Tuesday 31 July 2018

Kittiwakes had a disastrous year on Bardsey in 2017, producing just nine fledglings from 125 nests. It was therefore encouraging to take a trip around the east side of the island today and record several well-grown youngsters sitting on nests ready to fledge. The inclement weather has stopped us from visiting the cliffs for over a week, but it appears that many of the 47 chicks logged on our previous visit have already fledged, with 16 birds still in nests and ready to fledge in the coming days. An early productivity figure estimate of 0.52 young per pair is a vast improvement on the 2017 figure of 0.11 and an encouraging sign - Kittiwakes are 'in the brink' at many of their colonies, so even just a moderately successful breeding season is good news.

Other birds noted today included ten Fulmars, 509 Manx Shearwaters off the west coast, three Storm Petrels, 38 Gannets, a Grey Heron, two Common Scoters, a Sparrowhawk, two Peregrines, a Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, five Whimbrels, 17 Curlews, five Redshanks, a Common Sandpiper, 17 Turnstones, two Mediterranean Gulls, a Black-headed Gull, 143 Kittiwakes, 56 Puffins, 19 Swallows, five House Martins, two Stonechats, eight Wheatears, 12 Willow Warblers, two Chaffinches and 42 Linnets


It's looking like it might not be quite such a poor year for one of our most elegant cliff-nesting seabirds.

A really special sight. We catch them at night during the summer months, but it's not often that we get to keep track of nesting Storm Petrels on Bardsey. A couple of accessible nests in the scree at Seal Cave mean that we can ring Storm Petrel chicks this year! © Mark Carter

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