Bardsey's Wildlife

Monday 31 July 2023

Another day with more strong winds, so it was a fairly early start on the front looking west! The morning was not great to be honest, 1477 Manxies, two Whimbrel and three Risso's Dolphins were the highlights. Late afternoon Lauren did a bit more seawtaching and pulled the first Sooty Shearwater out of the bag for the year.

A few Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat were the only other birds of note, and quite a bit of heavy rain in the afternoon meant more indoor admin could be done - ordering nice new banded tote bags for the shop!!!

So while sitting looking for more stock for the shop I received a message from Rich B on Skokholm saying that he had just seen a Cory's from the lighthouse on Skokholm! Inspired by Rich's success I went out to the front of the Obs and looked out to sea - Manxies, and lots and lots and lots of them! they were passing at a rate of 240 per minute (14.400 per hour), increasing to 325/minute later on (19,500 per hour). The total for the dat was about 20,000!

Manx Shearwater

Shear Madness!!!

So I began looking at the sea again at 19:40. The light was shocking, and looking north west from the Obs, where we normally look was impossible, so I had to look directly west, between Plas Lloft and Plas Withy. Just 15 minutes (19:55) in I saw a slow, lumbering Shearwater, being overtaken by the Manxies. It was big, loose and was my second Cory's Shearwater in two days! Ten minutes later (20:05), I had this feeling of Deja Vu, another big lumbering Cory's - this was getting silly and reminded me of the day when Steve Hind and I thought we were going mad when we kept finding Great Shearwaters. And then low and behold another large Shearwater at 20:17, this time darker looking, stiffer winged with a distinct white triangular patch formed between its dark cap and shoulder and its white collar, and a mucky looking patch on its belly - it was a Great Shearwater. (due to the light and the bird being back lit I couldn't really make out any plumage detail on the underwing). This was bonkers. Having only ever seen two Cory's before from the island it was an amazing record. It all went very quiet then, just gazillions of Manxies... I was just thinking of giving up as I had been there almost 90 minutes when I picked up a pot-bellied looking Balearic Shearwater fairly close in at 21:05. The light was starting to go, but I thought, go on I will give it another 15 minutes... Then I picked up a tiny little Stormy Petrel buzzing south over the waves, and then a couple of minutes late another lumbering big shearwater - the third Cory's Shearwater of the day...

by now my brain was beginning to hurt! Four big Shearwaters in two hours, just madness. This was one, if not the best swatch I had ever done from the island and I was quite buzzing...

I went back into our house at 21:35 and told Emma what I had seen and immediately phoned Reg on the mainland to tell him. I was ecstatic. Then I got a message from Skokholm... Rich and Giselle had just seen no fewer than Eight Cory's and a Great past Skok! I was still buzzing, but felt a bit like I had been smashed by the Observatory in the south - there is no competition between us - honest!!

Well what a brilliant evening.. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

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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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Monday 31 July 2023

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