A seabird that breeds on tropical islands has made the national birding headlines after turning up near Criccieth. The Bridled Tern, which nests no closer than the Caribbean, was found on Sunday close to where the Afon Wen meets Cardigan Bay, and seen again on Monday afternoon.
Bridled Terns breed on rocky islets, but little is known about where they spend the rest of the year. There have been only 25 previous records in Britain, of which two were in Wales: one found dead on the Gower in 1954 and another that spent several weeks among Sandwich Terns at the Cemlyn colony on Anglesey in 1988. This week’s, close to the Hafan-y-Môr holiday park, was also with Sandwich Terns feeding offshore before starting their autumn migration to West Africa. The rare visitor came in the wake of strong winds that had brought two Cory’s Shearwaters past Cemlyn, and three more plus Great, Sooty and Balearic Shearwaters past Bardsey. Birders on Bardsey and Rhos Point also recorded Storm Petrel last week, and Arctic Skuas were seen from several coastal watchpoints. Smaller migrants are also on the move, with Wheatears and Whimbrels appearing on coastlines from which they have been absent since heading north in May. On Bardsey, the first Spotted Flycatcher of autumn and increased numbers of Willow Warblers took their first steps to an African winter. Four Curlew Sandpipers were on the Border Pool at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands on Friday, and numbers of Curlews, Turnstones, Redshanks and Oystercatchers are building after completing their breeding season in the Arctic, mainland Europe or farther north in Britain. Although many terns have left their Anglesey nesting colonies, where hundreds have died from bird ‘flu this summer, a few remain at Cemlyn, where broods of Shelduck and Ringed Plover fledged successfully.
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Seabird colonies in North Wales are quietening as the breeding season draws to a close. I visit Rhos Point, hoping to find Sandwich Terns before they leave our shores, perhaps some with coloured leg rings that indicate their origin. I arrive soon after the sun rises, turning the brown kelp a deep amber. The ribbons form waves between rocks encrusted with barnacles, among which Ringed Plovers huddle, their feathers mimicking the stones. They appear to sleep, but one eye is alert to an overhead Peregrine.
Curlews look up too, twisting their heads to probe for a small crab. Or a large crab. Their rolling whistle, the Cri'r Gylfinir, connects this place to the hills from which they've come: farms in Hiraethog or the Pennines perhaps, or the plains of northern Germany or peatbogs of Finland. A Turnstone pushes over a pebble in search of a morsel. Another splashes in a rockpool to clean his rusty orange, black and white plumage, briefly creating an arc of silver sparkles. A brush-up after the long haul from Greenland. At the top of the beach, Starlings move as one, scrabbling over the decaying seaweed pushed here by last winter's storms. They forage for sandflies, as does a young Pied Wagtail that picks nervously amid the throng. As the tide falls, Sandwich Terns call across the bay and settle on emerging rocks, each finding its place after a light jostle. I check their legs while they preen. No rings on these, but no matter. I'm just grateful to see them. They are survivors of a journey that brought them from South Africa in spring and of bird flu that has ravaged their number. Farther out, a few Gannets pass. No other seabirds today, although others saw more at the weekend: several Arctic Skuas passed Bull Bay, Storm Petrel and Arctic Skua off Criccieth, and Grey Phalarope and Cory’s Shearwater were seen from Bardsey. But these were nothing compared to remarkable counts in Cornwall where 6,500 Cory’s Shearwaters were seen from a single headland on Sunday. Back at Rhos Point, early morning runners and dog walkers wish me a good day. It is. My perfect way to start a day. Young Ospreys made their maiden flights this month, a vulnerable time for any bird. Two left their nest platform at Cors Dyfi last week, followed by two at Llyn Brenig and brothers at Pont Croesor, upstream from Porthmadog, at the weekend. Youngsters will remain within short flights of their home nest for another month, learning to fish and navigate before starting their first journey to West Africa. There is a lot to learn and it’s not without risk, as illustrated by the fate of one at Llyn Clywedog, near Llanidloes, which was the first Welsh Osprey to fledge this year. Ten days after its first flight, a Goshawk predated the young male while it was tucking into fresh fish brought to the nest by one of its parents.
Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife, which monitors and protects the Ospreys at Pont Croesor, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Ospreys nesting in Wales, which occurred there in 2004 . They have a weekend of events on 12-13 August – you can find out more and book tickets here. Ospreys found their way to Wales naturally, although several adults that have nested here originate from reintroduction projects in England. White-tailed Eagles are much less likely to arrive in Wales without assistance, but a proposal is being developed with farmers and landowners around the Severn estuary, as visitors to the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show have been finding out this week. Planning and consultations are underway, boosted by news of the first White-tailed Eagle chick to fly from an English nest for 230 years. Its parents were released as juveniles on the Isle of Wight in 2020; an immature bird released on the island has been on the Mersey estuary, at Hale, throughout July and was perhaps the one on Anglesey the previous week. Scarcer seabirds passing our coasts at the weekend included a Sooty Shearwater off Cemlyn, Arctic Skuas and Little Tern near Criccieth, and a couple of Roseate Terns were at Penmon last week. Mediterranean Gull numbers are increasing, with 40 at Hafan y Môr and 25 at Nefyn. Sites around the Irish Sea are being devastated by avian influenza this summer. All five Welsh colonies of Common Terns have been hit, with those at Cemlyn, Shotton and The Skerries reporting numbers well down, and dead adults and chicks across the sites. Arctic Terns and Sandwich Terns have died on Anglesey, and from across the water the disease has hit Rockabill, an island in Dublin Bay that is home to 1750 pairs of Roseate Terns, 60% of the whole European population. It illustrates the vulnerability of terns having so few places suitable for nesting in North Wales. A century ago, there were several dozen tern colonies but increased use of beaches by people have greatly reduced their options. This can increase disease risk and leaves few alternative sites to which they can move.
Guillemot is the latest species to test positive for bird flu on Anglesey, with dead birds and abandoned cliff ledges at several sites including South Stack, near Holyhead. Auks may also have been affected by the early summer heatwave that produced surface temperatures 4-5 degrees Celsius above normal, with unknown effects on marine creatures that form the food chain on which seabirds depend. These are just two issues that RSPB Cymru has called on Welsh Government to address in its promised Seabird Conservation Strategy. Stormy weather at the end of last week brought Storm Petrels past Cemlyn, South Stack and Criccieth, and a Little Gull off Pen Cilan. Sandwich Tern numbers are building at roosts in Liverpool Bay, including Rhos Point and the Clwyd estuary, where colour-rings show that birds from Scotland, the Netherlands and Northumberland roost alongside those from Irish Sea colonies. Arctic Tern and Mediterranean Gull were among birds gathering at Rhos Point on the incoming tide and a Roseate Tern was with Little Terns on Gronant beach. Two pairs of Ringed Plovers have nested on shingle at Cemlyn for the first time in many years, thanks to watchful Wildlife Trust wardens and visitors keeping dogs on leads. The Natural History Museum’s index of biodiversity intactness (BII) estimates nature loss across the world, and placed the UK just 12th from the bottom of the list of 240 territories. If the four countries of the UK are assessed separately, Wales does only marginally better, 224th in the list , with 49% of our nature depleted. Within Wales, there is likely to be considerable variation depending on factors such as the type and intensity of land management, and the amount of human infrastructure. The altitude and climate means that some places naturally have more or fewer species.
