Late August is normally pretty good on Bardsey, and after a very slow start to the autumn it's finally starting to deliver. Today was kicked off with
three Sabine's Gull scattered along with west coast this morning with two summer plumaged adults and a 1st winter bird being picked out amongst the Kittiwakes. The sea was, in fact, very busy, with stacks of
Kittiwakes (2758 counted), plus healthy counts of 1090
Manx Shearwaters and 119
Gannets. There was also a fine variety of species logged out to sea, headlined by the strongest tern passage of the year; 93
Arctic Terns, 37
Common Terns, 70 "
Commic" Terns and three
Sandwich Terns. Also logged out to sea were ten
Common Scoters, 11
Whimbrel, two
Bar-tailed Godwit, three
Fulmars, six
Black-headed Gulls, two
Common Gulls, one
Mediterranean Gull, seven
Razorbills and singles of
Puffin,
Red-throated Diver and
Arctic Skua. 77
Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also on the move today, in small parties moving south through the island.
Next up, in wader news one
Greenshank was picked up on call at 05:50am over the obs whilst on net rounds, meanwhile one
Lapwing was flushed from the north end at 02:36am. Meanwhile an excellent 90
Curlews were logged, alongside 22
Oystercatchers, five
Ringed Plovers, 18
Dunlins, 35
Turnstones, 16
Whimbrels (11 already mentioned as seen on seawatches) and 11
Redshanks.
And on land, it was another decent day of passage, highlighted by a
Wryneck and a
Great Spotted Woodpecker, both around the Nant area. Overhead there were 230
Swallows, 34
House Martins, two
Sparrowhawks and a single
Flava Wagtail, with 20
White Wagtails on the Narrows. 11
Wheatears and nine
Robins were seen, while it was a modest day for Warblers, with
Willow Warblers numbering just 16, plus four
Goldcrests and singles of
Chiffchaff,
Whitethroat,
Garden Warbler and
Reed Warbler. 108
Linnets were also logged today.
Another two
Convulvulous Hawk-moths were found today, one in a moth trap at Ty Pellaf and one in the Obs Heligoland Trap. Five
Painted Ladies and eight
Red Admirals were on the move, with a single
Speckled Wood around the Nant area. The blooming Bell Heather on the Mountain is proving irresistible to Bees, with a huge count of 182
Common Carder-Bees on our monthly transect today. The only mammal-related sighting of note today was three
Common Dolphins off the West Coast.
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