Bardsey's Wildlife

Tuesday 9 May 2023

What a manic day today was! At around 8:30 a very panicky and excited sounding Ed blasted through the radio ‘Steve Obs I've got a rare bunting with a grey head come into the back garden quickly’. I went out to find a shaking Ed trying to remember what he had just seen on the Obs roof! To quote Ed directly: “I don’t know what it was, but it’s f**king rare!!”

Initial descriptions of a streaky with a grey head bought the likes of Ortolan, Cinereous, Striolated, Rock Buntings to mind, but by now the bird had flown off towards the south end of the garden. Steve wandered down to the track to relocate the bird, and out from the grass hopped a small Dunnock-like bird. The subconscious brain went into immediate action and blurted out "F*ck me, Song Sparrow!”  
Its Dunnock/bunting-like back, distinct malar and face pattern were all enough for the conscious brain to agree with the unconscious! The jizz, lack of bunting like appearance and all-dark tail suggested it had to be an American sparrow. The brown lateral crown-stripes and paler median stripe, the grey head-side with brown eye-stripes from the eye, along bottom edge of ear-coverts, and broad brown lateral throat stripes all git the bill. Distinct dark streaks on the underparts and, on the upper breast coming together to form a small dark patch in the centre of its breast - but had we eliminated Fox Sparrow? 
Song Sparrow at Ty Pellaf © Ed Betteridge
Guests staying at the Observatory were all informed, who then came and all saw the bird well. A glance at Sibley's confirmed that the ID was correct from the features in front of us, before the bird took flight and disappeared into the gorse. It would now give us the slip and Houdini on us, so Steve went to put the news out and organise the impending twitch. 
A couple of quick calls to local birders and then the boatman to try and sort transport out. Once that was done the news was put out via RBA initially and then WhatsApp to local groups. From 1600 boats arrived every hour for three hours and eventually - after some tense moments when the bird was playing hard to get, everyone saw it. Around 20 visiting birders all made the trip over to see the transatlantic waif! The bird preferred to hang around either on the track or on the cobbles in front of the houses, which made viewing difficult as they are not easily visible. 
Song Sparrow at Beudy Plas courtyard © Ollie King

Song Sparrow © Ollie King

Song Sparrow © Ollie King
It was really great to see everyone who made it, to meet new people and enjoy the buzz on the island. 
We were taking bookings well into the evening for crossings on Thursday and Saturday. The weather was poor on Wednesday so no crossings were possible. The bird was not seen Wednesday anyway so all bookings were cancelled. After a few beverages were consumed in the evening to help celebrate we went to bed at 3am!
Many thanks to Colin for bringing folk across the sound.

Outside of the excitement of American passerines, the highlights of the day were a Whinchat, a Tree Pipit, and two Grasshopper Warblers. Hirundines were also passing through today with 80 Swallows, four Sand Martins, and eight House Martins all recorded. Other species seen today were three Dunlins, a Whimbrel, eight Sedge Warblers, two Whitethroats, eight Blackcaps, three Chiffchaffs, six Willow Warblers, two Chaffinches and three Lesser Redpolls. 

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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 9 May 2023

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