Birds on your Doorstep uses the vast data archive of the British Trust for Ornithology for anyone to see the changes in local birdlife over the last 50 years. Visit https://data.bto.org/doorstep-birds/ and enter a postcode. Which part of North Wales has lost the greatest number of bird species in the breeding season? The answer lies around the western end of the Menai Strait, in a 10-km square (SH46) that includes Caernarfon, Malltraeth, Newborough and Brynsiencyn. Up to 21 breeding species have been lost from here since 1970, including Water Rail, Snipe, Cuckoo, Nightjar and Tree Sparrow, some of which have gone entirely from Anglesey. Others such as Black-headed Gull and Arctic Tern have disappeared from this square and nest only at a couple of other sites on the island, each badly hit by bird flu this summer. SH46 has seen a net loss in bird diversity. Against the 21 lost species, 13 others colonised, including Greylag Geese (introduced by wildfowlers), Goshawks and Buzzards that returned to Anglesey following many decades of persecution, and Siskins that took advantage of maturing pines in Newborough Forest. The distinctive spatulate shape of a Spoonbill toured the region last week, flying over Llyn Brenig on Wednesday to spend a couple of days at RSPB Conwy, before moving to the Dee estuary. RSPB Conwy hosted another couple of large waterbirds in the form of Great White Egrets, dispersing from breeding sites in southern England and the near continent. Two more are on the Clwyd estuary and one at RSPB Cors Ddyga. Crossbills are on the move too, their ‘chup’ calls heard on the coast away from their coniferous breeding areas. Terns that did not succumb to avian flu at the North Wales Wildlife Trust’s Cemlyn reserve have now fledged and the adults departed, but all the young Avocets – the first to hatch on Anglesey – sadly perished. The biggest news of the week, however, was a Black-browed Albatross seen from a boat eight miles from shore as it flew west past Gwynt y Môr windfarm in blustery conditions on Monday afternoon. If you have recently joined Threads, you can find me @penrhynbirder. Four members of the auk family nest in North Wales. The most abundant are the Guillemots that line ledges on the Ormes, four sites on Anglesey and a further 14 on Pen Llŷn and its islands. Second are Razorbills, which share some of those colonies but in far smaller numbers, and which also lay a single egg each season. Third is the poster-child of the seabird clan, the Puffins that nest in burrows on a few sites locally and is especially vulnerable to Rats that have become re-established on Anglesey’s Ynys Seiriol (Puffin Island) 20 years after their eradication. Our rarest nesting auk is Black Guillemot, with just a handful of pairs. We lie on the very southern edge of its climate distribution – although they occur farther south in Ireland. In summer, their glossy black plumage is offset by striking white wing patches, and if you see one close up, the bright red legs, feet and gape (inside the bill). They were probably always scarce here, but ceased breeding in the 19th century, returning as a regular breeder in the mid-1960s, nesting under boulders and in rock cavities. This is a critical time for seabirds, facing a raft of threats that include bird flu and climate-induced shifts in the fish on which they depend, as well as predation from mammals and disturbance from coastal humans. Black Guillemots are a common sight in Scottish ports where they nest in harbour walls. Artificial nests have been built within the secure part of Holyhead port, and last week four chicks were ringed by BTO volunteers in only the second use of a nestbox, the last being in 2018. In other auk news, a Razorbill seen on Bardsey this week was ringed there as a chick in 1988, making it – at 35 years – among the oldest recorded in Britain & Ireland. The species' longevity record is also held by a Bardsey bird, ringed as a nestling in 1962 and still alive there in 2004, at 42 years.
A Black Guillemot flew past Talacre last week, unusual so far east during the breeding season, and perhaps the same that has been seen off Hilbre this year. Up to three Roseate Terns are at Cemlyn, with another off Pwllheli, and six Storm Petrels passed Porth Ysgaden in blustery winds on Sunday. Up to 14 Mediterranean Gulls have been on Porthmadog’s Llyn Bach, with others at Llanbedr and Rhos Point. A White-tailed Eagle, from a reintroduction project in southern England, was tracked across North Wales last week and seen in several places on Anglesey, hunting gulls on the seacliffs. This top predator is also at risk from bird flu: a NatureScot report published last week found that breeding success in the Outer Hebrides has fallen by almost two-thirds, to just 24% following outbreaks of avian influenza. And so our Cuckoo’s spring draws to an end. The last I heard, in Coed Crafnant above the Conwy Valley, was on 24 June, with only one in North Wales reported to BirdTrack subsequently, on the heathery slopes of Arenig Fawr. The British Trust for Ornithology has fitted nine adult males in England and the Republic of Ireland with satellite transmitters, and