April update - migration underway!

It has been a busy few days on the island, with settled weather encouraging some good arrivals of migrants - particularly Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Wheatears and Blackcaps, but also some reasonable hirundine passage over land on the clearer days: high counts so far have comprised 30 Sand Martins on the 3rd,  23 Swallows on the 4th and five House Martins on the 2nd. New arrivals since my last post have included Sandwich Tern on the 2nd, a smart Twite hidden amongst the usual Linnet flock on the 3rd, and a passing Glaucous Gull on the 5th. Finch passage has stepped up a gear during the calm spell too, with good counts on the 3rd  comprising 37 Chaffinches, 42 Siskins, 207 Goldfinches, 117 Linnets and seven Lesser Redpolls - some of which we managed to catch at the obs.

The weather has currently taken a turn to the breezy side of things, but it remains bright and sunny with the odd shower, and good numbers of phylloscs are finding shelter in the island's gardens and vegetated areas. We are all hoping that the forecast predication of consistent easterlies is going to materialise at the weekend and into next week, but for now here are some images from the sunny and migrant-filled days of April so far...

Phylloscopus warblers are arriving in earnest now, with Willow Warbler increasingly featuring in daily counts. The ratio of Chiffchaffs:Willow Warblers remains more or less equal at the moment, although this is likely to tip in favour of the latter as we progress through spring. The highest counts for each species have so far been 72 Chiffchaffs on 3rd April and 111 Willow Warblers on 4th April

(as a footnote, and for those interested, these images were taken in our polytunnel, where as many as six phylloscs decided to make use of a bounty of small flies! I have never seen so many inside our polyntunnel, but they were perfectly happy and allowed for some interesting photo opportunities!)

Wheatear numbers continue to rise too - there haven't been any Greenland-race birds as yet, but these have already been recorded further north up the coast at Hilbre. A superb sighting today involved a Darvic-ringed bird on the South End, which turned out to have been ringed on 29/07/2015 on the Calf of Man!

A recent wave of Stonechat arrivals included some superb males, which spent much of the sunny day singing their hearts out and song-flighting. Amongst the impressive vocabulary of the birds were Sandwich Tern, Grey Wagtail and Peregrine Falcon!

Auks continue to return sporadically to the East Side cliffs, although are gradually becoming more established and spending fewer absent days out to sea. I used a slow shutter speed of 1/80th sec to capture the movement of this Guillemot

Blackcap numbers are on the increase, with 35 on the 3rd being the highest count thus far.

Moths have been well-represented over the last few days, particularly due to the current new moon and settled conditions. The highlight so far has been this superb male Oak Beauty in the Ty Capel heath trap, which is only the second record for Bardsey!

Otherwise, the usual fair of Early Greys and Early Thorns, Common Quakers, Red Chestnuts, Hebrew Characters, Mottled Greys and Double-striped Pugs have been finding their way into the traps...

Early Thorn

It was cool to come across a small colony of social bees a few days ago, which seemed to have recently emerged from a handful of small holes in the earth bank. They were Andrena bicolor, which is a relatively widespread species, but one which I have not seen before

this odd-looking Robber Fly (Asilidae) was present nearby, but I have no idea which species it is!

Some of the Chiffchaffs moving through have possessed these curious-looking 'pollen horns' - best seen on birds trapped for ringing. These horns are formed from the build up of pollen and nectar that accumulate on the feathers of the forehead when birds feed on a variety of flowering plants on their way up through the Mediterranean region

we trapped a couple of Meadow Pipits a few days ago - one was an age 5 (first summer bird - top in the image above), whilst the other was age 6 (adult - lower left, with neat tips to the median coverts and small 'tooth' indents at the tip). Note the length of the hind-claw, which is typically longer than 11mm in Meadow Pipits, compared to <9mm in Tree Pipits

We were fortunate enough to have a net full of finches during a ringing session on the 3rd...amongst them were 11 smart Siskins, which provided great practice for ageing these stunning finches. Note the brown, pointy tail feathers of the first summer, compared to the broad, glossy and blunt-tipped remiges of the adult

As an end to this post, I thought I'd post a few images from a rubbish pick-up which we carried out on Saturday. Everyone on the island turned up to help clear away the repulsive build-up of plastic waste which has been blowing in with the wind and tides throughout the winter. We managed to fill FOUR dumpy bags with the stuff - a brilliant effort that really does make the island look a good sight better, and hopefully a little safer for wildlife, as this sad example below illustrates...

The results of the rubbish pick-up

Why we have the need to paying more attention to fishing and plastic waste in our seas - this young female Grey Seal turned up yesterday with this large green mesh around its head. A real shame, and we will see what can be done if it continues to appear on the shore

CRETZSCHMAR'S BUNTING - an update

It has been another busy couple of days on Bardsey...the Cretzschmar's Bunting has settled down nicely in the Lighthouse compound on the South End, where it carries out a predictable routine throughout the day: showing up on some seed in the compound for about five minutes every hour or so, before flying off into the gorse. It can occasionally be heard singing in the gorse, and sometimes will perch out on top of the wall right next to the viewing area. Views can be fleeting, but it can remain in the thrift feeding for over 10 minutes. It is a stunning bird, and very special to think that we have a sixth for Britain gracing the island. 

