Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday 5 May 2024

Calm south-easterly winds didn't produce as much as hoped but still a few birds around. The South End was suprisingly busy with a Tree Pipit, a Lesser Whitethroat, two Common Whitethroats, 14 Chiffchaffs and six Willow Warblers in the gorse. A Flava Wagtail went over with another Tree Pipit over Cristin. A male Chaffinch was at the North End with a Garden Warbler in the garden at Cristin. Waders included 11 Purple Sandpipers, eight Ringed Plovers, three Turnstones and 24 Whimbrels. A passage of hirudines saw 40 Swallows, 13 Sand Martins and six House Martins logged. Ringing at Cristin was highlighted by a Reed Warbler, a Sedge Warbler and three Lesser Redpolls, with five Sedge Warblers caught in the Withies.

Reed Warbler © Ed Betteridge

Other birds included a Grey Heron, a Buzzard, a Merlin, a Kestrel, two Collared Doves, three White Wagtails, 25 Wheatears, 11 Sedge Warblers, seven Whitethroats, eight Blackcaps, 19 Chiffchaffs, ten Willow Warblers, two Rooks, four Siskins, 16 Lesser Redpolls and two Goldfinches.

Razorbill © Ed Betteridge

In the early afternoon Gareth took staff and some guests around the Island to monitor the seabirds and get the first counts of seabirds on the cliffs.

Also seen whilst out on the boat was a rather strikingly pale 1st-year Shag on Carrag y Honwy with 31 other Shags. The bird was noticeably paler than the other 1st year birds present and seemed to show some characteristics of the Mediterranean subspecies Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii. The bird showed many pro features including having a very pale underparts but seemed to lack dark thighs, though the bird was puffed up so could be hidden under body feathers. The upperparts are worn but have a pale look to them but perhaps not pale enough though there is great variation. The bill seems to be very good for desmarestii with yellow base extending across the lower mandible which seems very bright and contrasting with the dark upper mandible and culmen. Leg colour is variable in both races and photos didn’t show the feet too well however, they seemed pale especially compared to nearby shags. For any confirmed identification biometrics would be needed, really alongside DNA and/or a ring. Though hard to say from photos the bill does seem to be longer and thinner then the adult next to it; but again this varies between birds especially males and females. This follows a similar looking bird in September 2009, with a Bardsey ringed bird making it to northern Spain so its not impossible to think that Mediternean breeding Shags could make it here.

Pale Shag © Ed Betteridge

Showing the feet © Ed Betteridge

Compared to an adult, showing the bill structure and shape © Ed Betteridge

Pale looking Shag from 2009 © Steve Stansfield

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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 5 May 2024

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