Tuesday 4 October 2022

Today was a truly miserable day on Bardsey with strong south-westerly winds and heavy rain. This meant birds were rather thin on the ground with little recorded bar a couple of Goldcrests. As a result, much of the day was spent catching up on data entry. 

Due to the lack of sightings this is a good opportunity to update you on how our Grey Seal pups are doing! We currently have 42 of the cute fluff balls dotted mainly around the South End, Narrows and West Coast. Our earliest pups are currently undergoing moult with some now no longer relying on mum. At the same time, we are still seeing new pups being born daily. Part of the job on the observatory is to count and monitor these pups as well as photograph their mothers to try to establish if the same female seals are returning to same area each year (site fidelity).

Grey Seal pup © Ed Betteridge

An older Grey Seal Pup © Ed Betteridge

Along with seals, we have also been actively monitoring the moth life on the Island using light traps. Recent migrant highlights have been a good count of 21 Rush Veneer plus a Dark Sword Grass and a Silver Y. Apart from migrants' recent additions to the year have been the 3rd Island record of Large Ranunculus (after two last year), Red-lined Quaker, Large Wainscot and Red-green Carpet

Large Ranunculus © Ed Betteridge

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