It was a day of two very different halves: the morning was a miserable mixture of wet, cold and wind, whilst the afternoon was predominated by clear blue skies, warm sunshine and hardly a breath of wind! As a consequence, the afternoon was by far the best time of the day to search for any newly-arrived migrants, and there certainly seemed to be some: the first Chiffchaffs of the year appeared, with two at The Plantation, one at Cristin and one in The Withies; three Goldcrests were scattered around, and Meadow Pipits continued to show in good numbers, with a total of 262 recorded. Out to sea, the year's first Red-throated Diver flew past. along with four Gannets and 36 Guillemots, and a Whimbrel, five Jack Snipes, eight Snipes, a Merlin and the Hooded Crow were also recorded.

The three Jack Snipes which were trapped via means of a drag net in the wetlands in the late afternoon. Last year we only managed to ring one, and with the highest annual figure for this species on Bardsey standing at six, we look set to surpass it this year!

A nice undertail comparison between an adult with very thick dark centres to the coverts (top left), and a juvenile with hardly any markings on the undertail coverts

This Common Snipe (left) was an added bonus whilst drag-netting, becoming just the second individual to be ringed in three years

Scandinavian Rock Pipits seem to be present in good numbers on Solfach at the moment

Merlin