It's becoming hard to think of different ways to say how beautifully warm the days have been here, because nearly every day recently has been the same in that respect! Today was another scorcher, and even the 20mph wind didn't offer much relief as it was a warm breeze coming from the South-East.

Sam and George were both out early, fuelled by the hope that today could be as good as the last couple of days also have been! As usual, George headed off North, and Sam South - George stopped in first at Ty Bach, the pines and dense cover in the garden here are often a good place to check for Spotted Flycatchers and warblers. There was no luck with the former, but there was a Blackcap singing and another less familiar song coming from deeper in the cover, it then dawned on him what it was - yesterday's Blyth's Reed Warbler! It was singing on and off in the garden, though it was more sub-song than anything.

Red Admiral on the Thrift around the South End

The Plantation was more quiet, and for the first time in a while there were no Spotted Flycatchers around, this serves as a reminder that our 'spring' passage is beginning to come to an end, with most birds already holding territory on their breeding grounds. A Lesser Whitethroat was probably the best bird present, unfortunately it offered awful views as it dove straight into deep cover on the Mountainside and didn't appear again; overhead, a Buzzard passed over and headed North escorted by what seemed like half of the North End gull colony and was quickly followed by two Grey Wagtails, the first since 9 May.

Common Buzzard

Sam headed to the farm on the way to Withies, he picked up the Spotted-Flycatcher-baton as one feeding in the garden there. The Withies were slightly better, five Sedge Warblers were singing along with a Reed Warbler joining in, too. A single Swift flew South and small numbers of Swallows and House Martins were picking off insects around the Willows.

The House Martins are constantly busy at the moment, if they're not nest building, they're hawking insects over the Withies and Lowlands

The afternoon saw George going to finish his Oystercatcher breeding census, as he was walking onto the South End, a Lapwing flew in and landed beside a pair of Oystercatchers - it would be great if these returned as a breeding species on the island... The final count of Oystercatchers landed at 70 territories, with a couple of others being noted outside of the survey, too, a respectable count!

the Lapwing on the South End, before moving to the Narrows

an Oystercatcher chick 'hiding' in its nest

Mari and Emyr, the island trust wardens, also reported seeing a Little Egret in Traeth Ffynnon early this morning at first light which then flew off in the direction of the mainland - this is the first record for the year and shows things are passing through right from first thing!

Other highlights today were: two Peregrines, eight Whimbrels, four Collared Doves, two Sand Martins, 42 Swallows, 18 House Martins, 13 Whitethroats, four Song Thrushes, four Whitethroats, four Blackcaps, two Chiffchaffs, nine Willow Warblers, one Goldcrest and eight Great Tits at the Obs since a brood of six juveniles fledged yesterday!