The weather was foul to start with today, horizontal rain and fog, with strong 45mph south westerlies are what greeted the early risers. No doubt, there were plenty of seabirds passing the island, but we weren't to know about it if there were as the sea was shrouded by the thick fog. Unfortunately, weather like this means there isn't much to do but wait for it to pass. Later in the morning, around 0800 it was possible to do some seawatching, during a three-hour stint 3289 Manx Shearwaters were counted, with 39 Gannets and 27 Kittiwakes.

The weather cleared up at around 1100, which meant it was possible to get out and count some birds, the waders today included eight Turnstones, four Common Sandpipers, eight Redshanks, eight Curlews and eight Whimbrels. Interestingly, last night two Ringed Plovers were see on Solfach and one was caught, even though none have been recorded during the day. Also caught last night were one Oystercatcher, two Wheatears and a retrapped Dunlin.

A young Wheatear caught on the Narrows

We took the rest of the old mesh off the Heligoland today, so that is now ready to have the new mesh put on. Hopefully, it will be ready in time for the bulk of Autumn passage. It was an easy but repetitive job of wiggling the mesh out from under the old staples (of which the were quite a few...), but it's done now and progress should be quite quick.