Ed, Ciaran and Jack taking it on (David Steel)

Kittiwakes to count (David Steel)

Thursday 2nd June comments: And so it begins.

Today we started just after 6am for a three hour cliff count across all the islands. The process of counting the entire Farne Islands breeding seabird populations is under way...and we have over 80,000 breeding pairs to count. Add in our busiest day of the year for visitors with some bird ringing and monitoring work, its been another busy, busy day on planet Farnes.

However these busy days are just the beginning as tomorrow we start at 4am on Inner Farne to count all the breeding Terns, Eiders and other ground nesting species. That's just five hours away so best get some sleep. We're going to be tired this time tomorrow evening.

Bring it on.