we got off to an extremely foggy and miserable start today, but it began to clear at about 0800 and as soon as it did the sun came out and it was glorious. An early morning walk around the garden made it clear that there had been a significant clear-out of Willow Warblers since yesterday, with only four being recorded. Lesser Redpolls were present in the garden, though, including a lovely red male.

Gulls are starting to congregate on Carreg yr Henwy and in the North-west fields, with flocks containing a mix of ages, today, across the island 564 Herring Gulls, 83 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 52 Great Black-backed Gulls were recorded.

Last night, George and Dan were out dazzling and managed to catch two Common Sandpipers, one Redshank, one Magpie and a retrap Dunlin. The weather was ideal, with a lot of wind and some drizzle, allowing for those seldom caught species to be caught, the Common Sandpipers were the first caught for 15 years.

Common Sandpipers from last night's dazzling session

We welcomed our first guests of the year, obviously, it's a bit different to usual years as the staff will not be mingling with guests, but it's still nice to have some different faces around Cristin. Becuase of the arrival of guests we largely spent the day tidying and cleaning and making sure every area that the guests would be in was spick and span.

Now that guests are here, the year might start to feel a little more usual, although at this stage getting used to things being normal will be an adjustment in itself...