Bardsey's Wildlife

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

We have been oh so blessed with the weather for the past many months now. We could do with more water falling from the skies overnight though!

Seal pupping continues at a fair old rate, with 17 of the 24 pups being recorded today.

Hello....

Gannets were seen offshore for most of the day in small numbers with 13 counted from the south end and 9 from the west side. Shag numbers were higher than normal as 44 were counted from the east face of the island, added to the 43 seven on Honwy, making 87. Three Grey Herons were seen, two on the Narrows and on on the east side.

Two each of Sparrowhawk and Buzzard were logged as was a single Peregrine.

Common Buzzard

The high tide wader roost was again productive, with 40 Oystercatchers, one Grey Plover, eight Sanderling (in Solfach), 11 Purple Sandpipers, one Dunlin, a Whimbrel, 68 Curlews, six Redshanks and 44 Turnstones. Three Snipes were seen in the Wetlands.

Sanderlings

Back out to sea, a Great Skua was seen from the South End - all skuas have been in very poor numbers this year as there have been very few days when it has been windy! A Mediterranean Gull was on Carreg yr Honwy. There were just five Black-headed Gulls, three Lesser Black-backs, 15 Herrings and 13 Great Black Backed Gulls along with 300 Kittiwakes from the South End. There were 51 Guillemots and 33 Razorbills recorded too.

The Collared Dove flock was at the Obs today, with 13 counted there, ten Wood Pigeons were widely scattered. The Great-spotted Woodpecker was in the Withies too.

Eight Skylarks flew over the Obs, but hirundine numbers were much reduced, with 27 Swallows and two House Martins being seen.

migrating Skylark

Meadow Pipits were also down in number at 64, though Rock Pipits increased to 41; 11 on the South End and 30 on the Narrows.

Rock Pipit

A flava wagtail flew over the South End, three Grey Wagtails passed through and four Pied and ten White Wagtails were seen around the narrows and South End, with 12 unspecified albas on the Narrows too.

White Wagtail

The Whinchat was still at Ty Pellaf, 11 Stonechats were counted, and at least 25 Wheatears were seen, with a small arrival taking place late afternoon, many of which were Greenland birds

Some of the Wheatears in the late afternoon

Most of which were bright and rich Greenland birds of the race O.o.leucorrhoa

Two Whitethroats, five Chiffchaffs and six Goldcrests were the only warblers recorded... not even a Blackcap today!

The Chough flock is starting to increase, with 33 seen over the mountain. Three Ravens were seen from the South End and 148 Linnets were counted, 98 from the South End alone.

Fantastic sunset this evening

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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, 21 September 2021

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