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:

The Big Twitch

It has been a pretty manic couple of days, following on from my last post. Yesterday morning, Steffan Walton stepped out of his humble abode near the Lighthouse at about 0600, only to find that the male Cretzschmar's Bunting had been feeding on his doorstep, and then flew up onto a nearby wall and burst into song...out went the news, and all the island's birders were there within half an hour. The bird remained around the Lighthouse compound, feeding on areas of open and rough ground, although disappearing into the long grass for long periods. Once we realised that the bird was actually going to be *relatively easy* to connect with, we put the news out and contacted the boatman to see what trips could be organised....

30 hours later, there have now been a total of 12 boat trips to the island, carrying over 100  birders to see this very special bunting. There were reportedly over 85 birders queuing up in Porth Meuddwy at the crack of dawn this morning, and unfortunately only 72 of these have been able to board the boat across due to limited space. All of the staff from Bardsey Bird Obs have been doing a fantastic job in coordinating the viewing and making sure everyone sees the bird, and although a very tiring task when done all day long, we are pleased to say that virtually every visiting birder thus far has seen the bird!

Fingers crossed that this beast from the east will be present for the early boat trips tomorrow...

CRETZSCHMAR'S BUNTING! Still can't believe that we have one feeding at the base of the lighthouse! What a bird

It really isn't too bad a view from the lighthouse- this is looking north-east to Bardsey Mountain, with a wall covered in thrift and bird's foot trefoil in the foreground

TWITCHERS!! A very rare species indeed on Bardsey. Well, satisfied twitchers are rare at any rate...

Some scenes from the bunting twitch at the lighthouse

CRETZSCHMAR'S BUNTING!!!

Full account of the story:

Well, it has been quite an 'interesting' few days. The whole saga began back on Wednesday, at about 11 o'clock in the morning. Elfyn Lewis and Ieuan Bryn were walking up the main track towards Nant, when a bird dropped down onto the track in front of them. It fed on the rough ground for a minute or more, allowing Elfyn to take some stunning shots, and also take in a variety of features which lead him to think that it was one of the rarer Emberizia buntings. After a little while, the bird dropped over the wall adjacent to the track, and appeared to drop into a nearby field. Elfyn then went immediately to the obs, where he showed Steve Stansfield the images...Steve confirmed that the bird was in fact the rarer of the two possibilities, and that we had a flipping spring male CRETZSCHMAR'S BUNTING on the island!! The news went straight out on the radio- I was helping with some work in the withies, which is about 200 metres away from where the bunting was seen. We all gathered to the site where it had been seen, but there was no obvious sign. A few glances at Elfyn's images on the back of the camera produced a mix of responses all around, mostly involving expletives.

A search ensued in the next hour, initially focussing on the area around Plas (where it had been found), and then all observers began to split up and cover wider areas: the mountainside, the track, a ploughed field at the North End, and the meadows. It was about an hour later that the call came through on the radio from Steve Hinde (working at the observatory) who had just seen the bird drop onto the track from the garden at Plas- right back where it was initially seen, and where we had all been searching not long before!! Panic-stricken birders all began stumbling towards the site, but literally seconds before arriving, Steve had the bird fly from the track and into the back garden of the observatory! We all spent the rest of the afternoon (from about 1230 onwards) searching for the little beast. We surrounded the obs garden, scoured the hillside, patrolled the track, and desperately searched the coastline...all to no avail. It was to a pretty bleak outlook and depressed state that most of the island's birders and observatory staff went to bed that night.

Fast forward to yesterday (12th June)...after not a single whiff of the bird on the 11th, despite thorough searched, we were in for a big surprise. It was mid-morning, and I had just been out in my rowing boat, and was talking to Steve and Steffan (warden+assistant), when one of the members of the Dyfi osprey group who were on for the week came walking briskly towards us. He told us that Elfyn and a few of them had just had the bird singing on the South End wall!!! Steve and Steffan immediately started running towards the site, whilst I had to speed in the other direction back up to my house to grab my bins and camera. Managing not to run anyone over with the quad bike, I arrived and grabbed my stuff, before speeding back down the track on my bicycle. I was half way down to the South End, when I had to stop to open a gate. As I opened the gate, I suddenly saw the bunting take off from the track ahead of me, fly in a tight circle around me, and then head off towards the observatory over the wetlands!!! I was taken aback a little, by seeing what basically looked like an Ortolan in flight, apart from being blue and orange! I picked up my radio and was relaying the news as it occurred. Steve, Steffan, and the rest of the birding gang who had re-located the bird joined me to try and relocate the bird.

We headed up towards the observatory through the wetlands and up the track, but there was no sign. I was about 200 metres from the obs when I heard the distinctive dry 'glip---glip' call of a bunting coming from a northward direction. I looked up and got onto the bird, which seemed to fly out of the obs garden and then head south-east up the mountainside. It landed briefly on a gorse bush, before dropping out of view. Once again we had to set up a thorough search of all possible areas, starting with the gorse patch on which it alighted. After a fruitless search, myself and Mark Carter were looking around in the small bay of Traeth Ffynnon, when Mark suddenly exclaimed 'I have got the bird!!!'. It was feeding on some dry earth just in front of us. We radioed out the news, and just a few minutes later most of the obs staff and visiting birders were staring at this stunning bird. It fed out in the open for a little while, before flying down onto a small prominent, and then disappeared into thin air, not to be seen again...

Several boat trips were organised for mainland birders to attempt to connect with the bird, including local North Wale birders Steve Culley, Reg Thorpe, Julian Hughes, Simon Hugheston-roberts, Chris Jones and Eddie Urbanski in the evening of the 12th. Unfortunately, several boat loads of unhappy birders had to depart, with no further sign of the bird. Will it turn up again?

What makes this Cretzschmar's Bunting so special

• first ever record for Wales
• sixth record for the UK
• first time the species has been recorded south of Northern Scotland 
• the first record for Britain turned up on 10th June 1967 on Shetland
• it should be singing on the rocky outcrops Mediterranean hillsides in countries such as Greece
• IT IS A MALE, and is stunning...

A big congratulations to Elfyn Lewis for this mega find!!