Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday, 10 October 2021

A moderate northerly wind was blowing at dawn and the planned netting session at Nant had to be abandoned. Cristin nets were opened.

Birds were on the move overhead early on and continued to do so for much of the day, with blue sky and broken cloud overhead.

Offshore 74 Gannets were seen, two Grey Herons were seen in various places. Five Wigeons flew past the South End and nine Teals were on Pwll Cian, with 23 Mallards off the west coast and 11 Common Scoter passed the island.

Two Sparrowhawks, three Buzzards, three Merlins and two Peregrines took advantage of the migration of small birds and were seen hunting on and off all day!

On the wader roost, 30 Oystercatchers were counted, 30 Purple Sandpipers played hide and seek amongst the rocks with the 42 Turnstones. and eight Redshanks. 71 Curlews were counted in Henllwyn.

A Great Skua and two other skuas that we're many miles offshore were seen from the South End harassing the many thousands of Gulls feeding there. At very conservative estimates included 580 Black-headed Gulls, three Common Gulls, 3500 Herring Gulls, 150 Greater Black-backs and 80 Lesser Black-backs. Only 100 Kittiwakes were seen however. Amongst the gulls were two Guillemots and 372 Razorbills.

Herring Gull

Common Gull

Five Woodpigeons were at Nant, the first for a few days and the ten Collared Doves remain at the farm. At least six Great-spotted Woodpeckers were seen around the island including two flying south high above the Narrows.

No trees in sight! Great-spotted Woodpecker on Plas roof

Overhead passage included 46 Skylarks and 15 Swallows, whilst Meadow and Rock Pipits numbered 67 and 57 respectively. Three Grey Wagtails were seen along with 15 Pieds and two late Whites.

Rock Pipit

Robins appeared to be ticking all over the island with a total of 21 being logged. A Whnichat was in the fields below the Observatory, and 15 Stonechats were counted. Five Song Thrushes was a n increase in their number. Two Whitethroats were seen along with four Blackcaps and 11 Chiffchaffs. Nant held the majority of the 44 Goldcrests that were seen along with a Firecrest. The Spotted Flycatcher was again seen at Ty Bach, but there was no sign of the Red-breast at he farm area. Four Great Tits were seen and there was a good passage of corvids overhead in the morning; a flock of 53 Choughs were counted, 58 Jackdaws flew south and then north (!), as did 31 Rooks, 52 Carrion Crows and a Hooded Crow; but still no sign of any Jays as the massive movement around the UK continues!

Rooks and Jackdaws

62 Starling were counted in the morning and 20 Chaffinches passed overhead along with the autumn's first Brambling. Four Siskins were seen, 120 Goldfinches and 15 Linnets.

A Large Ranunculus from the moth trap appears to be a new species to the island's list. Two new moth traps are being used at the moment, a 9 Watt UV LED in a Robinson trap, and a compact 20 Watt Actinic bulb in a Robinson Trap, both seem to be catching well.

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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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Sunday, 10 October 2021

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