Bardsey Lighthouse Optic

For over a hundred years Bardsey Lighthouse has projected a beam of white light 22 miles out to sea; warning ships and in bad weather attracting birds. On one night alone 40,000 birds are said to have landed on the island and each year many die when they crash into the lighthouse.

Andy Godber, Llŷn Operations Manager for the 

National Trust, and the pilot with the 

lens of the optic protruding from the case

But not any more. The old optic has been decommissioned, lowered down the side of the lighthouse and flown to the mainland where it will take on a new life as the centrepiece in the National Trusts’s new visitor centre, ‘Porth y Swnt’, ‘Gateway to the Sound’.

The new light on Bardsey will be an intermittent red which will play less havoc on the navigational systems of birds.

The optic weighs a massive 2 tonnes and all 31 sections of it will be reinstalled by a Trinity House engineer, without the float of mercury, in early June.

Today (20^th May 2014) is the 500^th anniversary of Trinity House being established. The first official record is the grant of a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1514 to a fraternity of mariners called the Guild of the Holy Trinity ... "so that they might regulate the pilotage of ships in the King's streams".

Down on the Dyfi

Great day trip down to RSPB Ynyshir and Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Cors Dyfi reserve at the weekend.

The Dyfi 360° Observatory

52 bird species altogether including 8 species of warbler, Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Treecreeper, Lesser Redpoll (on feeder at Cors Dyfi), Siskin (on feeder at Ynyshir) and of course the Ospreys. At Ynyshir we enjoyed lots of birds, the view over the wetlands from the Ynys Feurig hide, Brimstone butterflies flitting about and a Grass Snake swimming in a ditch near the overflow car park.


The Cors Dyfi reserve is open 10am to 6pm 7 days a week at present, and it only takes a few minutes to walk from the car park along the new boardwalk (past the water buffalos and serenaded by Sedge Warblers) to reach the new Observatory.

The new building and the boardwalk cost £1.4 million, thanks HLF and others including CCW/NRW! Here you are closer to the nest than the viewpoint for the Glaslyn pair at Pont Croesor. The Glaslyn eggs have hatched now but the Dyfi pair were later laying, so birds will be around here until the summer holidays.

Puffin Island 2014

I really enjoyed my visit to Puffin Island with Steve Dodd (RSPB); he’s been ringing and monitoring birds here for over 30 years. It was a master class in how to catch a Shag with a shepherd’s crook and without being bitten. Also an impressive demonstration of plucking a Razorbill off a cliff with a noose on the end of a fishing pole. Essential requirements are a steady hand, a head for heights, balance and patience.

We were there to record a story for Country Focus to find out to what extent seabird populations have been reduced by the prolonged storms of last winter. You can hear the outcome in June, which is when the programme will be broadcast.

The island is owned by the Barron Hill Estate and I am grateful for their permission to visit. It’s fantastic that there is this beautiful sanctuary, close to but free from humans, with no foxes, stoats nor rats. The rats got their come uppance with two tonnes of Warfarin about thirteen years ago. They used to feast on eggs and chicks during the short breeding season then the next nine months of the year they’d turn vegetarian. This kept the vegetation down but these days it’s a struggle to get around; Steve had a machete with him to hack a path through to the Cormorant breeding cliffs.  

Despite being named Puffin Island there are not many Puffins, maybe thirty to forty pairs, but on our visit we saw just two and three more out to sea.  

It was a privilege to be in amongst so many seabirds, it was so perfect I expected to bump into David Attenborough. It was a still day, perfect for sound. If you watch the YouTube film below don’t forget to turn on the speakers or better still put on some headphones – the sounds are more impressive than the sights.

Hummingbird in the Herbs

At last, sunshine and warmth after lots of rain. Weeds putting on a spurt and seedlings impatient to be planted. It was a magical day to be in the vegetable garden. Last year’s kale and swede are now six feet tall sprays of yellow blooms and very popular with the bees.

Beneath a piece of wood a lizard but on reflection it must have been a newt – no scales and didn’t run away. We see lots of lizards but newts are not so common; nearest pond about 30 metres away.

Beneath a slab of slate busy black ants and pride of joy, in amongst the herbs, a hummingbird. Must report it to Cofnod, our Local Records Centre.

Baby Tawny by the Ffestiniog

It was the sort of day for hippos and ducks, but Molly doesn’t mind a bit of rain, so off we went, into the woods with wet bluebells all around.

At the base of an oak was a cute little Tawny owl and I think I caught a glimpse of its parent flying away from the scene. For a few minutes I watched from behind a tree, and then another, but all the while the baby was transfixed, not a move of the head, just the tiniest slit of a motionless eye and its claw set into the moss on the bark. I left it where it was and hope the parent will be back to protect and feed.  

Two summers ago I found a baby Tawny being attacked by crows which I shooed away. I approached that baby and off it flew, into the trees; with dusk approaching it would be safe. For a couple of weeks I followed the progress of that owl and its fellow nest mates as they moved from tree to tree calling out for food. 

As if finding a Tawny was not enough excitement for one day there was a grey coloured Fairlie on the Ffestiniog - Dafydd Lloyd George after a paint job! Is this just an undercoat or here to stay? Rainy days can be good.

Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) in Barry!

On the 2nd May (2014) an Asian shore crab was seen on the shore in front of the power station near Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. This is the first sighting of this species in the UK. These crabs will outcompete our local crabs and are very partial to eating mussels, clams and oysters.

If you see one please take a photo and report it to the 'Non-native Species Secretariat' by email to: nnss@fera.gsi.gov.uk.

These crabs are native to the Western Pacific Ocean from Russia, along the Korean and Chinese coasts, to Hong Kong, and the Japanese archipelago. They inhabit shallow, hard-bottom intertidal or sometimes subtidal habitat and tend to aggregate at high densities under rocks where they overlap habitats with native crab species. They can tolerate wide ranges of salinity and temperature as well as damp conditions in the upper intertidal regions.

Populations have been established on the north-western and north-eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean and there have been reports of their presence in the Black Sea and the northern Adriatic Sea.

If you would like to know more about this species here is a link to an ID sheet.

Crossing the Sound to Bardsey (Ynys Enlli)

If you have ever crossed the Sound, or are planning to do so, you’ll be delighted with ‘Across the Sound’. It is the Bardsey Island Trust’s first-ever Yearbook, covering events on Enlli in 2013. It is fully bilingual of course, with lots of excellent photographs including a centre-spread (pages 42-43) of all the islanders (numbering 15); these include the Observatory staff, the Porter family at Ty Pellaf, Christine and Ernest Evans (Rhedynog Goch), their son Colin (the boatman) and his daughter Gwen. There are also three dogs in the photo, but don’t delude yourself that you can take your dog with you if you visit – these dogs are resident!

Different chapters cover topics such as recollections of the years since the Trust’s creation in 1979 (Christine Evans), the farming year (Jo Porter), the Carreg Fawr Project (restoring the paintings which Brenda Chamberlain applied directly to the interior walls of this house), thoughts on Retreats and the spiritual life of the island (Rev’d Susan Blagden) and the work of the Bird and Field Observatory (by Steve Stansfield, in his 16th year as Observatory Warden!). Emyr Roberts, the Trust’s Warden on the island, retired at the end of the 2013 season and there is an appreciation of his work. If you wish to obtain a copy, go to http://www.bardsey.org/english/shop/shop.htm

If you do buy one, it will encourage the Trust to produce another next year. There is of course limited information about happenings each year from 1953 recorded in the Observatory Annual Reports, and in the newsletters and Reports of the Trust since 1979, but these Yearbooks (if continued) will build up into an impressive archive.