Bardsey's Wildlife

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

Southwesterly force 4 winds veered northerly, bringing excellent visibility, calm Sea State 2 conditions, dry weather, and a maximum temperature of 15°C.

Seawatching off the West Coast and North End recorded a notable movement of 153 Common Scoters and 146 Kittiwakes. Additional passing seabirds included 50 Gannets, 76 Razorbills, 21 Manx Shearwaters, two Arctic Skuas off the North End, two Guillemots and four pale-bellied Brent Geese moving down the West Coast.

Wader numbers were on the rise again with 13 Ringed Plovers and 15 Turnstones at Solfach, alongside, eight Curlews, three Snipe, two Redshanks, a Golden Plover over the South End, and a Dunlin. Raptor sightings featured an adult male Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel around the Mountain and Nant.

Snipe out on Henllwyn (c) Ezra Sherwell

Passerine migration and grounded migrants brought a fantastic selection of autumn songbirds, highlighted by a Firecrest at the Observatory. Additional warblers and migrants logged across the island included 18 Chiffchaffs, 10 Goldcrests, six Blackcaps, a Willow Warbler, 36 Robins, a Song Thrush, two Wheatears, five Skylarks, six Swallows, 45 Meadow Pipits, 18 Rock Pipits, 29 Linnets, four Goldfinches, three unassigned alba wagtails, and a White Wagtail.

Butterflies and day-flying insects took advantage of the calm, clear conditions, featuring 10 Painted Ladies, four Red Admirals, a Clouded Yellow an Emperor Dragonfly at the Narrows, a Humming-bird Hawk-moth and an Angle Shades.

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Very dense mist covered the island this morning, but this lifted to provide excellent visibility by the end of the day. The sea was calm at sea state 1, with force 3 southerly winds, and a high of 17°C.

There was good passage of both seabirds and landbirds today, the highlights on the sea being a Red-throated Diver heading south along the west coast, along with one Arctic Skua, two Great Skua, and 194 Common Scoter. Plenty of gulls passed, with total counts of four Mediterranean Gull from the north end, one Common Gull, 54 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 14 Greater Black-backed Gull, and 282 Kittiwake. Other seabirds included four Sandwich Tern, two Manx Shearwater, 10 Gannet, one Guillemot, and 47 Razorbill.

Plenty of landbirds were also seen, with a notable count of 36 Skylark, 95 Swallow, 5 House Martin, 55 Meadow Pipit, 27 Rock Pipit, four Grey Wagtail, 28 Robin, eight Stonechat, and four Wheatear. A Little Egret was recorded on Solfach, whilst a juvenile male Sparrowhawk was trapped at the Observatory, and an adult female was seen at Nant. Other passerines included seven Blackcap, 30 Chiffchaff, one Willow Warbler, eight Goldcrest, four Goldfinch, and 18 Linnet.

A good mix of waders were present today, with 10 Ringed Plover, two Dunlin, three Snipe, two Whimbrel, 36 Curlew, four Redshank, and nine Turnstone.

Finally, the highlight in terms of other wildlife was a Helice form Clouded Yellow on the Narrows, with other butterflies including two Small Copper, one Common Blue, and two Speckled Wood.

Helice form Clouded Yellow (C) Steve Stansfield

Monday, 21 September 2026

Gentle southerly force 3 winds brought very poor visibility with morning mizzle, calm sea state 2 conditions, and a maximum temperature of 16°C, making seawatching impossible for most of the day.

Wetland, shore, and inshore counts produced 10 Ringed Plovers at Solfach, six Curlews, six Turnstones, five Grey Herons, two Redshanks offshore, a Whimbrel at the Narrows, a Dunlin, and a Little Egret at the North End. Raptor activity featured a Sparrowhawk at Tyllwyd and a Kestrel at Pen Cristin. Visible overhead migration and grounded songbirds picked up noticeably. Moving southward totals featured 71 Lesser Black-backed Gulls passing south, 23 Swallows, a House Martin, 41 Meadow Pipits, 12 Grey Wagtails, three Tree Pipits, and an alba wagtail. Grounded migrants and residents included 28 Robins, 18 Linnets, 12 Rock Pipits, six Blackcaps, six Chiffchaffs, four Goldcrests, and a singing Willow Warbler at the Observatory.

Marine mammal monitoring recorded a Harbour Porpoise off the West Coast.

Insect activity was limited due to the overcast weather but did produce five Bedstraw Hawkmoth caterpillars found on the Fuchsia around the Observatory. Up to today there hadn't been a record of this fine moth on the island - so somehow at least one female has managed to arrive and slip by the moth trap and all of us, lay a bunch of eggs on the Fuchsia in the garden and then disappear unseen!

Bedstraw Hawkmoth Catterpiller (c) Ezra Sherwell

Sunday, 20 September 2026

Today's sightings were highlighted by the record of an adult LAUGHING GULL seen passing south down the west coast just before we did changeover. This is the first record of this North American gull for the island. The bird passed close in shore and disappeared over the Narrows as it made its way south. Unfortunately, a thorough search post-changeover proved fruitless and so far the bird hasn't been relocated.

Other notable records during the morning's seawatch included a 2CY Pomarine Skua, seven Arctic Skuas, three Great Skuas, a juvenile Sabine's Gull off the West Coast, a Sooty Shearwater, and a Red-throated Diver off the North End. Heavy movement of more common species included 984 Kittiwakes, 899 Razorbills, 229 Manx Shearwaters, 138 Gannets, 22 Guillemots, 22 Common Scoters, 23 Arctic Terns, 16 Sandwich Terns, and seven Common Terns. Gentle westerly force 3 winds brought calm sea state 2 conditions, excellent visibility, and dry weather, with a maximum temperature of 17°C.

Coastal species and waterfowl produced 36 Curlews, five Whimbrels, three Redshanks, three Turnstones, a Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, a Teal at Pwll Gareth, 16 Shags, four Cormorants, and three Grey Herons. Raptor activity was highlighted by a Marsh Harrier (the fifth record this year) moving north over the island, along with two Sparrowhawks and a Kestrel.

Marsh Harrier circling high over the Observatory (c) Steven Stansfield

Landbird migration and grounded songbirds featured 14 Chiffchaffs, 12 Blackcaps, 10 Goldcrests, two Willow Warblers, a Spotted Flycatcher at the Observatory, 15 Robins, 13 Stonechats, two Wheatears, 21 Swallows, a House Martin, 33 Meadow Pipits, and 24 Linnets.

Insect activity during the calm, clear conditions included eight Red Admirals, six Painted Ladies, five Small Coppers, three Green-veined Whites, two Speckled Woods, a Large White, a Comma (which may well have colonised the island now, with the number of records in the past two years), a Migrant Hawker, and five Humming-bird Hawk-moths.

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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.