Bardsey's Wildlife

Thursday, 23 April 2020

It was calm again today, we've been so fortunate with the weather this year. It's made life very easy, but having some rain soon would help refill the well... The day started with the nets being opened at Cristin and George heading off to do his fourth breeding bird survey. He was surveying the west side of the mountain today. The birds that were heard singing this morning include Stonechats, Blackbirds, Wrens (in good supply!), Wheatears and Meadow Pipits.

George explains about the Breeding Bird Census

View from Cristin this morning

Back at Cristin, the garden was quiet, just the usual Wrens, Blackcaps and Goldfinches making any noise and the ringing was rather slow (details are at the bottom of the post), the majority of the catch was made up by Blackcaps, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Goldfinches. Three Robins were caught, including some greyer individuals, perhaps of the continental subspecies, which gave some variety.

After the nets had been closed at around 12:00, George had got back from his breeding bird survey, so we had lunch and went over to Steve's house for a quick team meeting. Essentially, we talked about the upcoming project work such as the Manx Shearwater census and the second stage of Chough monitoring. After the meeting, George and I headed off to the East Side to carry out some Chough monitoring. It was very productive, and the north-west Chough nests have now more-or-less been determined to be inactive or active, but monitoring will, of course, continue throughout the season!

The East Side of Bardsey

Whilst on the East Side, it was possible to count the auks. Bardsey has a breeding population of three auk species, Razorbill, Guillemot and Puffin. Guillemots nest on the ledges, often on cliffs, Razorbills tend to nest amongst the boulders and Puffins nest in burrows on the grassy slopes.

Guillemots look fairly similar to Razorbills but have more slate-grey backs and a slender beak.

Razorbills have more jet-black upperparts and a thick, patterned beak

Not much needs to be said about how to identify Puffins

There are roughly 150 pairs of Puffins on Bardsey, which, considering there weren't any 15 years ago, is quite promising!

On the way back from the East Side, over Pen Cristin there was quite a bit of hirundine action! Swallows and Sand Martins were feeding over the gorse and over the farm. It was a great sight to see, especially in the golden light of the setting sun. Quite a nice way to end the day, to say the least...

The backdrop for watching Swallows and Sand Martins

Upperparts of a Sand Martin

The pale underside, showing the brown collar that connects at each side around the neck

It's great to watch these sub-Saharan migrants wheeling around in front of you, and even better to think about where they were just months ago. Perhaps catching aerial insects in just the same way, except over the African Savannahs, rather than an island off the coast of Wales.

Sightings today include: 12 Shags, one Buzzard, one Kestrel, one Peregrine, 350 Razorbills, 70 Guillemots, 80 Puffins, one Collared Dove, 41 Sand Martins, 77 Swallows, 13 House Martins, two Tree Pipits, five Robins and 23 Wheatears.

Ringing totals: Blackcap 5, Goldfinch 6, Robin 3, Chaffinch 1, Willow Warbler 5 Chiffchaff 5, Goldcrest 3 and Dunnock (1)

8 species, 28 new, 1 retrap

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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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Thursday, 23 April 2020

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