Saturday 5th January 2019

Fish for breakfast (whiting ?).

Cold, dull day. 1,225 Cormorants went out fishing. Offshore northbound 28 Red-throated Diver, Common Scoter & Guillemot plus 7 Kitts following shipping. On site single Goldcrest, Sparrowhawk & a new Songie.

Ringing: 1 Song Thrush

Friday 4th January 2019

Very inhospitable coastline for young Shag - this one didn't make it through the winter.

1,555 Cormorant went out fishing. Some offshore action (but not a lot) with southbound 16 Black-headed Gull, 4 Brent & Red-throated Diver with northbound 127 Black-heads, 9 Red-throats,2 Brent, Gannet & Guillemot plus a couple of Red-throats & Guillys sat on the sea. On site cold & quiet although 10 Great Tit (don't get double figure winter counts very often), 4 Linnet & Goldcrest noted.

Ringing: 1 Chaffinch.

Thursday 3rd January 2019

Very pleasant sunny winters morning. A perambulation around the peninsula produced just the stuff that lives here (and not a lot of that either !).

Wednesday 2nd January 2019

Not a good start to the year for this Rabbit.

Offshore southbound 18 Red-throated Diver, 2 Shelduck, 2 Brent, 1 Guillemot with northbound 26 Red-throats & 3 Guillemot plus an additional Guilly on the sea in only a limited time spent observing as the sun was a bit bright. On site 9 Linnet, 2 Stonechat along View Point Road plus 4 Ringos & Purp at the point at high tide early on.

2019 Membership

Existing members are reminded that the 2019 membership fee is now due. New members are also welcome to join & support the work carried out at Landguard Bird Observatory. Further information on the website via the Home Page above or the link below:

https://www.lbo.org.uk/membership/

Tuesday 1st January 2019

1,780 Cormorant went out fishing. Plenty of Red-throated Diver offshore at the moment with 141 heading north in a 40 minute spell earlier & 28 south in a 15 minute spell late morning. Also noted moving south 5 Common Scoter, 3 Shelduck & a Skylark over the reserve. The 2 Stonechat are still at the north end. 3 new Blue Tit ringed is just what bird ringers would expect at other sites in mid-winter but here it is exceptional as we very rarely catch any new Bluey's between mid-November and early March. These three turned up with a couple of old hands plus a solitary Long-tailed Tit originally ringed here in October that we have not seen since. Also of note this morning was a Porpoise as we only rarely note this cetacean at this time of the year.

December Ringing Totals

For the sake of completeness - 4 birds of 4 species:

1 Blackbird, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 House Sparrow.

With no late autumn/winter thrush movements then this low December total has only been lower in one single year since the observatory started in 1982.