Thursday 1st to Saturday 3rd May 2014

Chris Baillie has sent through the following summary of his three-day trip to the island:

"Good numbers of shearwaters and a group of 14 Sandwich Terns on the outward crossing. The Merlin mentioned by Richard Campey remained throughout, and I flushed a Sparrowhawk from by the Blue Door on the 3^rd. I heard Water Rail on 1^st and 2^nd, the latter at night from St John’s Valley. A Whimbrel passed the West Side on the 2^nd , when there was a thin but steady trickle of Barn Swallows during the afternoon (300/hour departing North End). Wheatears included a few migrants (one being a Greenland female) but were mostly pairs on territory. Warblers were mostly not moving much – two Sedges, one Garden, a few Blackcaps, Willows and Chiffs. A Lesser Redpoll was in the Tent Field on the 3^rd, and Guillemots did a widespread early exodus from Jenny’s – the ledges seemed very empty compared to the two previous days. The crossing back had fewer Manxies than on the 1^st (or visible from the island on 2^nd), and a Bonxie passed close mid-channel."