Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday, 17 October 2026

Today’s weather conditions presented a gentle North-East wind blowing at Force 3, good visibility, and a smooth sea state of three as temperatures reached a mild 12°C.

Seabird movement and coastal counts were quiet featuring three Gannets, three Black-headed Gulls and eight Kittiwakes. Wader and waterfowl numbers included featured one Grey Plover, one Snipe, one Whimbrel, four Curlews, three Redshanks, 11 Turnstones, one Water Rail, and three Moorhens. Raptor diversity increased notably today with two Buzzards, two Peregrines, two Merlins, one Sparrowhawk, and one Kestrel all noted during the day.

Visual migration counts produced a noteable passage of corvids and finches with 450 Jackdaws, 17 Rooks, 23 Carrion Crows, seven Ravens, 28 Starlings, 48 Chaffinches, one Brambling, two Greenfinches, 11 Goldfinches, eight Siskins, four Linnets, and three Lesser Redpolls. nine Woodpigeons, 39 Skylarks, six Meadow Pipits, ten Rock Pipits, one Flava Wagtail, three Grey Wagtails, one Pied Wagtail, and two Alba Wagtails all noted.

Jackdaws spiralling down onto the Narrows (c) Steven Stansfield

Friday, 16 October 2026

The weather today presented a North-West wind blowing at Force 5, good visibility, and a sea state of 3, with very light showers setting in during the evening as temperatures reached 12°C.

Sunset from the South End (c) Ezra Sherwell

Marine mammal counts recorded 304 Grey Seal including 29 pups, and invertebrate observations produced one Convulvulous Hawk moth, one Rush Veneer, one Square-spot Rustic, one Turnip, one Swallow-tailed Moth, and one Angle Shades.

Swallow-tailed Moth (c) Steven Stansfield

Convulvulous Hawk moth (c) Steven Stansfield

Seabird movement past the island featured two Great Northern Divers, 44 Gannets, Arctic Skua, 62 Mediterranean Gulls, one Little Gull, 26 Black-headed Gulls, 22 Common Gulls, 352 Kittiwakes, three Guillemots, and 336 Razorbills and 16 Common Scoters. Shorebird counts produced five Whimbrels, 42 Curlews, five Redshanks, four Turnstones, three Snipes, and one Golden Plover. Raptors sightings included two Sparrowhawks, two Peregrines, one Buzzard, and one Merlin.

Passerine records from the day produced some visual migration overhead which included 59 Skylarks, five Swallows, 21 Meadow Pipits, 47 Rock Pipits, eight Pied Wagtails, three White Wagtails, and one Alba Wagtail, 17 Redwings, 16 Chaffinches, 19 Goldfinches, 11 Siskins, 20 Linnets, one Lesser Redpoll, two Reed Buntings and one Woodpigeon. Passerine numbers on the island stayed fairly steady with 21 Robins, six Stonechats, two Song Thrushes, two Blackcaps, eight Chiffchaffs, 11 Goldcrests, 24 Choughs and one Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Thursday, 15 October 2026

Today’s weather set in with moderate rain persisting all day, accompanied by a strong South-West wind shifting to North and dropping from Force 7 to 3. Visibility was poor, with a sea state of 4 and temperatures reaching a mild 15°C. Marine mammal and reptile observations recorded one Slow Worm noted at Plas. Grey seal monitoring around the island haul-outs tallied 45 at Solfach. Invertebrate records included one Painted Lady, one Silver Y, two Rush Veneers, one Rusty Dot Pearl and one Humming-bird Hawk-moth.

Sunset from Cristin overlooking the West Coast (c) Ezra Sherwell

Seabird and wader counts featured 90 Gannets, 18 Shags, four Black-headed Gulls, 12 Kittiwakes, 17 Razorbills, five Whimbrels, 16 Turnstones (including two ringed down on the South End), four Curlews, one Purple Sandpiper, one Snipe, and one Redshank. Remarkably, two late Manx Shearwater chicks were found down on the south end during nocturnal surveys, one calling from its burrow and another stargazing outside its burrow, the latter was subsequently ringed.

Passerine numbers were represented by 16 Meadow Pipits, 13 Rock Pipits, 32 Robins, 12 Blackbirds, four Redwings heard passing over the South End at night, two Blackcaps, one Yellow-browed Warbler, 11 Chiffchaffs, and 12 Goldcrests, one Chaffinch, five Goldfinches, 32 Siskins, and 14 Linnets.

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Today’s weather set in with a southerly wind blowing at Force 6, good visibility, and a choppy sea state of five as temperatures reached a mild 16°C. Marine mammal and reptile observations recorded one Slow Worm tracked by Plas. Grey seal monitoring around the island haul-outs tallied 47 at Henllwyn, 30 at Solfach, ten at Carreg yr Henwy, and three elsewhere, alongside seven pups.

Grey Seal pup (c) Steven Stansfield

Seabird movement and coastal counts featured one Great Northern Diver passing the north end, two Manx Shearwaters, 126 Gannets, 22 Common Scoters, one dark adult Arctic Skua, one Mediterranean Gull, 21 Black-headed Gulls, five Common Gulls, 156 Kittiwakes, four Guillemots, and 290 Razorbills, 16 Purple Sandpipers, five Whimbrels, 43 Curlews, six Redshanks, and ten Turnstones.

Passerine numbers across the island included one Woodpigeon, one Collared Dove, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, six Skylarks, 14 Meadow Pipits, 15 Rock Pipits, one Grey Wagtail, and five Pied Wagtails, 18 Robins, two Song Thrushes, two Redwings, one Blackcap, one Yellow-browed Warbler, one Chiffchaff, five Goldcrests, 11 Starlings, two Chaffinches, one Greenfinch, two Goldfinches, and 26 Linnets.

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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.