It rained pretty much all night and this morning we woke to some very windy weather. Winds were reaching about 40-45mph from the north-east, easterlies always hold potential for birds to turn up so George was out birding nice and early. The species variety was much the same as most other mornings, but the first eight fledgling Whitethroats of the year were recorded at Nant, in two broods of four. One brood came from an area previously not known to be a territory.

Juvenile Whitethroat at Nant this morning

Juvenile Pied Wagtails have also been seen all over the island recently

Later in the morning, Sam continued the burrow census, today focussing on the last few walls before moving onto the gorse covered areas on the mountain, which were not possible to do in the high winds today. It was raining sporadically throughout the day so it wasn't the best weather to be doing surveys, but tomorrow looks better, so they'll be time to catch up.

The dark, choppy sea as viewed from the North End today, seabirds such as Fulmars were cutting over the land in some areas

After finishing the walls, Sam headed to the South End to see what was about, the highlights of the walk were two Swifts flying north over Ty Pellaf and a Little Egret which flew over the Narrows. There was an increase in Whimbrels with five present on Henllwyn along with three Curlews and a Grey Heron. Two Sanderlings flew over the narrows towards the South End, other waders included the usual Oystercatchers on Solfach and Henllwyn, there are usually 80ish birds between these two sites, either roosting or feeding and today a colour-ringed bird was with them. Details have been sent off, so it won't be long before we get the information back. From what can be seen on the metal ring, this bird looks like it was ringed in Britain.

Darvic ringed Oystercatcher on Solfach today

Little Egret flying over the Narrows, it later landed on Henllwyn

Curlew on Henllwyn

Kittiwakes were gathered on Carreg yr Henwy all day today, 346 were counted and around 80% were immature birds

While Sam was counting burrows and walking around the South End, George was up Pen Cristin continuing his work on the Manx Shearwater productivity burrows, it's a tricky job (made trickier by the bracken that covers up the burrows and marker posts!!), but the data is really useful as part of long term studies.

So that's it for another day, the weather looks to be calming down for tomorrow which will be good, but we have been very fortunate with the weather so far, so we can't complain!