Job Opportunity:

We are recruiting -

Bardsey Lodge & Bird Observatory Assistant

Bardsey from the south

Location: Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli), North Wales
Duration: Seasonal position (March–October)

Working on Bardsey is a fantastic opportunity to experience island life, gain valuable conservation experience, meet people from all walks of life, and enjoy some of the UK’s most spectacular wildlife.

We are looking to appoint two Assistants to join the Bardsey Bird Observatory team for the 2026 season. Successful applicants will play a key role in the day-to-day running of the Observatory and contribute to important long-term monitoring projects.

Main Responsibilities

· Carry out daily migration census and breeding bird surveys.

· Organise and undertake year two of the four-year Manx Shearwater census on the steep east side of the island, including assisting with recruiting and coordinating volunteers.

· Monitor breeding landbirds and seabirds

· Run the moth trap, collate data, and engage visitors in educational sessions.

· Lead guided wildlife walks, including our popular 'Meet the Manxies' walks.

· Produce daily posts and update the Bardsey's Wildlife blog, and write sections for the annual report.

· Assist with ringing operations.

· Maintain observatory grounds and facilities, including cleaning, painting, and general upkeep.

· Carry out maintenance tasks (e.g., net rides, Heligoland trap repairs, hide building, servicing compost toilets).

· Undertake evening bird logs and visitor introduction talks.

· Enter ringing data into the DemOn database and submit rare bird records to relevant panels.

· Help with community tasks when required.

Additional Duties & Expectations

· General maintenance in a harsh environment (unblocking drains, servicing generators, decorating etc).

· Heavy lifting (changing 19kg gas bottles, carrying 25-litre fuel containers).

· Garden maintenance (mowing, strimming and providing grass for compost toilets).

· Shared cooking facilities with guests – maintaining cleanliness and courtesy is essential.

· Weekly Lodge cleaning on changeover days (floors, rooms, toilets, library, laundry etc).

· Occasional ad-hoc tasks and larger projects as directed by the Director of Operations.

Essential Skills & Requirements

· Excellent bird identification skills by sight and sound, including rare and scarce species.

· Proven experience in a range of census techniques and ability to find rare birds.

· Physically fit and confident working on steep slopes; climbing experience preferred.

· Practical skills for habitat management and general maintenance.

· Brush cutter certificate required; ATV certificate and First Aid certificate desirable.

· Strong people skills – able to engage with visitors, lead walks, and work collaboratively with volunteers.

· Self-motivated, reliable, and able to work independently.

· Cleaning experience preferred for maintaining the Lodge.

· Experience at a Bird Observatory and/or seabird monitoring advantageous.

· BTO ringing permit desirable.

Accommodation & Salary

Sleeping accommodation provided in a basic annex at the south end of the island (¾ mile from the Lodge) or a small room near the Observatory, both with full access to Lodge facilities.

Paid for 30 hours per week at UK minimum wage, with accommodation offset applied.

Weekly gross pay : £304

Equivalent to £19,848.40 pro rata (including accommodation offset - currently £4040.40)

Boat fares and luggage transport to and from the island at the start and end of the season and for one holiday period will be covered.

Statutory leave entitlement included .

Contract Dates

Start: Around 20 March 2026 (TBC)

End: Around 6 November 2026 - Final week paid for work on mainland

Application Process

Please complete the application form and email it along with your CV to:

Steve Stansfield (warden@bbfo.org.uk)

Closing date for applications: Noon on 10 December 2025

Online-interviews on Teams will take place in December and then if successful, in-person interviews will be held in North Norfolk at a later date.

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll - April 2025

Cretzschmar's Bunting on Bardsey in 2015

One of three (!!) Black-and-white warblers in 2023

No comments:

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

Pages