An eventful week, both for birding and generally. A couple of weeks ago a reporter from one of the local papers arrived to do an interview about the bird observatory. When the paper arrived this week, there was Kay on the front page!!! Good coverage for the Observatory and the article featured the work done here as well as the fact that we have come here from the Isle of Man, with the two centre pages being devoted to what we do.

This is not the only press coverage that we got this week. On the 29th we got a message at 0600 to say that a 90m cargo boat had run aground on submerged rocks behind the house. Armed with cameras we were off at first light to film the action, which was mainly large waves sweeping over the boat, which was rolling on top of the rocks as the crew tried to free it. They aventually managed this about 0830, four hours after it hit. By this time it was listing badly, but steamed off, so we thought that was that. We rang the national TV company, SVT, to see if they were interested in any footage, at which point we found out the 'drama' was continuing. The boat was taking on water south of the island and was in danger of sinking, with coastguard and helicopters on the way - so yes, they were interested in the footage and a camera crew and reporter were on the way. As it turned out the vessel was safe, with extra pumps managing to keep it afloat until it reached port, but our filming was used on National TV - and even better, we were paid for it!!

A couple of new species for the trip added this week, with a total of 6 Twite caught and 4 Bearded Tits (or Bearded Reedlings as they are sometimes called), both ringing ticks for Kay. The 'Beardies' are lovely little birds, very clean cut plumage and soft feathers - a real beauty. Hopefully, if the weather turns colder we should get more.

The main event of the week was Sorcha, Kays daughter, arriving with her friend Will from London. They got to Stockholm on Thursday and were kindly put up in Monicas flat in the cetnre of the old town - a perfect spot to explore from. We spent Sunday with them, showing them 'our island', going to the top of the lighthouse, seeing round the pilot boat and having a good long walk to the north of the island and then back through the woods in the centre, not forgetting a look at the football stadium!!!

After dinner a walk to the lighthouse in thick mist, with very atmospheric lighting, rounded off a great day. Thanks to Monica, Tore and Lasse for making their stay such an enjoyable one. On Monday morning they left at 0630 with Kay for a shopping trip to Stockholm, before Kay headed back to Landsort and the folks returned to London.