Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday 2 October 2021

Today started out with a brief respite from the rain with ominous skies, which then developed to a consistent downpour for most of the morning and early afternoon. Seal pups are still being born with a few new ones spotted mostly along the west coast with 45 pups born this season at last count. There is notably plenty of amorous behaviour from the adults as the breeding season gets well under way too. Despite the stormy weather, pups are doing well and the mothers are generally doing a great job of keeping them safe and teaching them how to swim which has been a joy to watch over the past few weeks.

Seal mother and pup

As Saturdays are normally our changeover day here on the Island, there was much speculation from guests and staff alike at the observatory whether there would be a boat leaving today or not, thankfully the wind managed to drop enough to get all of the guests from the guest houses and the observatory hostel safely back to the mainland this afternoon. Emma, Steve, Stuart, Megan along with Ed our new volunteer for the next few weeks got to work on cleaning and preparing for our new guests in the afternoon whilst it was still very wet and grey outside.

As the afternoon wore on there was nothing of great note on the bird front happening with Steve and Ed starting to do a seawatch from the Obs, Ed finding a rather nice Long-tailed Skua, along with a couple of Arctics and a Bonxie.

Ed decided to go for a quick 'mooch' around the garden whilst Stuart was working on the reports from this year in the office when a rather frantic announcement from Ed blasted through on the radio; "Red-eyed Vireo! Top of the garden!". Much rushing around ensued and a fumble with a memory card and a camera and he managed to get a few snaps whilst the rest of the observatory staff ran around trying to find bins and other such paraphernalia.

Red-eyed Vireo - Ed Betteridge

The next step was unfurling the nets in the hopes of catching our friend from across the Atlantic... Then success! Steve caught it in the nets in observatory garden.

Red-eyed Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo and it's red eye

This is the third record for Bardsey (and the eight for Wales); the first Bardsey record being on 15 October 1985 in Cristin Withy. The next record was one fatally attracted to the Lighthouse on 19 September 1998.

There have been a further five records in Wales: Skokholm 1967, Aberdaron 1975, Pembrokeshire 1995, Anglesey 2001 and Skokholm in 2019.

A great end to a rather melancholy day, along with a beautiful sunset and some of the clearest views of the mountains of Wicklow this evening.

Views of Ireland from Bardsey this evening

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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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Saturday 2 October 2021

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