A sunny, calm, yet quite chilly start to today, it did, thankfully, warm up as the day went on though, and it was still enough to open the nets in the morning. 

As Sam opened the nets, George headed down to the Wetlands to conduct his second of four Breeding Bird Censuses in this area, up to the North-West Fields. The calm and sunny conditions were ideal and there were lots of birds taking advantage of the weather to get singing! The Wetlands and Withies are probably the busiest section in this area of the island; there were 19 Wrens, 12 Sedge Warblers, four Blackbirds, six Meadow Pipits and four Stonechats exhibiting breeding behaviour, along with a few other species, too. A Song Thrush also flew deep into cover in Cristin Withy - it will be interesting to see what they are up to, and if this species will breed again this year.

the sunny weather also brought out a few butterflies today like this Red Admiral

Common Blues are becoming a more 'common' sight around the Gorse bushes

Back at the Obs, things were relatively busy for the time of year. Sam had caught the first Garden Warbler of the year along with the second Spotted Flycatcher, these species are always special to get in the hand, especially seeing as they're not the showiest of birds in the field. A Lesser Whitethroat was also singing above there Observatory, but didn't find its way into one of the nets this morning. More young birds were also caught in the way of the first fledgling Chaffinches of the year and also a few more Dunnocks - we should soon have some Wrens and Blackbirds fledging around the garden too. 

Garden Warbler caught at Cristin

Once George was back from doing his Breeding Bird Census, he quickly grabbed some food and headed back out to do the Daily census as Sam still had nets open. There was a Garden Warbler feeding around Ty Bach in the pines, with a couple of Spotted Flycatchers around too for company. At the plantation, there were a further two Garden Warblers and also a reasonable number of Blackcaps. A brood of Stonechats had fledged from above Nant Withy, presumably the birds that were nesting above Ty Capel, and the female kept a watchful eye as I counted the youngsters. Another brood had also fledged down near Plas Withy today - aside from Mallards, there have been more broods of Stonechats than anything else so far!

female Stonechat at Nant

Swallows are starting to collect mud from the fields to build their nests on the houses around the island

Solfach and the Narrows held quite a few waders again, 12 Ringed Plovers were good to see as were the 18 Dunlin, two Sanderling and the single Knot which were feeding with them. Nine Whimbrels were around the coastline along with two Curlews and a few Turnstones. Two White Wagtails were also still on Solfach, presumably these are different birds to the ones which have been around recently. 

nine of today's Ringed Plovers on Solfach

Knot and Whimbrel on the rocks beside Solfach

Along the West Coast, many Rock Pipits are now parachuting down from the clifftops while singing, some are already feeding young too. Choughs are also busy feeding young on the island and can almost always be found in the grassy fields in the centre of the island.

a darvic-ringed Rock Pipit on the West Coast

a Chough in the Lowlands

Other birds of note were: one Grey Heron, four Turnstones, two Collared Doves, two Sand Martins, 23 Swallows, four House Martins, 24 Stonechats, 18 Sedge Warblers, two Common Whitethroats, four Garden Warblers, 21 Blackcaps, four Chiffchaffs, six Willow Warblers, five Spotted Flycatchers, two Great Tits and 18 Linnets. 

Ringing at the Obs produced: Dunnock 2, Willow Warbler 4, Chiffchaff 1, Blackcap 10, Spotted Flycatcher 1, Garden warbler 1, Chaffinch 2, Sedge Warbler 2. Total 23 birds of 8 species.