five have already crossed the Channel, with one close to Ravenna on the Adriatic coast. Young Cuckoos are, of course, still to fledge, having evicted the eggs of their step-siblings – most frequently Meadow Pipits in the uplands – several weeks ago. They now ravenously consume all the insects that their unwitting foster parents can provide, and in just a few weeks will follow their biological parents to the forests of central Africa. Other signs that we are past the summer solstice were evident on a visit to the Menai Strait, where the Ash trees hang heavy with bunches of their ‘keys’, at least those not already lost to the wilt fungus that is causing so many to die. A good number of recently fledged Lapwings suggests a successful breeding season at Morfa Madryn nature reserve, where four Greenshanks have joined the single that stayed here through the spring. Nearby, a tiny Ringed Plover chick racing around the saltmarsh still has a lot of growing up to do. Little Terns at Gronant, under the watchful eyes of Denbighshire Council wardens and volunteers, are having another good season with more than 210 nests and most now hatched. Live images from the beach and edited highlights from selected nests are on the North Wales Little Tern Group’s YouTube channel. Four Avocet chicks hatched at Cemlyn on Sunday, the first ever on Anglesey. It’s less good news from a tern colony elsewhere on the island, however, where RSPB Cymru report several dead birds and fears that they have been struck by bird flu. Roger Lovegrove OBE, one of the people who shaped Welsh bird conservation in the second half of the last century, died in Shrewsbury last week, aged 88. He set up the RSPB’s first office in Wales, in 1971, in Newtown where he had been the high school Head of PE for several years. He pioneered a suite of conservation initiatives over the next 27 years, using a government employment training scheme to give many young nature enthusiasts the first step on a career in conservation. Roger was also known for several books, including The Kite’s Tail and Silent Fields, reflecting a conservation success in the former, and the failure of generations of policies to prevent the decline in Welsh wildlife. He also co-presented an annual Birdwatch programme on BBC tv with Tony Soper from 1980, which was a precursor of the popular Springwatch series. My own encounters with Roger were mainly as a teenager in the 1980s, when I was a wide-eyed enthusiast at the annual RSPB Film Show, which he would present each November at Colwyn Bay's Prince of Wales Theatre (now Theatr Colwyn). Those must have been busy evenings, with a thousand things needed to run the event, but he always took time to ask how I was doing, what birds I had seen, and to tell me that caring about nature mattered. I know I'm not the only young birder that set down a path because of Roger's encouragement. Hundreds of birds have died at Wales’ largest Common Tern colony. The seabirds nest on two large rafts next to Tata Steel’s works at Shotton, but since the start of spring more than 40% of the terns have died, Pete Coffey from Merseyside Ringing Group told Radio 4’s Today programme (at 2h 40m). The Group also estimates that 200 Black-headed Gulls have died and not a single chick survived at the site, which hosted more than 400 pairs in 2021, making it the largest in Wales. The British Trust for Ornithology fears that at least 10,000 Black-headed Gulls, 4% of the population, have died across the UK since the end of March. Since these are long-lived birds, the losses will be evident for many years, as illustrated at Anglesey’s Cemlyn reserve where Sandwich Tern numbers are half their 2022 total even though there was no sign of avian influenza there last summer.
In better news, North Wales Wildlife Trust reports that around 560 Sandwich Tern chicks are growing quickly at Cemlyn, and Avocets are due to hatch eggs this week. It’s the first time that Avocets have nested on Anglesey, and the first North Wales record away from RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands where they have bred on the Flintshire side of the border since 2017. A Wood Sandpiper visited that reserve’s Border Pool last week. At least 15 Mediterranean Gulls are on the Glaslyn estuary, the start of a summer influx from mainland Europe that can bring many hundreds to Cardigan Bay. Nesting Curlews on Anglesey and Choughs on Pen Llŷn are among 67 species that will benefit from a Wales-wide recovery project announced this week. Natur am Byth, a partnership of charities and Natural Resources Wales, will work with farmers and owners in Eryri, the Dee and Cefni Valleys, Anglesey fens and the coast and inshore waters of northwest Wales. The project will start in September following a £4.1 million award by National Lottery Heritage Fund. RSPB Cymru will lead a project on Llŷn and Ynys Mon, Marine Conservation Society a project off the Llŷn and Ynys Mon coasts, and Plantlife a project on arctic-alpine plants in Eryri. Buglife will manage work for Scarce Yellow Sally, a Critically Endangered stonefly whose only site in western Europe is a 20-km section of the river around Bangor-on-Dee. Ynys