Tuesday 15 May 2018

It was an unusual weather day, with very little wind and huge rolling fog banks that would descend on the island within minutes, plunging us into an overcast greyish haze before moving off into the Irish Sea and leaving us with bright sunshine. Luckily, we managed to time our guided wildlife walk during one of the fairly sunny spells, and participants got to enjoy views of Puffins perched up on the slopes above Pen Cristin for the first time this year. Unlike the Pembrokeshire island where Puffins breed en masse, on Bardsey they are mostly restricted to the inaccessible slopes of the east side and it's only in recent years that they've started to nest in burrows that are visible from the beaten path.

Neither of yesterday's two Continental Coal tits were seen today. The fact that they are 'just' Coal tits may have slightly downplayed the significance of these two migrants being a potential first record for Wales at the time, but fingers crossed they are still on the island so that we can shed some more light on them. It is quite a spectacular record for the island! See yesterday's blog post for more details on the pair and additional photographs.

Elsewhere, birds logged today included two Fulmars, 163 Manx Shearwaters, 13 Gannets, Grey Heron, two Buzzards, a Whimbrel, 25 Puffins, two Collared Doves, a Sand Martin, 109 Swallows, 28 House Martins, three Stonechats, two Wheatears, eight Sedge Warblers, six Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, five Blackcaps, 18 Chiffchaffs, eight Willow Warblers, four Goldcrests, five Spotted Flycatchers, a Rook, four Chaffinches, two Siskins, 21 Goldfinches, 29 Linnets and two Lesser Redpolls.

 Ephraim checked up on the South End Chough pair during a particularly sunny interval.

A worn Eudonia angustea was flying on the West coast.

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