Saturday 14th November 2015

Mild conditions so far this month means that winter thrush's & blackies that we rely on at this time of the year are not bothering to come in from the continent. Consequently very few migrants are about on site although a handful of Goldcrests & a Short-eared Owl are still with us.. Some vis mig (before the rain) of birds heading south included 69 Siskin, 16 Mipits, 16 Linnet, 3 Redpoll & 2 Chaffinch. Offshore movements included 158 Black-headed Gulls, 27 Common Gull, 7 Grey Plover, 5 Brents, 4 Common Scoter, Shelduck, Wigeon, Goosander, Knot, Barwit, Oyk, Snipe & Bonxie. Only 390 Cormorants noted flying out to feed this morning although we may have missed some.

Nil birds ringed.

Recent Recoveries

Goldcrest ringed 802km away at Revtangan, Klepp, Rogaland, Norway on 05/10/2015 controlled at Landguard 17/10/2015. Long-tailed Tit ringed 72km away at Santon Warren, Norfolk on 14/07/2015 controlled at Landguard 03/11/2015.

Blackcap ringed Landguard 17/09/2015 controlled 98km away at Welney, Norfolk three days later having lost 3 grammes in weight. Sparrowhawk ringed Landguard 23/09/2011 hit a glass window in Felixstowe 02/11/2015 (most of our Sparrowhawks are recovered dead after hitting glass windows so please don't clean your windows !). Grey Wagtail ringed Landguard 17/10/2015 hit glass & was then released when it recovered ten days later 242km away at Breda, Noord-brabant, The Netherlands. This is only the third Grey Wagtail ringed in the UK to have been found in Holland with two of them having been ringed here - not sure what this tells us but maybe a pattern is starting to emerge ?

Friday 13th November 2015

Another wild, wet and windy day today but still a few birds moving through despite the weather.

New migrants today on the move and on land include 39 Siskin, 29 Goldfinch, 23 Linnet, 13 Redpoll, 9 Greenfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 484 Woodpigeon, 20 Stock Dove, 2 Goldcrest, 10 Meadow Pipit, 3 Rock Pipit, 5 Skylark,1 Fieldfare and 1 Stonechat.

Windy and wild weather proved rather decent for sea watching with totals as follows - 472 Cormorant, 6 Brent Geese, 3 Shelduck, 2 Goldeneye, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Great Northern Diver, 48 Dunlin, 4 Golden Plover, 3 Avocet, 2 Redshank, 2 Turnstone, 2 Purple Sandpiper, 2 Knot, 2 Snipe, 1 Oystercatcher, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Common Gull, 14 Black-headed Gull, c.250 Herring Gull and c.120 Great-Black Backed Gull.

Clear skies early on this morning gave way for another passage of Woodpigeons.

Ringing: 4 birds ringed during the morning which included 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Goldcrest.

Saturday Litter Pick

Litter Pick this Saturday 14th November 0930hrs start. Further information on the events page of www.lbo.org.uk

Thursday 12th November 2015

A beautiful day today at the observatory with a drop in the wind, this gave quite a few migrants the chance to move off and venture out to their chosen migration spots.

New arrivals today came in the form of a nice finch movement involving 197 Goldfinch, 189 Siskin, 98 Chaffinch, 76 Greenfinch, 39 Linnet, 21 Redpoll and 11 Brambling. Woodpigeons were on the move again with c.595, along with 102 Stock Dove and 4 Collared Dove.

Amongst others, 82 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 17 Skylark, 3 Reed Bunting, 13 Starling, 1 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 13 Lapwing, 2 Jackdaw, 1+ Dunlin, 1 House Martin, 1 Common Buzzard (offshore), 8 Common Scoter, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Guillemot, 1 Red-throated Diver and 2 Mediterranean Gull.

A movement of 518 Cormorant this morning, all heading out to sea.  

Ringing: 5 birds ringed during the morning including 1 Woodpigeon, 1 Blackbird, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Robin.

Wednesday 11th November 2015

This male Southern Hawker Dragonfly is possibly the latest ever recorded in Suffolk. It appears to be in very fresh condition, and so could have emerged early due to the unseasonably warm weather.

Good numbers of Finches were passing through again today, on their way south, they comprised of 430 Siskin, 278 Goldfinch, 98 Linnet, 40 Chaffinch and 1 Brambling along with 21 Lesser Redpoll which stopped off at the tapes near the net lanes. Also seen were around 500 Cormorant, most of which flew over having left their winter roost site at Trimley, on their way out to feed offshore. Apart from that, the Short-eared Owl was again seen hunting along the beach, and both Mistle Thrush and a very plump female Blackcap was on site.

18 birds were ringed today, they were 15 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldfinch, 1 House Sparrow and the above plump Blackcap.

Tuesday 10th November 2015

Same old weather conditions today - windy and wild and heavy cloud but despite this, there were still quite a few birds still moving. 

New arrivals today included a small movement of  97 Woodpigeon, along with 12 Stock Dove. Amongst others, 14 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 1 Skylark, c.10 Goldcrest, 1 Blackcap, 155 Siskin, 82 Goldfinch, 61 Linnet, 7 Greenfinch, 6 Redpoll and 2 Chaffinch moving south. 

Sea watching produced 288 Cormorant, 9 Common Scoter, 9 Brent Geese, 2 Common Gull, 1 Great-Crested Grebe, 2 Turnstone, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Ringed Plover and 1 Knot. 

The Satellite appeared in one of our moth traps this morning, the first of the year and quite a common moth in the United Kingdom.

Ringing: 2 birds ringed during the day which included 1 Song Thrush and 1 Woodpigeon.

Monday 9th November 2015

A rather wild and windy day today, with south westerly winds and heavy cloud there were a few birds on the move giving a rather wintry feel to the observatory.

Migrants today included 304 Cormorant, 30 Brent Geese, 13 Common Scoter, 4 Pintail, 2 Female Goosander, 2 Mallard, 2 Wigeon, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Gannet, 16 Common Gull, 3 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Kittiwake, 6 Knot, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Dunlin, 1 Turnstone, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Golden Plover, 1 Ruff, c.11 Blackbird, 4 Song Thrush, 3 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare, 6 Robin, 3 Goldcrest, 10 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 3 Pied Wagtail, 20 Starling, 183 Woodpigeon, 6 Stock Dove, 42 Goldfinch, 19 Siskin, 14 Greenfinch, 13 Linnet, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Merlin and 1 Short-eared Owl.

This ringed Med Gull is presumably one of ours from previous years - anyone with a big lens want to photograph the ring?

Ringing: 1 bird ringed today which was 1 Goldcrest.

Sunday 8th November 2015

This distant record shot was of a Little Egret seen offshore today.

The southerly wind and overcast conditions did not help the birding. Very little was about after the early morning passage of finches had dried up. The flocks mainly comprising 219 Goldfinch, 129 Siskin, 36 Linnet, 35 Chaffinch, 33 Lesser Redpoll, 26 Greenfinch and 2 Brambling south along with 43 Meadow Pipit and 16 Skylark. Offshore, small numbers of ducks and waders were seen, the best being a close Goosander.

8 birds were ringed, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Blackbird and 1 each of Blackcap and Goldcrest.