Bardsey's Wildlife

Sunday, 25 October 2026

Gale-force Westerly winds blowing at Force 8 dominated the day alongside a heavy sea state of 7, though visibility was good with no precipitation as temperatures reached 12°C. Grey Seal numbers around the island haul-outs tallied 133 with many of the seals taking shelter on the top of the Narrows to avoid the storm waves.

A morning seawatch produced 722 Gannets, 678 Razorbills, 11 Guillemots, 618 Kittiwakes, three Arctic Skuas, nine Manx Shearwaters, seven Fulmars, three Grey Goose species, one Great Northern Diver, one Common Scoter, two Knots and one Dunlin. Other wader sightings throughout the day included four Turnstones, four Snipes and one Bar-tailed Godwit caught in the wetlands.

Bar-tailed Godwit caught in the Wetlands (c) Steven Stansfield

Landbird counts were generally low under the high winds, with recording efforts producing two Chiffchaffs, one Goldcrest, 11 Robins, six Meadow Pipits, two Rock Pipits, six Stonechats, one Redwing, two Song Thrushes, six Blackbirds, five Skylarks, ten Linnets, two Chaffinches, one Brambling, and one Goldfinch.

Saturday, 24 October 2026

Stormy conditions set in today with a gale-force South-West wind blowing at Force 9, moderate visibility, and a rough sea state of 6, with rain persisting throughout much of the day as temperatures reached 15°C.

Stormy seas on the Narrows (c) Ezra Sherwell

Seabird passage offshore featured 175 Kittiwakes, 59 Gannets, 28 Manx Shearwaters, five Shags, and three Razorbills. Wader and shorebird counts across the island included 25 Turnstones, 24 Curlews, five Moorhens, four Whimbrels, four Redshanks, one Snipe, and one Woodcock at Nant. Raptor sightings featured one Sparrowhawk and one Peregrine.

One of the Redshank in Solf (c) Ezra Sherwell

Landbird migration and grounded passerines were subdued due to the weather, with records for the day featuring nine Robins, one female Blackcap, four Chiffchaffs, three Goldcrests, one Meadow Pipit, four Rock Pipits, four Chaffinches, three Blackbirds, three Redwings, and one Song Thrush.

Friday, 23 October 2026

A day of stormy weather with high winds blowing at Force 8 and heavy seas at sea state 7 made birding difficult today with temperatures of 10°C (reaching feel-like temperatures as low as -7°C) and poor visibility overall. Seal monitoring produced a total of 125 Grey Seals around the island including 10 pups.

Stormy season the West Coast (c) Steven Stansfield

Wader and seabird counts included some variety with three Lapwings including two arriving in off the sea onto the Narrows in the afternoon producing some interesting movement. Other species included the first two Woodcocks of the season, one Bar-tailed Godwit, five Turnstones, two Ringed Plovers, two Whimbrels, one Curlew, one Redshank, 14 Gannets, 19 Kittiwakes, and one Razorbill.

Landbird counts were generally low, however, records for the day included one Collared Dove, four Chiffchaffs, two Blackcaps, ten Goldcrests, eight Robins, one Meadow Pipit, nine Rock Pipits, 13 Redwings, two Song Thrushes, six Blackbirds, two Starlings, one male Brambling, five Chaffinches and two Goldfinches. Raptors counts featured one Sparrowhawk and one Merlin.

Thursday, 22 October 2026

Today’s weather brought an Easterly wind blowing at Force 4, excellent visibility, and a sea state of 3, with rain setting in from 20:00 as temperatures reached 12°C.

Sunrise from the South End (c) Ezra Sherwell

A small influx of passerines was noted today with one Yellow-browed Warbler still at Cristin, one Brambling and two Crossbills the highlights. Other species included four Chiffchaffs, three Blackcaps, 13 Goldcrests, 14 Robins, 34 Starlings, eight Blackbirds, seven Redwings, one Song Thrush, six Skylarks, 23 Rock Pipits, 17 Meadow Pipits, three Alba Wagtails, 11 Goldfinches, seven Linnets, four Chaffinches and three Redpolls.

Sea and coastal species counts included one female Pintail, 15 Common Scoters, 14 Gannets, 60 Razorbills, and one Mediterranean Gull, 24 Curlews, 17 Turnstones, four Snipes, three Redshanks, one Purple Sandpiper, one Bar-tailed Godwit, and one Whimbrel. One Water Rail was also heard down in the wetlands and a single Merlin was seen on the South End.

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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.