August on Bardsey

It has been a pretty busy few weeks here on the island, and I can't quite believe how quickly time has gone - as it always seems to in summertime on Bardsey! There have been a lot of visitors staying in the island's houses, with even more day-visitors arriving and departing on the calmer days; birding has been superb, with some great arrivals and movements of migrants, bringing with them some pretty smart rarities too; we've had several young birders over at Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory, including Elliot Montieth, George Dunbar and Will Langdon taking part in this year's Next Generation Birder's week, followed by Espen Quinto-Ashman and Ephraim Perfect this week; I've been trying to get some snorkelling and swimming in when I've had a spare moment, seeing as it such a superb time of year to explore the coast and marvel at the wonders of the underwater world; and there are always the usual jobs to be helping out with on the farm too.

So it's been a good few weeks, and I thought I'd try and do a quick blog post to sum up some of the recent events...

The Ling Heather has been blooming on the mountain, attracting in hundreds of Bumblebees - mostly Bombus hortorum and Bombus pascuorum - along with my Dad's busy Honey Bees harvesting for this year's crop

Juvenile Willow Warblers make up the bulk of the large arrivals of common migrants at the end of August - we had a pretty amazing arrival of 731 Willow Warblers on the 23rd August!

Spotted Flycatchers have been passing through in good numbers too - the same monster Willow Warbler day saw 68 Spotted Flycatchers sallying forth from every available perch and fenceline on the island!

We've had a couple of pretty crazy days for rarities: the first was my Birthday, on the 17th August. Starting with a juvenile Long-eared Owl in Cristin Withy, Mark then found a Western Bonelli's Warbler in the Plantation - in the exact same place that I found one two years ago! We got some great views, before trapping and ringing the smart phylloscopus...later in the morning Steve Stansfield came across a Citrine Wagtail on the Narrows, which unfortunately just passed through without stopping off on our ponds...there were plenty of migrants around too, including a flock of Green Sandpipers

Our second mega birding day was dominated by Hippos - not the huge four-legged artiodactyls, but the small bill-clacking warblers in the Hippolais family. The day started with Steffan finding an Icterine Warbler skulking in the depths of the Plantation - the first since 2011! As we were gathered around looking for this eastern wanderer, Steve spotted an Ortolan Bunting chilling out in the open next to a Chaffinch! This smart juvenile Emberizia showed incredibly well, sunning itself in the morning sunshine. 

The rest of the day was a bit of blurr, but the result was basically an Observatory garden full of hippolais warblers: we think we ended up with THREE Melodious Warblers and possibly two Icterine Warblers! It spent all afternoon to work out what was going on, but it really was great to have Icterine Warbler and Melodious Warbler in the same view at times, comparing and contrasting these subtly different species. 

A pretty cool day

Some warblers (from left to right)...Melodious, Western Bonelli's, Icterine and Willow Warbler

In other news, we have managed to catch a good 30 or so Storm Petrels during the night, including several controls

There have been some brilliant sunsets recently, with calm weather prevailing for two weeks or so. This pair of Oystercatchers made for a nice silhouette against 

Some late broods of Swallows have been fledging recently, lining up in chattering bunches on fences around the island, frequently being visited by the busy parents. It is great to see the impressive aerial acrobatics when adults give their food passes to chicks mid-flight too!

Moth News

It's been a somewhat frustrating few weeks on the moth-trapping front, with several of my heath traps malfunctioning, and thus putting me out of action for a time. I managed to cross some wires in a couple of the traps and have got them into working order now, which is great. Day-flying species have included migrants like Rush Veneers, Silver Ys and the odd Hummingbird Hawkmoth, but the moth traps have been filled with the classic autumn family: rustics. Square Spot Rustics, Flounced Rustics, Common Rustics, Rosy Rustics, Six-striped Rustics.... a lot of rustics.

In amongst the common lepdioptera fare have been some great surprises: no fewer than THREE Convolvulus Hawkmoths have found their way to the island, including two on one day! Square-spot Darts, Canary-shouldered Thorns, Marbled Beauty, Annulet, Garden Pebble (the first on Bardsey since 1999) and Bee Moth have been some of the highlights. 

One of three Convolvulus Hawkmoths that have made it to Bardsey this August - amazing considering there are fewer than 20 island records of this continental wanderer

From left to right: Marbled Beauty, Garden Pebble and Sallow

Grey Seals

In other news, I've had some good fun pursuing a few long-term photography projects, and also trying out a bit more filming. One day I had the fortune of observing several Grey Seals within one of the island's coastal caves at high tide. I am very pleased with the images I managed to capture, but here is a bit of video of the playful bull blowing bubbles...

Staying on the Grey Seal theme, here are a couple of images from a fun snorkelling encounter with seven or eight very inquisitive individuals in one of the island's bays

the delightful Autumn Ladie's Tresses (a small orchid only around three or four inches high) are springing up all around the island, encouraged by specific grazing regimes in certain pastures to keep the vigorous grasses at bay

I'll end with a couple of wader shots...wader numbers and passage has been brilliant this year, with a sustained high number of species like Turnstones feeding around the Narrows at high tide. We've had as many as 80 birds on the beach, with 70+ most days, which is a superb number

Ringed Plover

Turnstone - an adult moulting out of summer plumage

That's all for now - I hope to start blogging a bit more in the coming weeks, although I expect to be fairly busy once I return to uni in Falmouth from the 12th onwards. I'm certainly looking forward to heading down to the south-west and seeing what the coast around Cornwall will have to offer. 

