Saturday, 2 October 2021

Today started out with a brief respite from the rain with ominous skies, which then developed to a consistent downpour for most of the morning and early afternoon. Seal pups are still being born with a few new ones spotted mostly along the west coast with 45 pups born this season at last count. There is notably plenty of amorous behaviour from the adults as the breeding season gets well under way too. Despite the stormy weather, pups are doing well and the mothers are generally doing a great job of keeping them safe and teaching them how to swim which has been a joy to watch over the past few weeks.

Seal mother and pup

As Saturdays are normally our changeover day here on the Island, there was much speculation from guests and staff alike at the observatory whether there would be a boat leaving today or not, thankfully the wind managed to drop enough to get all of the guests from the guest houses and the observatory hostel safely back to the mainland this afternoon. Emma, Steve, Stuart, Megan along with Ed our new volunteer for the next few weeks got to work on cleaning and preparing for our new guests in the afternoon whilst it was still very wet and grey outside.

As the afternoon wore on there was nothing of great note on the bird front happening with Steve and Ed starting to do a seawatch from the Obs, Ed finding a rather nice Long-tailed Skua, along with a couple of Arctics and a Bonxie. 

Ed decided to go for a quick 'mooch' around the garden whilst Stuart was working on the reports from this year in the office when a rather frantic announcement from Ed blasted through on the radio; "Red-eyed Vireo! Top of the garden!". Much rushing around ensued and a fumble with a memory card and a camera and he managed to get a few snaps whilst the rest of the observatory staff ran around trying to find bins and other such paraphernalia. 

Red-eyed Vireo - Ed Betteridge

The next step was unfurling the nets in the hopes of catching our friend from across the Atlantic... Then success! Steve caught it in the nets in observatory garden. 

Red-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo and it's red eye

This is the third record for Bardsey (and the eight for Wales); the first Bardsey record being on 15 October 1985 in Cristin Withy. The next record was one fatally attracted to the Lighthouse on 19 September 1998. 

There have been a further five records in Wales: Skokholm 1967, Aberdaron 1975, Pembrokeshire 1995, Anglesey 2001 and Skokholm in 2019. 

A great end to a rather melancholy day, along with a beautiful sunset and some of the clearest views of the mountains of Wicklow this evening.



Views of Ireland from Bardsey this evening

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