Bardsey's Wildlife: New Staff for 2019

Thursday, 14 February 2019

New Staff for 2019

At the end of 2018 Ephraim and Billy decided to move on from BBFO to pastures new. we wish them all the best in their future careers. Ephraim will be especially missed having spent almost three years with us.

After a good number of strong applicants, we interviewed our shortlisted candidates in November and we are pleased to say that Lewis Hooper and Sam Prettyman have both accepted the posts offered to them.

Lewis's main project work will be to start then Manx Shearwater census, which will last for four years, and will be your host on the weekly wildlife walks and Chough studies, whilst Sam's projects will be doing much of the breeding bird monitoring including seabirds and shearwater biology studies. Both will of course be doing the daily census, ringing, doing the log and writing the blog posts.

Sam is a qualified C ringer, while Lewis is a trainee. Both have a great pedigree in observatory and conservation work, and we look forward to having them onboard this year. So without further ado I will now hand over to the new lads and let them introduce themselves.

Lewis with Puffin Chick on the Isle of May

My name is Lewis Hooper, I am 22 years old and from Hampshire. I graduated from Derby University in 2017 with a zoology degree where I focused on ornithology. I started birding more seriously throughout my years at university. After university I spent a week on the Isle of May on the young birders training course run by the SOC (Scottish Ornithologists' Club) gaining my first taste of observatory life. I then went onto spend September and October of 2017 at North Ronaldsay bird observatory and enjoyed it so much I went back in February 2018 staying the full year leaving in November. A full year at a bird observatory is an amazing experience, I was able to get a T permit and ring over 500 birds including over 100 birds in the nest, as well as witness some amazing migration spectacles’ and be fortunate in finding some rarities. Bardsey is a new and exciting challenge that I cannot wait to start this year and I hope to gain more ringing experience, meet some amazing people and find a few rarities throughout the year.

Sam measuring a Kittiwake at Bempton

Hi I'm Sam Prettyman, I am from Sheffield and have been interested in zoology from a very young age, but became particularly interested in birds and birding as a teenager. I have monitored seabirds at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, as well as shorebirds at Gibraltar Point NNR. I have ringed at several observatories around the UK, mainly Gibraltar Point. However, the vast majority of my ringing is done with Sorby Breck Ringing Group, which covers South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. I also enjoy SCAN and Humber Wader Ringing Group sessions, for both mist-netting and cannon-netting waders and wildfowl.

I spent six months as an Intern Warden at RSPB Old Moor, a top place and my favourite reserve! I learned a lot about reserve management here, and it’s also where my interest in bird ringing started after watching a Sand Martin pulli ringing session. As well as this, I have spent a year in Madagascar, and several months in Costa Rica and Bolivia carrying out various animal and plant surveys. I’m looking forward to life and work on Bardsey, working with seabirds is one of the main appeals for me, but I’m also hoping to see some rarities while I’m there!

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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.

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Thursday, 14 February 2019

New Staff for 2019

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