Bardsey's Wildlife

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

A fantastic variety of common migrants and scarcities was seen during a beautiful clear, sunny day. The highlight of the day, however, did not come until late afternoon, as a small bank of mist began rolling in...

Steve Stansfield's account of his superb find:

''The evening ended with something of a BOOM, when Emma and I went to collect mushrooms for tea. A small very peach pale bird landed on a gores bush in front of me and as it flew in across the field I could see a white rump, Red Breasted Fly??? No a chat type thing - a tiny wheatear - Black-eared maybe...NO, it's a Stonechat...A Siberian Stonechat.....rattle off five grainy blurred shots and grab radio. News out, more photos, and here are a few......''

Pale throat and peachy underside can be seen well

Both S. torquatus maurus and S. t. Stejnegeri very similar in appearance and can only really be separated non either breeding range or by using analysis of the birds DNA

The unstreaked pale peachy/white rump can be seen well in all these shots

The jet black underwing coverts can bee seen in this shot - not a good photo, but a great clinching feature for this rare form

After the news was broadcast, and observers homed in on the site, the bird unfortunately disappeared over the reed bed. After a half-hour search, the chat was picked up again, back near Carreg Reed Bed. From this point on it showed extremely well, along the fence lines and gorse bushes, looking very much like a Desert Wheatear!

Having managed to avoid the potter traps, the bird suddenly became quite active, working its way up the green lane, and ending up on the mountainside above the observatory. Here it remained until at least 1830, showing amongst Common Stonechats. At one point, the chat almost managed to find its way into the Heligoland trap, but evaded further capture for further ID features.

To compare to female Stonechat!!

Now, as for the rest of the day...

A steady passage of over 270 Meadow Pipits throughout the morning led to at least three Lapland Buntings flying over, and a large pipit was also seen on Pen Cristin.

The ringed Wryneck remained along the fence line down Nant Valley, and a second bird was found above Ty Pellaf as people were searching for the large pipit!

The first Treecreeper of the year was found in Plantation, and was trapped midday, and the Common Rosefinch remained around here. Other slightly more notable migrants included two Common Redstarts, three Whinchats and a Ring Ouzel.

Visible migration consisted largely of Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches, with 106 of the latter recorded in the morning. A good total of 33 Skylarks, 240 Swallows, 27 House Martins, 17 Grey Wagtails, 29 alba Wagtails was also logged during the day.

Passerine migrants on land was dominated, surprisingly, by Robins and Stonechats: 45 Robins and 39 Stonechats were recoded all over the island during the day. A small number of warblers scattered around the vegetated areas consisted of eight Whitethroats, eight Blackcaps, 28 Chiffchaffs, five Willow Warblers and 16 Goldcrests, whilst 18 Spotted Flycatchers were also seen.

Wryneck

Treecreeper

Red-breasted Flycatcher from yesterday

Yesterday's Turtle Dove

Spotted Flycatcher

Grey Wagtail

The Common Rosefinch was still present today

Whinchat

1 comment:

Douglas Mcfarlane24 September 2013 at 19:56
Nice find Steve.
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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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Tuesday, 24 September 2013

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