Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday 23 August 2021

Well what a cracking day!

Early morning netting at the Obs for Steve and Louis produced a Pied Flycatcher and a couple of Willow Warblers, a Meadow Pipit and ten House Martins. Nant was less productive unfortunately, but a few birds were seen there, just keeping away from the nets! Between net rounds Louis found a Little Egret flying along the west side of the island towards Solfach, but it U turned and headed north chased by gulls. Shortly after an Arctic Skua flew south and five Risso's Dolphins were seen (a total of 12 were seen during the day).

After a few net rounds, Steve left Stuart and Louis ringing at Cristin and headed towards Tŷ Pellaf and Pen Cristin with Dianne. As they approached the garden at the farm, a few Willow Warblers flicked around in the bushes, then a chunkier warbler with bluish legs, chunky bill na yellow below. Steve recognised all these features and immediately said to Dianne, 'look that's a Melodious Warbler'. The bird showed very well in the willows and fennel and remained in the garden for the rest of the day, but did become much more elusive.

Melodious Warbler - something of a Bardsey speciality

There were a good number of Common Blue butterflies on the wing nearby, with over 50 logged by the end of the day and 23 Small Tortoiseshells.

Common Blue

Small Tortoiseshell

Wandering on down towards the Narrows, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of Autumn Lady's Tresses in the fields. The lovely little orchid that brows no more then 2-3 inches here on Bardsey (10-12.5 cm).

Shortly afterwards there was a moment of raptors; two Sparrowhawks, four Kestrels and three Buzzards were seen, and then Stuart found an Osprey heading south in the early afternoon.

Kestrel

Buzzard

The Narrows and South End were next to be covered as Stuart did his weekly guided Walk and Louis and Steve Hughes continued trapping House Martins. The gorse was fairly quiet, but as the fog rolled in Steve found his second Melodious Warbler of the day in the Lighthouse Garden!

Heading back across the Narrows there had been an arrival of White Wagtails, with 13 seven on Henllwyn. Steve picked out a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull from the large number of herring Gulls seen today, with over 750 counted. A Knot and a Dunlin flew across from Henllwyn, and eight Ringed Plovers and 50 Turnstones were were on Solfach and the Narrows.

Turnstone

Ringed Plover

Nant and the Withies held a good scattering of Flycatchers, with five Spotted Flycatchers and Three Pied Flycatchers seen during the day. Two Redstarts were also seen at Nant/Lowlands.

Spotted Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

Birds today:

Little Egret 1, Arctic Skua 1, Sparrowhawk 2, Kestrel 4, Osprey 1, Buzzard 4

Ringed Plover 12, Knot 1, Yellow-legged Gull 1, Herring Gull 765, Swift 1, Tree Pipit 2, House Martin 85, White Wagtail 12, Stonechat 32, Wheatear 26, Redstart 2, Robin 20, Melodious Warbler 2, Whitethroat 4, Chiffchaff 1, Willow Warbler 17, Pied Flycatcher 4, Spotted Flycatcher 5, Linnet 117

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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 23 August 2021

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