The fog had lessened slightly today, but the rain came pouring down! Because it was so miserable, Sam took a break from the burrow census. Seeing as a couple of the projects are coming to an end now, a windy, rainy day like today was a good opportunity to get the paperwork organised.

One of the projects that has come to an end is breeding Chough monitoring. Seven pairs attempted to nest this year, two failed early on, but the other five had quite a high collective productivity, helped largely by a monstrous brood of five from one of the nests! Juveniles and adults are now flying around in family groups. A grand total of 15 juveniles fledged, three nests of three chicks, one of one chick and one of five chicks. So it was a good year for the pairs that managed to get going, but it's certainly a shame about the two early failures.

This pair from the South End fledged three young this year

The seven Chough family over the mountain today

Whilst Sam was sorting the Chough data and his manxie maps, George was busy editing sections of the 2019 report. When the rain finally stopped in the afternoon a walk to Nant yielded a female Cuckoo that was flying around the west side of the mountain near the plantation, quite a nice surprise. seven Goldfinches, 17 Swallows, two Blackcaps and a singing Willow Warbler were the other highlights. As mentioned earlier, the family of seven Choughs was flying over the West Side of the mountain, making their presence known with that characteristic squawk.

The view from Nant this evening