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

Autumn migration update

Autumn migration seems to be very slow this year: in most years, the numbers of bright yellow juvenile Willow Warblers begins to rise from mid-July onwards, as birds begin their southward migration to Sub-Saharan Africa. Occasionally these numbers can reach peaks of 1000 (2nd August 2011) in early August. However, this year has seen very low numbers, with counts barely rising into the double figures during the whole of July and first part  of August. These lower than average numbers were mirrored in other species such as Sedge Warblers and White Wagtails, whilst hirundines have had some good passage days during the last few weeks. Most of this is down to the weather, with very unsettled conditions bringing windy and wet weather for prolonged periods during the summer.

The last week has seen a slight change, with calmer conditions encouraging some bigger arrivals and interesting sightings. On the 14th we had an arrival of almost 400 Willow Warblers, accompanied with 34 Spotted Flycatchers, two Garden Warblers, one Blackcap, four Chiffchaffs, five Whitethroats and three Goldcrests; in addition, recent days have seen Tree Pipits, Whinchats, Yellow Wagtail, Song Thrush and Short-eared Owl stopping off on the island. With the recent new moon, the high tides have brought a good deposit of seaweed onto Solfach, which has in turn encouraged a good number of waders to its shore. Peak counts have included 10 Ringed Plovers on the 16th, 25 Dunlins on the 15th, three Bar-tailed Godwits and a Whimbrel on the 17th, 32 Curlews on the 16th, 11 Redshanks, six Common Sandpipers and 12 Turnstones on the 17th, whilst scarcer visitors comprised a female Ruff (14th-16th), Green Sandpiper (17th), and three Bar-tailed Godwits (17th).

Sightings of rarer visitos to the island have been frequent in the last week: a single Great Crested Grebe off the coast on the 12th was surprisingly followed by a flock of five on the 13th- this is a very rare bird on the island, with no records for over 10 years before 2014! A Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the 13th was a good record too, and this bird stayed for a few days in the more wooded areas of the island. On the 16th, a large white bird was picked up flying south-west a mile or two off the coast. After a while, it became clear that it was an egret of some kind, and judging by the size, a Great White Egret! The island third record!

After a stunning few days, the weather looks to be breaking up in the following week, which will bring a good selection of seabirds past the coast, but conversely will not favour the arrivals of the smaller migrants on the island. Here is a selection of images from the last couple of weeks:

An adult and juvenile Oystercatcher roost amidst the breaking waves

many of the Turnstones are smart summer-plumaged birds

Kestrel

Willow Warblers are by far the most numerous migrant on land at the moment, but 90% are now adult birds (above). We have missed out on the large movement of bright juvenile birds that takes place earlier in the month. 

Juvenile Sedge Warbler

Whinchat- there have been a couple of birds present in the last week

Linnet numbers have increased substantially in recent days and weeks, with daily counts over 320 at the moment. Many are feeding in the oat and borage mix planted at the north end

the female Ruff spent a good few days feeding amongst the waders in Solfach

juvenile Dunlin

A Grey Heron flying in front of the buildings of Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory

Recent photographic highlights

Over the last two weeks I have had some great photographic opportunities here on Bardsey, from photographing Manx Shearwaters on star-lit nights, to watching Grey Seal bulls battle it out in the bay. Since I have not uploaded any of these images onto the blog, I thought I would do an update featuring my favourite photographs from the last few weeks. I hope you enjoy...

I made a special effort one morning to make it to the North End for sunrise, which was around 0550. My aim was to photograph a few of the breeding gulls flying in front of the sun, with the Gwylan Islands and distant mainland in the background. I photographed plenty of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying past, but this one was my favourite

I have had this type of image in mind for quite a while. Last week the skies cleared enough to try it out one night. I used a Canon 6D and Canon fisheye 15mm to get a very wide angle shot of this Manx Shearwater, as it sat on a nearby bank. I used a 25 second exposure and ISO 5000, plus a dim head torch to illuminate the bird, to get this shot. Hopefully I will be able to improve on this image in the coming weeks

Last week I visited the Fulmars on the East Side, where there were perhaps 10 individuals flying around and prospecting for nest sites. Many of them were clearly intrigued by myself, and came very close and low over me. I used a 24-105mm lens to try and get some wide angle images of them, and this is the best result

I have been experimenting a lot this year with low shutter speeds and sea movement with the island's Oysterctachers. This bird was around the East Side, and I tried to use a relatively low shutter speed of 20th sec to create the movement of the sea. I found it very difficult to retain a sharp bird, but like the overall effect. It is a work in progress

One evening I came across these two Grey Seal bulls having a playful fight with each other. I watched them battle it out for a little while, although realised that they weren't really doing any harm to each other. I took a few images, but these are my favourites

I have been taking a lot of images of birds bathing in the last few days, which will appear here in the next few weeks. Linnets and Meadow Pipits have been visiting a small pool along the track, which makes for a good location to set up a hide. This Willow Warbler paid an unexpected visit, which was quite nice

As spring progresses, and the odd rain shower passes through the island, a multitude of flowers and plants are beginning to emerge all over. These Cuckoo Flowers are appearing throughout the Wetlands, and Thrift and Squill are adding some very nice colouration to the coast

This Yellow Dung Fly has been a subject for my macro photography for some time, and one of my favourite views of them is head-on. They have very comical faces, which almost give them the look of being surprised. I will continue to try and get some better images, but this is my best so far.