Today again was very warm, it started hot, and only heated up further as the day continued. It was clear for most of the day, and relatively calm too, with a slight breeze coming from the East.

First thing, Mark headed up to Ty Pellaf where he had the first good bird of the day, a Wryneck which was sat on the post of the gate to Pen Cristin. In true Bardsey fashion, it then hopped down onto the track, flew a couple of times, and then ducked into the gorse and wasn't seen again for the rest of the day, despite quite extensive searches.

Sam headed to the South End and the Narrows, three Willow Warblers in the South End gorse are always interesting to see, but best of all were probably 28 Sand Martins heading south, the first movement of the autumn, and a White Wagtail was on Solfach, also the first of the autumn.

George headed north to Nant to see what was about, and then do his burrows afterwards. On arriving, it was clear a few more birds had come in as Phylloscopus warblers could be seen fly-catching from the edge of the plantation. On closer inspection, there were 40 Willow Warblers and five Spotted Flycatchers flitting around, along with two Pied Flycatchers too. A further 15 Willow Warblers were spread along the side of Nant Valley, these are the biggest numbers we've had for a few weeks. Overhead, hirundines were moving here too, with 36 Swallows and 47 Sand Martins heading north over Nant.

Red Admiral and looking north from Nant.

Time to crack on with the Manxie burrows, some of the chicks are now becoming quite adult-like, but random tufts of fluff projecting from beneath their adult feathers still give them away quite easily! The longest wing length from today was 230mm, and seeing as the average adult wing length is 240mm, they are not far off being full grown!

One of the Manxie chicks starting to look more like an adult!

After Manxie burrows were finished, George headed back to the Obs to say goodbye to last week's guests before they headed off the island. A group of backpackers came up to the Observatory to get some more information about what we do and what birds we have here; it turned out they had come all the way from Italy, and are currently on a road trip of the UK to see all things wildlife. After Bardsey, they are going to continue to south Wales and then onto Cornwall before heading home. They were all very interested in our work, so we took them up to see one of the Manxies that George hadn't yet checked, it was clear they were all overjoyed to see one, and understandably so, they are very special birds.

The afternoon was then spent finishing off the Manxie Burrows, starting with the burrows at Ty Pellaf. An obligatory look for the Wryneck didn't come to anything, however a smart male Redstart was slight consolation, the first of the autumn. A few more Willow Warblers were about here too, along with two Spotted Flycatchers on the mountainside. Once burrows were finished, a net was opened at the Obs as there were quite a few birds in the garden - unfortunately, in an hour, only one bird was caught, so the net was closed, it was a Spotted Flycatcher though, so that's something!

Spotted Flycatcher

It was lucky we closed nets when we did though, as not long after a message came through from Steve to say that he'd just had an Icterine Warbler up at Ty Capel garden. This was turning into quite the Hippolais warbler hotspot, it had turned up in exactly the same place that Mark found the Melodious Warbler a few weeks back!! We all headed up from the Obs and after around an hour of searching, we hadn't managed to relocate it, fingers crossed it is still around tomorrow! Despite there being no sign of the Iccy, there were more Spotted Flycatchers around up here than earlier in the day, with a minimum of 12 spread around the Plantation.

Sunset at Nant

Totals and other birds from today were: two Grey Herons, one Sparrowhawk, one Buzzard, three Kestrels, three Peregrines, one Ringed Plover, four Whimbrels, 11 Curlews, five Redshanks, 15 Turnstones, four Black-headed Gulls, two Little Owls, 29 Sand Martins, 101 Swallows, 67 House Martins, four Grey Wagtails, five Robins, one Grasshopper Warbler, six Sedge Warblers, one Reed Warbler, three Blackcaps, 167 Willow Warblers, four Goldcrests, 35 Spotted Flycatchers, three Pied Flycatchers, 11 Great Tits, two Siskins and one Redpoll.

Ringing totals for the day were: 6 Willow Warblers, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Spotted Flycatcher. 8 birds of 3 species.

a female Northern Eggar from the moth trap