The fog truly set in today, becoming denser throughout the day, reaching its peak in the late afternoon, despite this the rain was only fleeting which allowed monitoring to carry on much as before. Manx Shearwater productivity monitoring was the focus of today’s efforts, completing the second visits of the 172 burrows to see which were occupied. Unfortunately, the number occupied has gone down this year with only 127 found to have birds and eggs compared to last year’s 132, however this is only a small decrease and definitely nothing to get concerned about. Once the first chicks start hatching in early to mid July we’ll be able to get a better idea of what the actual productivity will be like, with previous years scoring a productivity figure of around 0.65. Hopefully with this year’s milder conditions we can hope for an increase in productivity, but only time will tell.

Migrants were once again scarce on the ground today, with Gannets producing the most notable passage, some 313 were logged passing the island today. The Sparrowhawk was once again present, whilst waders saw a small increase to include two Whimbrels and a Curlew today. A Black-headed Gull was one of only a handful of records this year, so far. Also noted were 11 Swallows, seven House Martins, four Stonechats, five Wheatears, two Chiffchaffs and 10 Goldfinches, mostly comprising of the breeding birds of the island. However, todays most notable bird was definitely the Lesser Whitethroat singing in the Observatory garden, incredibly this is the first record of this species for the year!

Up to 220 Gannets were seen feeding from Pen Cristin and Henllwyn this morning