It was a day of intermittent showers and windy weather, providing the perfect opportunity to get on with a bit of paperwork. Many of the island's breeding birds are slowly beginning to wind down for the season, so we can now begin to look at how they've fared this year. A total of 19 pairs attempting to nest is way down on the 38 pairs logged in 2017, but 46 juveniles fledged this year (compared to 51 juveniles in 2017) gives a productivity figure of 2.42 young per pair which is significantly higher than the 1.34 calculated last year.

Birds logged on a quiet day included Fulmar, 435 Manx Shearwaters, three Grey Herons, a Sparrowhawk, two Whimbrels, seven Curlews, three Redshanks, a Common Sandpiper, 13 Turnstones, four Black-headed Gulls, a Common Gull, 16 Kittiwakes, two Puffins, 29 Swallows, 11 House Martins, ten Wheatears, three Chiffchaffs, 24 Willow Warblers, four Chaffinches and 33 Linnets.

It's been a good year for Wheatears, even though we haven't had as many birds passing through or pairing up, the 19 pairs that did attempt to breed this year produced a fair number of young.

The harsh winter killed off much of the vegetation on the mountain, and as a result the gorse didn't flower en masse in the spring. Small isolated patches are currently flowering on the higher slopes, providing some much needed nectar sources for pollinating insects.