Saturday 28th January 2012

11 Snow Buntings on the beach plus the first Sanderling for a while along the shoreline near the point at low tide. Deadly quiet offshore.

Friday 27th January 2012

Flying visit only this morning due to a meeting at the town hall. Female Peregrine on the nearest of the tallest new dock cranes & Rock Pipit on the point. A fat adult Wood Pigeon in the Helli was the first new bird to be ringed here this year ! In the pm Rock Pipit & Purp on the groynes in front of the Butts.

Thursday 26th January 2012

Rain up to late morning. Woodcock, Rock Pipit & Peregrine still with us. Very little time spent staring out to sea (difficult to contain the excitement out there at the moment !). Worth a mention over recent days is fresh excavation at one of the fox earths with a lot more fresh fox pooh around lately - usually left quite inconsiderately in the middle of one of the main paths around the site.

Wednesday 25th January 2012

Thick damp fog to 0930ish not nice. Golden Plover & Snow Bunting heard flying around calling in the fog. 4 Pied Wags are the first for some while as they are scarce here in the winter quite possibly due to a well known local birder feeding them meal worms all winter in the docks. Flushed a Woodcock picking up litter in the observatory compound (that's me picking up litter not the Woodcock !). Rock Pipit on the point & Peregrine siting on the dock crane again.

Tuesday 24th January 2012

Pair of Peregrines around the nearest of the tallest new dock cranes - not close, but as long as this crane is not in use it seems to becoming a favoured perch. Offshore 4 Common Scoter north, 3 Brents & 2 Red-throated Divers south. Rock Pipit on the Butts but not a lot of effort put in to finding out what's on the reserve. Persisting down with rain all morning - even resorted to getting the vacuum clearer out for a rare spin in the obs.

Monday 23rd January 2012

Woodcock & Fieldfare were new in today. Of the 3 Snow Buntings noted this morning one of them spent a considerable amount of time flying around displaying in some sort of song flight to impress the ladies - won't be long before they start heading back north in these mild conditions. Offshore still tedious with just the one Red-throated Diver north, 4 Common Scoter, 2 Brents & 2 Shelduck south plus Cormorants. The population of Cormorants appears to have gone up exponentially around here over the years. The local Peregrine also put in an appearance this morning.

2011 Reports

The 2011 annual reports for birds, butterflies, dragonflies, mammals, moths & miscellaneous records are now available under the archive section of http://www.lbo.org.uk/ Updated systematic lists will follow shortly.

Sunday 22nd January 2012

4 Ringos on the reserve is an indication of the mild conditions as some of the locals return to the site to check it's still here. Rock Pipit on the point still but little else on a walk round. Staring out to see produced Cormorants, seagulls & a Brent south. More gulls behind the ships in the harbour than out to sea in this wind. A policeman spent several hours on the beach with a big baby grey seal following phone calls from concerned members of the public. What's this ? - a nature reserve with wildlife on it - whatever next !