-spotted Clay, 6 Flame Shoulder, 2 July Highflyer, 4 Heart and Dart, 13 Early Thorn, 1 Notocelia uddmanniana, 3 Buff Ermine, 1 Dark Sword Grass, 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 1 Map-winged Swift, 2 Cnephasia sp. Total: 334 moths of 31 species.

Moth Totals from Obs Garden trap: 1 Mother of Pearl, 5 Scalloped Oak, 13 Scarce Footman, 3 Blastobasis Adustella, 7 Uncertain/Rustic, 22 Dark Arches, 96 Crescent Dart, 9 Large Yellow Underwings, 12 True Lover's Knot, 1 Broom Moth, 8 Garden Tiger, 3 Triple-spotted Clay, 3 Smoky Wainscot, 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing, 4 Clay, 1 Buff Arches, 2 Common Rustic, 3 Rustic, 6 Lackey, 6 Ingrailed Clay, 3 Heart and Dart, 1 Pandemis heparana, Clepsis consimilana, 2 White ermine, 2 Agonopterix heracliana, 1 Drinker, 1 Grass emerald, 1 Bright-line Brown-eye, 1 Marbled beauty, 1 Chrysoteuchia culmella, 2 Riband wave, 1 Buff ermine, 1 Yellow-tail. Total 221 moths of 33 species.

Garden Tiger

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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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Thursday 16 July 2020

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