A huge thanks to Nick Watmough for his take on the latest pictures submitted to the webpage even while he was on the Scillies.

To contribute, please send your photos and sightings to bird-news@cbwps.org.uk.

“It was nice to review a such diverse images of many newly arrived summer visitors and a few favourite resident species photographed under blue skies.

Monday started with a lovely Red Kite at Stithians from Regina Griffiths and a great selection from Dean Pollard including a high contrast Rock Pipit and a fight shot of a Swallow against a soft green backdrop which may or may not be the best flight shot of a hirundine this we received this week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were about scarce migrants with both Tony Blunden and Steve Wood supplying action shots of the Lizard Point Hoopoe whilst Nigel Rogers and Gordon Hodgson did well to capture the flighty Woodchat at Nanquidno. Away from the migrant action Caroline Taylor gave us nice photographs of a Dipper and a Song Thrush at Respyn.

On Thursday two of our most accomplished contributors, Steve Rogers and Adam Holmes each provided an excellent image of a Sand Martin. Steve’s of a single bird perched on a fence against an unfussy background, whilst Adam dramatically caught a flying bird head on – another great candidate for the best flying hirundine of the week!

By Friday Dean was back in action again with a decent shot of a Cuckoo at Tregonetha Downs and Jim Eames sent in a vivid image from Hannafore of one the male Wheatears appearing around the coast. I also enjoyed the photographs of two feeding warblers – a female Blackcap munching ivy berries provided by Kathryn Hill and Alison’s Quincy’s shot from below of the long-staying “seven-striped sprite” (Pallas’s Warbler) near St. Ives.

Saturday brought another high-quality flying Swallow from Dean Pollard who also sent in a nicely composed Whitethroat – both from Windmill Farm. Also from Windmill was a pleasing shot of a Sedge Warbler from Aadil Kahn. Presumably they had the run of the reserve as warden Dougy Wright was off twitching the nearby Western Subalpine Warbler and shared some instructive images. I also enjoyed Caroline Taylor’s photo of a Shag splashing around in the bright turquoise waters of Hell’s Mouth

The week ended with a smart, rather chunky looking, Cirl Bunting on the Roseland from Caroline Taylor and a slightly more obliging Woodchat at Mullion from Steve Bury. We also received two technically excellent and nicely composed shots of common birds. The first from was of a Wren at Marazion from Martin Webb and the second of a Willow Warbler at Rosenanon Downs from Adrian Langdon.

Another great week for the sightings page and a massive thank you to all those who contributed images and apologies to all of those that I did not manage to name check. In the end, in case you have not guessed I was going to choose a flying hirundine as my POTW. And it was a hard choice – I was really impressed by Adam’s use of an unusual aspect to heighten the impact of his Sand Martin image, but my choice is Dean’s first image of a flying Swallow – the image is sharp, correctly exposed with plenty of resolution and the soft green background brings out the iridescent plumage of the head and breast and accentuates the orange throat and forehead. A very pleasing image and well done to Dean.”