Long time no post!

Well it's been a pretty long time hasn't it? Apologies for the total lack of blogging for however many months...I have been away for much of the summer, where either a lack of internet, time or laptops has resulted in a distinct absence of blog posts here for quite some time.

Although I will get around to writing some full accounts of the places I've been and things I've seen, for now I'll just try to sum up my summer in a few sentences...back in early June, after returning to Bardsey for a week or so prior to university exams, I headed off on a family holiday to Scotland. We decided to set up camp on the delightful isles of Coll and Tiree, where we were surrounded by singing Corncrakes, quartering Hen Harriers, buzzing Snipe and piping Lapwings for a couple of weeks. I was then off to eastern Europe for the rest of the summer, working on an expedition by Operation Wallacea in the heart of Romania's stunning Transylvanian landscape. Here I would spend seven weeks running one of many different biodiversity surveys that is encompassed within the expedition: bird ringing. I took groups of students out every day to trap and ring a diverse range of bird species - showing and explaining how and why we use this technique to study bird populations, whilst at the same time trying to gain a better understanding of any changes going on within the area. I was able to join on other surveys whilst out there, from butterfly transects in lush meadows to looking for bats roosting in Saxon churches. The abundance of wildlife in a landscape so heavily maintained by traditional farming practices was breathtaking - lots more to come!

For now, a few images...

A typical Romanian scene - the village Malancrav in the Tarnavu Mare

A highlight of the trip: Brown Bear and cubs!

Bee-eater

Romanian meadow

Yellow-bellied Toad

Cuckoo chick being fed by Marsh Warbler

Cows on their way out to pasture

White Storks in nest

Wild boar skull

Me with Hawfinch, and a highlight from the ringing side of things: Bee-eater!

Daia church spire at night

Aesculapian Snake

Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Cornwall meanderings - revising hard

Although I am back on Bardsey Island at the moment, I thought I would write a quick blog post overviewing some of the brilliant wildlife that I was delighted to experience down in Falmouth after Easter, whilst 'revising' for exams...

Living on Bardsey for the last eight years, for all its many merits, has also meant that I haven't actually managed to get to a Bluebell wood in glorious spring bloom for a very long term. It was great to remedy this whilst back in Falmouth, and spend some time exploring countless beautiful woodlands adorned with carpets of Blue and White (Bluebell & Wild Garlic)

One of the brilliant things about being spring is the complete explosion of life, particularly at the smaller scale. It made for enjoyable procrastination from revising to be able to just pop out of the door and immediately be surrounded by a plethora of life forms to discover, photograph, identify, watch...I have included a very small selection in the collage above. 

You can find many more spring insect images in my Facebook album here

At the very top of my wish-list of animals to see whilst in the county this spring was the Basking Shark. I am lucky to be a crew member of Keith Leeve's brilliant AK Wildlife Cruises business, which runs out of Falmouth for four hour-long cruises around the surrounding coast to look for all manner of life. We had some superb weather for a couple of the cruises whilst I was around, and it enabled some pretty special encounters...

Basking Shark!

We saw plenty of Harbour Porpoise too

Another particular highlight from the cruises was watching three lovely Storm Petrels pattering the surface of a small oil slick as they fed. I have never seen Stormies out at sea, so it was great to see them in their element

I couldn't believe how pristine some of the Great Northern Divers out in the bay were! These summer-plumaged beauts should be in the arctic circle!

Closer to home (term-time), and I am very lucky to be situated close to some superb habitats for my local stomping grounds. Early morning and late evening walks were a particularly pleasant experience, and yielded some rewarding sights and scenes...

Spider webs of the species Tetragnatha obtusa in the early morning light

Argal Reservoir on a stunning evening - what you can't experience in this shot is the hundreds of Swallows and tens of Martins, Swifts and Noctule bats which spent the latter hours of dusk hawking on insects above the water's surface...

Noctules were brilliant to watch on the local reservoir, especially on calm evenings when their wing beats could be heard rustling above your head and their low-frequency echolocation prominently heard

Common Swift

A good number of House Martins set about making their dry mud nests on a nearby building where I live

Getting out and about around Cornwall with friends for photography, birding and exploratory sojourns was particularly enjoyable

one of the bays at Lizard point - the UK's most southerly point

Dalmatian Pelican! A bizarre and exhilarating bird to see in such a peculiar backdrop of the Cornish countryside

Blackbird chick

Checking one of the moth traps on campus

Brimstone moth

Green-winged Orchids at Predannack Airfield

Some brilliant Bat action, taking part in Cornwall Bat Group's check of some bat boxes in the north-east of the county. Brown Long-eared Bat is pictured top and right and left images

Black Oil Beetle

A standard cargo to take to uni, right? Moth trap, fins & snorkelling gear in a basket pannier...Cornwall is a great place! 

A parting shot of two Dandelions at sunrise

This may be my last post on the blog for a little while, as I am heading to north-west Scotland on a family holiday this Saturday; from here, I am then traveling to Romania, where I will be acting as bird ringing surveyor for Operation Wallacea on their expedition to Transylvania. I won't be back until early August, so see you then!