Enlli, or Bardsey, has featured regularly in Bird Notes and its predecessors in The Daily Post, doubtless back to 1929 when Eric Hardy initiated the Liverpool Echo column. The island has recorded some of our rarest avian visitors: among the 334 species recorded are 37 that had not been seen in Wales previously. The gallery of 'firsts' include Britain's only Summer Tanager, from North America in 1957, and a Cretzschmar's Bunting from southeast Europe in 2015. Bardsey Bird & Field Observatory, based in an old farmhouse in the centre of the island, was set up in 1953. Like the other 20 around the coast of Britain, Ireland and neighbouring Crown Dependencies, a major focus of the observatory’s year is migration. It has played a valuable part in understanding movements of birds along the East Atlantic Flyway by ringing an astonishing 310,500 birds. The lighthouse at the southern end frequently attracted and confused migrants, some of which collided with the glass and were killed. At the RSPB’s instigation, perches were installed in 1913 and from 1978 a strip of land was floodlit by an imitation lighthouse to attract birds to the safety of the ground. Neither solution completely resolved the issue until the lamp changed to a red LED in 2014. Staff, volunteers and researchers also study the seabirds and Choughs that call the island home, and birdwatchers can stay at the ‘obs’ to see the work, which also helps to fund it. An annual highlight is monitoring the Manx Shearwaters that hatch in burrows, but the element of surprise during bird movements is what motivates many to visit. A small island at the end of a narrowing peninsula is an ideal location for monitoring bird migration, as true now as when West Midlands Bird Club set up the Observatory, which is now an independent charity. It has been a valuable training ground for three generations of ornithologists and conservationists, and the current Director of Operations Steve Stansfield – himself celebrating 25 years at the helm – encourages young birders and early career researchers to spend time there. Wales should be proud of the Observatory, both its heritage and its future. The anniversary will be celebrated on the mainland this weekend, with presentations at Canolfan Prenteg near Porthmadog on Sunday from 11.30am. Details at bbfo.org.uk/agm. There were a few scarce visitors around the region last week. RSPB Conwy’s first Icterine Warbler sang for a day but stayed stubbornly in foliage, Quails called at RSPB Cors Ddyga and below Llyn Cowlyd, and a continental Blue-headed Wagtail was beside the Dee at Sealand. A Little Tern dropped into Cemlyn lagoon on Sunday, where two Mediterranean Gull chicks are in the tern colony. Click on the images to enlarge and for captions. Thanks to Steve Stansfield for his help with this article. With many summer visitors already feeding chicks in nests across North Wales, you might assume that spring migration is over. But birders know that the rarest birds are often found in early June, especially with a continuous easterly airflow.
The region’s only bird observatory, on Bardsey, had a very busy week. As well as monitoring the island’s breeding seabirds, the team clocked up some first-class rarities. A smart male Eastern Subalpine Warbler was found singing last Tuesday. Hailing from the eastern Med, it was the 12th record for the island, whereas none has been found in mainland North Wales. The following day saw a male Golden Oriole and an unseasonal Redwing, while small numbers of Spotted Flycatchers continued to pass through. On Sunday, an unrecognised song outside the observatory proved to come from a White-throated Sparrow, which later hopped into an outbuilding. It was weighed and measured before release, and in good health probably arrived on a trans-Atlantic ship. Remarkably, it’s the second North American sparrow on Bardsey in a month. Anglesey’s Holy Island gave Bardsey a run for its money, with a male Red-backed Shrike at Rhoscolyn on Friday and a female at RSPB South Stack on Monday. A Broad-billed Sandpiper on the Inland Sea is en route to the taiga bogs of northeast Europe; the species has only been recorded in Wales on ten previous occasions. Other unusual visitors this week include a Red-rumped Swallow at Oakenholt, two Cranes over Colwyn Bay on Saturday, and just outside the region, two Black-crowned Night Herons at RSPB Ynys-hir. In the Carneddau at the weekend, singing Ring Ouzels indicate that first broods of young have fledged and incubation of second broods will soon be underway. A recently fledged juvenile on the Great Orme on Sunday was unexpected, however. It is the 70th anniversary year of Bardsey Bird & Field Observatory, to be celebrated at a Members' Weekend and AGM at Canolfan Prenteg on Sunday 18 June (from 11.30am). Details, including details of how to participate, on the BBFO website. Click on the gallery below to enlarge the images: Broad-billed Sandpiper (Steve Culley), Eastern Subalpine Warbler (Steve Stansfield) and White-throated Sparrow (Steve Stansfield). |
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May 2024
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