As it's the end of 2018 and the blog has been a bit quiet of late, I thought I would briefly summarize
my year of 'patch-birding' Ynyslas.
January –March
I started off the year only visiting the site every now and then as
I was half way through an internship at WWT Llanelli. I did manage a few visits
to Ynyslas, however, and I managed to get some nice patch birds on my visits. My
first visit in early January got me off to a good start with 66 species seen
including Pink-footed Geese, a Hen Harrier and all of the common wintering ducks and waders. My
next visit in late January produced a few more patch-ticks including the only
Long-tailed Tit, Bullfinch and Barnacle Goose that I would see on patch for the
whole year. Other birds added to the list included a European White-fronted
Goose, a Cattle Egret, a Water Pipit, Twite, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Barn Owl
and the King Eider. Unfortunately I missed out on a Ruff and a Glaucous Gull
that were found the day after my visit.
My next visit was in late March and it was still absolutely
freezing as I recall, and the only spring migrants to be found were a Wheatear,
a Chiffchaff and a few passing White Wags. There was however, really good northward movement of Meadow Pipits passing over the point, it’ll definitely be
something to look out for next spring. Other birds added to the patch-list on this
visit included Goosander, Bar-tailed Godwit and a Siskin.
April-July
After my last visit in late March, birds seen by other birders at Ynyslas had
included a Black-throated Diver, a Slavonian Grebe, Scaup, two Avocets and a bloody Kentish
Plover, bit annoying that!
Eager to get back; I tactically booked a week off from my
internship in late April- early May to try and cache in on spring migration. Despite
this week being brilliant for migrants in 2017, it just didn’t really happen
for me. Saying that, I did manage to get most of the regular spring migrants on
my list; including Whimbrel, Sandwich, Common & Arctic Tern, Manx
Shearwater, Common Sandpiper, Osprey, all 3 hirundines, Swift, Whinchat, a small selection of warbler sp., Crossbill, Arctic Skua, Bonxie and a 3cy Glaucous Gull which was a bit jammy.
My next visit was in early June and it was a unsuccessful
attempt to twitch a duo of Rosy Starlings that had turned up in a nationwide
influx. The only new bird to be added was Little Tern, which was a nice surprise. Another visit in late
July added Black-tailed Godwit, Nightjar and Lesser Redpoll to the list.
August-December
Not visiting during August-early September was quite costly
as I missed out on a Black Tern and a Yellow Wagtail as well as missing out on Green
Sandpiper and Tree Pipit passage and the possibility of an american wader.
Returning in mid-September I quickly added Grey Wagtail, Jay, Spotted
Flycatcher, Nuthatch, Marsh Harrier, Curlew Sandpiper and Tree Pipit. On the 24th September
my bird of the year was found on Ynys
Tachwedd fields, a cracking 1st-winter Woodchat Shrike which hung
around in the area for a few days.
October was a brilliant month with 12 new patch birds
including some nice birds including Grey Phalarope, Great Egret, Spotted
Redshank, Tree Sparrow, Lapland Bunting, Scaup, GND and a Feral Pigeon! Most of
these birds were seen during vismig/seawatching sessions. After October things
really slowed down with only a handful of new birds added to the patch list,
but they were all really nice birds with Long-tailed Duck, Velvet Scoter,
Black-throated Diver and Gadwall added to finish off the year.
Missed birds
The most annoying missed bird has to be Leach’s Petrel as I
had one just off patch in Borth! Other misses include Yellow Wagtail,
Yellowhammer, Slavonian Grebe, Snow Bunting, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden
Warbler, Little Stint, Ruff, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, Wood
Sandpiper, Garganey, Avocet, SEO, Pom Skua and Little Gull, so loads of room
for improvement!
I ended up with 157 species for the year out of a possible
167 that were seen at Ynyslas, which isn’t too bad really.
Vismig
Vismigging proved itself to be incredibly productive this
autumn, with a good variety of birds moving over the point at Ynyslas from mid-September
into early November. I still think there are much better sites for vismig in
west Wales. I’ve got a hunch that Aberdyfi, Llanrhystud to Aberaeron and
Porthmadog all get far more movement than Ynyslas, and on some days I can see big movements of birds over Aberdyfi, that never end up coming over the point. In total this autumn 42,700 birds have passed through
Ynyslas. The most notable counts are listed below. The complete totals can be
found here: https://www.trektellen.nl/site/totals/2143/2018
Out of all these counts I think one of more notable ones is the Greenfinch total, I was regularly surprised by single Greenfinches passing over the point, perhaps they are under recorded in the county. Another one of my favourites is the House Sparrow count; 100 birds!! Mostly flying north but often in flocks of 5-10 flying high and direct over the estuary. The Blue/Great Tit movement on some mornings was absolutely fascinating with flocks of birds seen moving through the scrub and the making the big flight over the estuary, 2 Coal Tits were also seen following the same route. I also managed the largest recorded movement of Jackdaws through any site ever in the UK (according to trektellen) with a count of 2109. Loads of other interesting stuff in there as well. Vismig is my favourite type of birding and it would be great if more welsh birders would give it a go. There are some great articles online about Vismigging and they are very interesting and talk about things like site selection, the right conditions, what birds move and when etc etc.