Last night, the wind was low for the first time in a while and so Sam and George opened the Storm Petrel net by the Obs just as it was going dark. They were rewarded with nine birds, five of which were new, one was a re-trap from a previous session, two were British controls (birds ringed elsewhere in the UK) and one was a French control bearing a PARIS ring! Very exciting, particularly as this is the first French-ringed Storm Petrel to be caught on Bardsey.

The French-ringed Stormie.

As you can see, the ring says 'MUSEUM PARIS" and owes its shiny appearance to its Stainless Steel material! It will be very interesting to see when and where this bird was ringed!

Today, the weather was lovely again, it was occasionally cloudy, but mostly gorgeous sunshine - a lovely day to be on the island.

Sam and George both got up a little later than usual after last night's ringing session, and after breakfast both headed out to crack on with practical work. Sam went to the Withies and Nant to finish strimming the net rides and George stuck at the Obs to finish de-nailing the wood which had been used to make the shelves in the food store.

The afternoon was spent doing some more general tidying up around the Obs from the various bits of work we've been doing, and a Pied Wagtail's nest in the ringing hut was checked. The four chicks were still a little small to ring, so we'll check on them again in about a week's time.

Birds were thin on the ground again, but a brood of Blackcap young have now appeared in the Obs garden - they are very infrequent breeders on the island, with less than ten breeding records! Other highlights included around 60 Starlings feeding in the Wetlands, with two Siskins flying over the Observatory garden this morning.