Bardsey's Wildlife

Saturday, 3 October 2020

Howling north-eaterlies and all day today, with a lot of rain, once again we were hoping the weather would produce good passage migrants such as finches, and perhaps something rare... Happily, we got both!

It was fairly quiet during the morning passerine-wise, however Siskins were heard calling from the Observatory garden and up at Nant, this has become something of the background noise on the island lately, which is something no one is grumbling about!

Sea watching in the early morning was a triumph of quality rather than quantity as wildfowl made up for the lack of numbers. Two majestic Whooper Swans, the first since 26 October 2018, flew initially south along the West Coast at 07.40, returning north a few minutes later. Common Scoter passed in several small flocks totalling 28, and a mixed flock of Wigeon (four) and Pintail (two) headed south. 'Real' seabirds were in very short supply, with just seven Gannets and 50 Razorbills counted in 90 minutes before the rain began. Nine Mediterranean Gulls also flew south.

Goldfinch numbers at Ty Pellaf had increased as around 120 were feeding in the sunflower fields. A brilliant sight and sound on what was quite a gloomy morning! Flocks of up to 40 flow across the narrows heading north in the rain, with the days total coming to 273.

Numbers of Redpolls had also increased with the flocks in the Ty Pellaf / Pen Cristin area totalling exactly 100 - elsewhere a further 25 were seen in the Wetlands. A Firecrest, the first for a while, and two Yellow-browed Warblers were seen in the Withies, and an Siberian Lesser Whitethroat was seen in Plas Withy. This bird looked very much like the form C. c. blythii.

As Steve began to retreat back to the Obs, a bird called from a field near Plas Withy which, in the howling wind sounded not too dissimilar to either a Citrine Wagtail. He looked around and briefly got onto a wagtail which flew up and made the same call a couple more times. After a minute or two, he radioed out the news that he had what could be an Eastern Yellow Wagtail. It wasn't long after when the Obs staff were all stood in the cow field watching it. Luckily, it was easy enough to get photos of. Later in the day, sound recordings were taken of its buzzy almost Citrine-like call, although at times it was heard to call more like Western Yellow Wagtail, something that this species has been known to do. This is the first record for the Island, the second for Wales (following one on Anglesey last autumn). Up to the end of 2019 there had been 15 Accepted record in Britain. (Brit. Birds 113. p640, October 2020).

Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis in the Lowlands

Sound recording made using Twisted Wave recorder

on iPhone 11Pro and an external lavalier microphone

Sound recording having been 'cleaned up' and

much of the wind noise removed using the excellent

TwistedWave software online.

The recording of the call was turned into a sonogram (courtesy of Jane Turner) and looks very good for Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis

Bardsey EasternYellow Wagtail

The following bullet points describe how to interpret the sonogram of Eastern Yellow Wagtail (taken from http://soundbirding.org/index.php/2017/02/12/the-wagtail-conundrum)

First leg with two strongly ascending straight and parallel harmonics (much closer than on feldegg or cinereocapilla). They can reach pretty high frequences (>8kHz)
The second leg is descending, slightly downcurved and highly modulated. The amplitude of the modulation decreases as the pitch decreases. the note remains high-pitched and doesn’t go below 5kHz, so that the second leg is much shorter (half ?) than the first leg (compare with citreola). Most of the modulations remain above 6kHz

Below a sonogram of Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis

from Xeno-canto.org (Google image search)

Below a sonogram of Western Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava

from Xeno-canto.org (Google image search)

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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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Saturday, 3 October 2020

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