Saturday 28th December 2013

Lovely winters morning. Going south 31 Kitts, 15 Red-throated Diver, 4 Greylags, 3 Oyks, Shelduck, Goldeneye & Mipit plus going north 13 Red-throated Diver & 2 Guillemot. 3 Guillemot also sat on the sea. Only 7 Snow Bunting this morning down towards the point.

Friday 27th December 2013

Tad breezy still following the overnight gales & rain. Woodcock came off the reserve & dived into the compound first thing. Going south 105 Dunlin, 50 Wigeon, 43 Common Scoter 16 Pintail, 11 Knot, 7 Grey Plover, 4 Brent, 3 Teal, 3 Guillemot, 2 Goldeneye, 2 Oyk, Red-throated Diver, Shelduck, Curlew & Razorbill plus going north 3 Velvet Scoter, 2 Brent, Tufted Duck & Guillemot. A Pom Skua spent a considerable amount of time just offshore this morning either harassing gulls or loitering on the sea. At least 139 Kitts following ships plus a Great-crested Grebe was on the sea. Wader movements are reasonably noteworthy as we only normally get movements at this time of the year during spells of cold weather not during gales when they normally have the sense to sit tight somewhere.

Ringing: 1 Greenfinch.

XMAS LITTER PICK

Litter pick this Saturday 28th. Same place, same planet, same arrangements. Further information on the Events page of www.lbo.org.uk

Thursday 26th December 2013

Limited staring out to sea for under an hour first thing before getting on with grounds maintenance produced going south 9 Red-throated Diver, 2 Shelduck, 2 Common Scoter, 2 Dunlin & Red-breasted Merganser plus going north 5 Red-throated Diver & 4 Brent. Guillemot flew across and pitched in. The 8 Snow Bunting flew around a couple of times revealing their presence. Also noted 14 Greenfinch & 12 Linnets - the largest Greenie flock for some time which is not the sort of thing one really wants to write about but if you lot would stop feeding them in your gardens in the winter then a few more of them might potter on down here to exploit the feeders in our Helgoland trap !

Wednesday 25th December 2013

Pleasant morning. Going south 21 Common Scoter, 15 Wigeon & 6 Red-throated Diver plus going north 2 Red-throats & 2 Common Scoter. 78 Kitts were behind the only ship coming in all morning. 2 Pied Wags going south is getting a bit late in the year for movements although they were being chased by a local male who turned around a came back.

Tuesday 24th December 2013

Going south 204 Kitts (2 oiled adults not a good sight to see), 83 Common Scoter, 6 Teal, 6 Wigeon, 5 Pintail, 4 Red-throated Diver, 2 Brent, 2 Long-tailed Duck, 2 Guillemot, Great-crested Grebe, Red-necked Grebe & Shelduck plus going north 3 Red-throated Diver & a Common Scoter. We seem to be having a record autumn passage (is it still autumn ?) for Long-tailed Duck with this mornings birds going past independent of each other not to far out. At least 8 Snow Bunting are on the beach towards the point. A severe gale last night rather unusually brought 6 Curlew onto the reserve although the first dog of the day soon shifted them.

Ringing: 1 Wood Pigeon

Monday 23rd December 2013

Increasing wind and it's just started raining as this blog is written. A female type Velvet Scoter went south fairly early on with, presumably, the same bird going back north 1.5 hrs later. At least 62 Kitts following shipping offshore but the meagre selection of entries on the pad include going south 6 Common Scoter, 5 Red-throated Diver, 3 Shoveler, 4 Brent, 2 Shelduck, 2 Guillemot & Grey Plover plus going north 3 Red-throats, 2 Brent & a Guilly. Not sure what's on the reserve as no one's going to walk round in these conditions !

Sunday 22nd December 2013

2 Ruff going south offshore is an odd record for us. Ruff is not recorded here every year & those that are seen are usually in August or early September. Not sure if we even have a December record. Apart from this not a lot of real note. Going south 65 Kitts, 12 Common Scoter, 9 Wigeon, 8 Gannet, 6 Pintail, Red-throated Diver, Shelduck, Gadwal & Knot plus going north 8 Red-throated Diver, 2 Gannet, Brent Goose & Common Scoter.