An extremely wet day saw a very small selection of birds grounded overnight, with the leucistic Wheatear, two Swifts, a Reed Warbler in Plas Withy, the male Pied Flycatcher, three Spotted Flycatchers and a Garden Warbler pick of the lot. Wader numbers increased at high tide, with five Ringed Plovers, 22 Dunlins and nine Turnstones seen in  Solfach; 13 Whimbrels and a Snipe were elsewhere.

The smart male Pied Flycatcher spent most of the day on the sheltered northern edge of the New Plantation. From here it frequently dropped into the field, and plucked some large caterpillars and other insects from the cow pats.

 Two Spotted Flycatchers also joined the Pied Flycatcher on the Plantation fence

 After a spring of fairly miserable weather, the Ringed Plovers have finally started incubating four eggs at the same nest site as last year. They have, however, chosen a very good place for their nest this year, namely in a small cave at one end of the beach. This behaviour has been noted on North Ronaldsay, where Ringed Plovers were seen to nest in small recesses at the bottom of stone walls, beneath boulders and in small overhangs. This was thought to avoid both the danger of trampling and eating by sheep, due to their unusual diet of seaweed and the various mineral supplements needed. Whether or not our pair of Ringed Plovers have nested in a covered site is due to the danger posed by sheep, it is still exposed to predation by the local crows