Understandably, there are hundreds of other birders who also would like to see the bird, and this has sparked the island's largest every twitch: up to 100 people have been ferried across by the excellent Colin Evans every day (weather permitting). Boat trips have been starting at 0530 from Porth Meudwy, and continuing every hour for the rest of the morning. Virtually all of the visiting birders have happily connected with the bunting, which has been largely a result of great coordination between the Bardsey Bird Obs team and Colin. It has been a large undertaking, although a big thanks must go to Lee Evans for his excellent job in organising boats and taking the booking system. Not only has this meant that people are no longer queuing for hours in Porth Meudwy to get onto the island, but also that Steve Stansfield (warden) and Colin Evans (boatman) have not had to deal with anywhere near the amount of hassle that would otherwise have been generated. 

Apart from the 17th, the weather has been very settled, with stunning blue skies, low winds, and warm temperatures. This has made for very pleasant visiting conditions, and also for good conditions to find a variety of insects and scarce lepidoptera for visitors. Several Thrift Clearwings have been found in the last few days, and shown to eager audiences, whilst other species such as Red-veined Darters, Painted Ladies, Green Tiger Beetle and Silver Ys have also been around to see.

One of the great things at the moment is meeting all of the enthusiastic oncoming birders, some of which I know, and some of which I have never met though have connected with over social media. It has been great meeting new people, and sharing this fantastic bird with the birding community. Several visiting birders have written some great pieces on the twitch. Here are a couple:

James Lowen's visit to the island: Click here

Mark Golley's RBA weekly round-up: Click here

Alan Davies and Ruth Millers' trip blog: Click here

A selection of images taken yesterday evening, when the bird showed really well:

Storms and Seabirds

I have been quite busy in the last few days, as the weather has finally calmed down (a little bit!) and allowed for access to the island's seabird colonies on the East Side. I have been helping out counting and ringing a broad selection of species on the island's rocky cliffs. We have made some good progress in counting nests and breeding pairs, although many of the breeding species are still just a little behind in terms of ringing- almost all the auks are still on eggs. Some of our highest counts have included 30 Fulmars, two Storm Petrels, two Cormorants, 72 Shags, 267 Kittiwakes, 1000 Guillemots, 1595 Razorbills and 41 Puffins.

In addition to the breeding seabirds, it has been great to start seeing some emerging lepidoptera and insects around the island. Yesterday's very calm and sunny weather encouraged a great selection of micro and macro moths out during the day, including the year's first Thrift Clearwing, hundreds of Celypha cespitana and Lobesia littoralis, Teleiopsis diffinis, Bryotropha terrella, Elachista argentella, Rush Veneer and Pyrausta despicata. Fresh avian migrants have been very thin on the ground, although the last two days have been reasonable, with double figure counts of Spotted Flycatchers, along with a scattering of Reed Warblers, Whitethroats, Garden Warblers, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. A smart first summer female Red-breasted Flycatcher was great to see and ring this morning.

Here is a selection of images from the last week:

I used a Canon 15mm fisheye lens on my 7D mkII to get some close-up landscape images of these Razorbills. They were very tame and thus allowed a close proximity. This worked really well for grabbing some wide-angle shots. I hope to be able to continue this project and produce a few more interesting environmental images

The howling south-westerly gales produced some very impressive swells and rolling breakers around the coast. It was tricky to capture any decent images of passing seabirds because of their distance from the shore. This was my best attempt at a Manx Shearwater

Kittiwake on the East Side

There are a minimum of three, and perhaps as many as five pairs of Little Owls on the island this year. One or two of the pairs are quite predictable in where they show, and so some reasonable images can be taken. This bird has been sitting out on a regular perch just above our house on the mountainside. Although they are obviously nesting in one of the banks nearby, we have been unable to locate the nest as yet

It has been great to see so many Spotted Flycatchers around the island in the last few days. Some years we can have triple figure counts, but this year has been more of a steady trickle. Over 20 have been several times in the last week. 

Linnet

There are a lot of Wheatears around the coast feeding hungry chicks at the moment, and the combination of the vivid emerging thrift makes for some pretty stunning views and spectacles

A Sanderling treading water

You can also view my images at the following links: 

• Flickr
• 500px
• Website

Spring Migrants: Linnets

Ok, so a Linnet is perhaps not what you might think of as a spring migrant, but they do in fact move south-west in the wintertime, and some UK birds may even move to France and Iberia for the winter, just the same as our Chiffchaffs. There are approximately 35 pairs on the island, although this varies year to year. This year we have over 200 Linnets on the island at the moment, although how many of these will go on to breed. This species is in decline in the UK, listing its conservation status as Red. Linnets can live up to eight years, and their name may perhaps stem from their old scientific name of Linarius cannabina. The meaning of this can be translated as Linarius= linen weaver and cannabina= hemp. A cool name which has unfortunately changed now that it is Carduelis cannabina. I have been photographing the island's Linnets on and off for the last few weeks, especially when the females were busy gathering nesting material....first bits of dried grass and twigs, then the hair of cows and sheep, and then wool to line their little gorse-dwelling.

Male Linnet beginning to show through with its handsome red

Female Linnets collecting nesting material It was interesting to note that, despite travelling around in pairs to collect material, the males never seemed to participate in the gathering- it was always the females that stuffed their beaks full of whatever, and then flew back to the next to construct the nest

Two days ago I decided to set up my small photographic hide near a pool along the track. Many of the Linnets were coming down to bathe and drink in this puddle at the heat of the day, which made for some good photographic opportunities: