Saturday 5th December 2015

Red sky in the morning birders warning ! Tad windy this morning. 689 Cormorants headed out to go fishing. Also noted southbound 67 Golden Plover 9 Brent, 9 Kitts, 4 Pintail, 3 Dunlin, 2 Wigeon, Red-throated Diver, Shelduck, Common Scoter, Grey Plover, northbound a single Guillemot plus 9 Gannet following a ship coming in. Single Fieldfare only land bird of note but in this wind birding not easy.

Friday 4th December 2015

Just 538 Cormorants flew out this morning. The only sighting of note in a day with little coverage was a Redpoll first thing plus one of the Goldcrests from the autumn is still loitering on site. Worth a mention is that a lot of Sycamore leaves are still hanging on this autumn - or should we be calling it winter by now ?

Ringing: 1 chaffinch

December Litter Pick

Usual monthly Litter Pick this Saturday 5th December 2015 0930hrs start. Further information on the events page of www.lbo.org.uk

Thursday 3rd December 2015

A late autumn Mistle Thrush popped in briefly & on a stroll around the nature reserve a Snipe was flushed that then departed inland. South bound went 48 Siskin, 13 Goldfinch & 4 Linnet. Offshore movements poor although a few Gannets following shipping is the norm lately and the usual mass of Cormorants went out fishing first thing.

The wind must have abated during the night for this Beautiful Plume to drop into a moth trap.

Wednesday 2nd December 2015

At least 767 Cormorants headed out to sea this morning which breaks the record - again ! Offshore hard work but worth a mention were south bound 17 Golden Plover, 8 Brent, 4 Common Scoter, Great-northern Diver, Red-breasted Merg & Curlew plus 11 Gannet following a ship in. Still some visible migration with 54 Siskin, 29 Goldfinch, 3 Linnet, Brambling & Little Egret heading south. On the reserve just the stuff that intends wintering here plus a brief appearance by a Snow Bunting. In the moth traps the odd migrant, like Dark Sword Grass, still showing up.

Ringing: 2 goldfinch

Tuesday 1st December 2015

Mist nets taken down for the winter this morning. Heading south this morning 12 Mipits, 2 Skylark, Rock Pipit & Goldfinch plus offshore 19 Golden Plover & 15 Knot. The usual "flight" of Cormorants was impressive again this morning with at least 691 heading out to sea. On the reserve a single Snow Bunting pitched in after flying over the observatory from the riverbank & a Rock Pipit was on the point. Mild conditions mean that a couple of moths were in the traps including Dark Chestnut which has been scarcer than usual for some reason this autumn.

Ringing: 1 blackbird.

Ringing Recovery

It was a surprise to find that the adult female Dutch ringed Blackbird caught here last week on 23/11/15 was the same bird that was caught here on 15/10/2014. It had been originally ringed 153km away at Westkapelle, Walcheren, Zeeland, The Netherlands on 04/10/2014. It is not the norm to retrap migrant Blackbirds here on consecutive years albeit a month later on passage this year than last.

November Ringing Totals

224 birds of 21 species ringed during the month including our first Pied Wheatear & only our third ever Waxwing.

Blackbird	77		House Sparrow	4
Lesser Redpoll	39		Wood Pigeon	2
Chaffinch	20		Sparrowhawk	1
Long-tailed Tit	14		Waxwing	1
Goldcrest	12		Pied Wheatear	1
Goldfinch	10		Fieldfare	1
Greenfinch	9		Dunnock	1
Song Thrush	8		Chiffchaff	1
Blackcap	7		Brambling	1
Redwing	6
Robin	5
Wren	4

Monday 30th November 2015

Rain so far & although it's due to stop for a while mid-day it's due to start again this afternoon. 344 Cormorants flew out to sea early on (I say early on but even they didn't bother getting up very early today) & 5 Common Scoter went south in about 1.5 hrs observation. Apart from that it's seagulls behind ships. If anyone pops down here later in the day & sees owt of note this blog will get updated later.

Shaggy Scalycap is, in my opinion, one of the better looking fungi with these ones coming up in exactly the same spot as they appeared last year.

Sunday 29th November 2015

With the weather as it is over the next few days, staring out to sea is likely to be the best chance of seeing anything. Today was no exception, as a total of 61 Golden Plover, 15 Knot, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 15 Common Scoter all went south, and 14 Gannet, 1 Bonxie, at least 1 Kittiwake and an adult Med Gull(above), were hanging around offshore.

Ringing only produced 1 bird, a House Sparrow.