Bird catch up – part 3

Market day at Cristin

Avid followers of the bird sightings on Bardsey will no doubt be following Ben Porter’s weekly accounts on the Bardsey Wildlife blog. However, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts on how the birds reacted to the harsh weather over Christmas and the New Year and my experience of it. The temperature during this spell hardly went below freezing here, which must have made the island attractive to the displaced waders & thrushes who were seeking refuge from the bad weather on the mainland.

Leading up to New Year it was really noticeable that the Stonechats and Dunnocks were much more confiding as they risk assessed feeding versus predation. Then around New Year there was a significant build up of birds. Ben noted Lapwing arriving from the west, and there were 100 plus of them and Golden Plover on the island, together with good numbers of Snipe and Woodcock. The Woodcock, in particular, were in the gardens and around the farm buildings and one(?) was hanging around the Obs generator shed. On any walk you’d be regularly flushing the Woodcock & Snipe, and getting within 50 metres of solitary Lapwing & Golden Plover. With the Lapwing arriving from the west one sensed they were in real trouble, as the milder climes of Ireland are usually a bad weather refuge for them. This concern proved to be justified as soon the Lapwing and odd Golden Plover were being picked up dead. Some headless birds had obviously been predated, but others had simply crawled under garden bushes to die and then the Wood Mice set about recycling them! We found c15 Lapwing corpses, but feel there was more than this as we are still finding them.

There was also a build up of thrushes. It was a little strange making phone calls on Pen Cristin with small flocks of Mistle Thrush going over, and tame Redwing and Songthrush all over the mountain. The back garden scrub at Cristin was alive for two days with 50 plus Redwing that fed voraciously on the unfrozen leaf litter, and then they were gone.

Since then, there have been precious few Stonechat about Bardsey, but as there’re partial migrants it’ll be interesting to see how they fare on the island and after this hard winter.

Jim