Bardsey's Wildlife

Tuesday 20 July 2021

Today was yet another hot one!

...and whilst our neighbours at Hilbre Bird Obs were made up with catching a Melodious Warbler (a Bardsey speciality which we are hoping will arrive any day now!), birds of note were few and far between on Bardsey today; however, its not all about birds…
Stuart began his day trying to trap Wheatears on the Narrows. A couple of Dunlin were on Solfach, and Curlew numbers had increased slightly.

Steve began census at the Obs and heard a few Swifts overhead, but there was little of note in the garden. After wandering over Pen Cristin and along to the narrows to see Stuart and a young Wheatear he had trapped he carried on his census route.

Juvenile Wheatear

After walking along the West Coast and up through the withies, and heading back to the Obs for 'moth o’ clock' with the guests (10am), he stopped briefly in Cristin Withy scribbling notes into his notebook. Suddenly, a large yellow and black hornet flew past him, giving him a shock initially, then he realised that it was not a Hornet at all, but an absolutely striking moth. It was in fact a Lunar Hornet Moth. Then there was a second… and a third, all being attracted to the pheromones being given off by a mating pair deep in the undergrowth! Upon realising that this was the very much sought after moth, a member of the clearwing family, Steve began to get rather excited!

Lunar Hornet

Once he had stopped hyperventilating and calmed down, he ran back to the Obs to tell others. This is only the third time this fantastic hornet mimic has been recorded on the island - There is a record from 7 July 1984 and then on 6 July 1992, at least ten adults were discovered in the withies.

These fantastic creatures are masters of what is known as Batesian mimicry. This is a form of optical mimicry where a harmless species in this case a moth, has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both in this case a Hornet. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, and his groundbreaking work on butterflies in the Brazilian rainforests.

Lunar Hornet Moth

Mating pair of Lunar Hornet moths

Once back at the Obs. Stuart and Steve began to empty the moth trap they were in for more lepidoptera surprises… A fantastically marked Black Arches sat atop one of the egg boxes; this proved to be a new species for the island. Not quite as rare, a Small Rivulet was only the fourth record, and a Elderberry Pearl was the fifth record for the island! There were also lots of Crescent Darts, Early Thorns, a few Garden Tigers, Buff Arches and a beautiful Peach Blossom amongst the 40 or so species recorded. What a fantastic morning for moths.

Black Arches - New for the island

Elderberry Pearl

Small Rivulet

Marbled Green

Buff Arches - such a beautiful and intricately marked moth

Peach Blossom

Garden Tigers - note the variation in the upper wing pattern

Steve then continued the north census areas and found that there were loads of butterflies too, just shy of 100 Green Veined Whites, 63 Meadow Browns, and a few Grayings again.

Bird wise, there was little of note on the migrant front other than a couple of Willow Warblers at Nant, however best bird of the day was found by Emma as she was working at the Obs and she noticed a quite smart looking Black Redstart in the courtyard.

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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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Tuesday 20 July 2021

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