There was a noticeable movement of Tree Pipits overhead this morning, including a flock of six over Cristin. It was enough to tempt George to open up the mist nets in the garden and midway through the morning he found himself extracting the first Tree Pipit to be ringed on the island since 3rd September 2013! It was a quiet day otherwise, with a Sooty Shearwater and both Arctic and Great Skua passing out off the west coast.

Other birds logged today included five Fulmars, a Sooty Shearwater, 49 Manx Shearwaters, 34 Gannets, two Common Scoters, a Buzzard, three Kestrels, 17 Curlews, an Arctic Skua, a Great Skua, five Sandwich Terns, 16 Swallows, 11 Tree Pipits, two Grey Wagtail, three Robins, three Stonechats, two Sedge Warblers, nine Willow Warblers, a Spotted Flycatcher, a Chaffinch and 48 Linnets.

Tree Pipits are regularly seen here on passage but most often just as fly-overs. They don't often touch down on the island, and rarely turn up in the mist nets © George Dunbar.

Mark and Icky Steve's excellent handiwork means that there are now two sturdy new boardwalks leading through the Withies.