By Simon Parker
It's been a while since I posted out some ramblings on here, so it's about time for some updates..
The Island is now in full season mode with three boats arriving a week when the weather behaves, which it hasn't really been doing. This week, the wind switched to a Northerly, bringing the familiar icy warmth that I remember from growing up in't North. It was still fairly peaceful, especially in the landing bay, but there wasn't a lot going on in the bird world. A steady trickle of Swallow were meandering North and some of the Milcombe regulars were out including Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Robin, Dunnock and Wren. The landing bay itself was eerily quiet aside from a lone Gannet and a handful of Herring Gull.
A group of Sand Martin were cruising around Benjamins chair above a light scattering of Razorbill, the Northerly wind suddenly made itself felt when I headed up past the old lighthouse, a large group of Herring Gull were crouched in behind the wall sensibly keeping their heads down.
Census finished with a fairly solid count on the Linnet, Skylark and Meadow Pipit, these birds being a significant part of our breeding bird survey. Obvious nesting pairs are now in place across the island and recording that is a significant job. The upside is, we will get some ideas on the health of the local populations and be able to plan our land management around improving areas that suit particular birds.
After Census, I settled into an admin day. Lots of planning for some upcoming media work, stay tuned for that... And some essential inbox T.L.C. Greg managed to get out in the afternoon and spotted yet another Golden Oriole, it's been a good year for these bird so far and they are now an established yearly visitor.
After work, it was a case of heading up the island to keep my training going for the looming Island half marathon in June. The sun was shining by now and the views were pretty spectacular across the North, It definitely didn't feel like May though. 
All of that excitement came to an end with the return of the moth trap in Millcombe, moths will be on tour again soon but Millcombe remains a solid site for catching some nocturnal nectar thieves. Check out tomorrows blog for the moth news!