19th June, 2008.

An absolutely glorious day , which started rather early!!! Of late there has been around 60 Starlings around the garden, mainly recently fledged birds. Whilst I've not yet worked out where they roost they appear immediately first light and feed on the open land surrounding the house. Until yesterday!!!! A liitle after 0430hrs, even a bit early for me, I was aware of
" activity" in the bedroom and awoke properly to find two of the birds had come in through the window and were flying around and squawking etc!!! After urging them out it seemed pointless even bothering to go back to bed so got a few jobs done and then went out and completed some BTO Atlas work. Wild birds aren't always a pleasure!!!!!

Certainly a day to be out!!! The breeding season has now begun to display its success with young birds increasingly in evidence and providing the confirmations required by the BTO Breeding Atlas survey. Whilst the final two weeks of June are always somewhat quiet for migrants there's still excitement at discovering species in, say, a particular woodland that had not been apparent on an earlier visit. As a backcloth the never ending "feeding patrols" of Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwakes and auks and terns are a spectacle in themselves!