FRIDAY 6th JANUARY 2012

Glorious sunny morning, 79 Red-throats & 132 Cormorants coming & going. Also noted both Great-northern & Black-throated Divers going north, 4 Shelduck, 2 Common Scoter & a Great-crested Grebe going south plus a Pom Skua up to no good offshore. Purp Sand & 6 Turnstones on the groynes in front of the Butts with at least 5 Meds knocking about. On the reserve the highlights were 2 Goldfinch & a Redwing.

THURSDAY 5th JANUARY 2012

Blowing a gale. Apart from the Red-throats & Cormorants going back & forth offshore a few bits went south including 14 Wigeon, 6 Pintail, 5 Shelduck, Gadwal & Common Scoter.

WEDNESDAY 4th JANUARY 2012

93 Red-throats north 61 south with 98 Cormorants out 44 north 9 south probably just indicating good fishing offshore at the moment. On the move this morning 2 Shoveler, 2 Pintail, 2 Shelduck, Great-crested Grebe, Black-throated Diver & Oyk all going south. Peregrine & Pom Skua also put in an appearance out to sea. A walk round the reserve was characteristically tedious - which is what we expect at this time of the year in these weather conditions. Sparrowhawk & Little Owl were the highlights.

TUESDAY 3rd JANUARY 2012

Tad breezy this am to say the least. Pom Skua put in an appearance close inshore which is a different bird to one of those seen well towards the end of last year. 7 Shelduck & a Gadwal went south apart from which it's just a few Cormorants, Red-throated Divers & Kittiwakes riding the gale.

MONDAY 2nd JANUARY 2012

2 Bewick's Swans south offshore at 0940hrs were good to get as we failed to record this species last year. Plenty of Cormorant & Red-throated Diver activity offshore again today with the only other movers being 5 Shelduck & a Brent south. Snow Bunting was heard calling early on this morning.

SUNDAY 1st JANUARY 2012

Over 170 Red-throated Divers & 100 Cormorants so far. Also going south 10 Common Scoter, 5 Shelduck, 5 Wigeon, 2 Pintail, 2 Brents, Teal & Great-crested Grebe. Gannet went north. A quick walk around the reserve revealed nowt of note although a Redwing had been seen earlier. Finally a Great-northern Diver came in from the north & pitched in late morning.

DECEMBER RINGING TOTALS

7 birds of 5 species ringed.

Joint 1st:     Greenfinch & Goldfinch    2     Joint 3rd:     Sparrowhawk, Kestrel & Med Gull     1