A cold northerly wind was blowing throughout most of the morning today, later turning into a sunny and warm day.
Expect the unexpected at Landguard. Today was exactly this when this little beauty turned up mid morning in one of our mist nets. This Blyth's Reed Warbler (above) was a very nice unexpected find this morning. This species is very similar to our much commoner Reed Warbler but when trying to distinguish between the two species we look for a few areas of important criteria. In particular the emargination on the 4th primary (3rd from top), in relation to it's other primaries, (below). In this case this individual has this and with a few other features and measurements that were taken we were able to make a positive and correct ID.
This represents the first record for Landguard and only the fourth record for Suffolk.
A Dartford Warbler was seen briefly in the morning but not seen again.
Other notable migrants seen include 60 Goldfinch, 38 Meadow Pipit, 25 Robin, 15 Song Thrush, 15 Goldcrest, 15 Chiffchaff, 15 Blackcap, 11 Swallow, 10 Chaffinch, 9 Skylark, 6 Redwing, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Wheatear, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Brambling, 1 Redpoll, 1 House Martin, 1 Woodlark, 1 Mistle Thrush and 1 Lapwing.
Sea watching produced 35 Black-headed Gull, 5 Cormorant, 3 Brent Geese, 1 Common Gull and 1 Sandwich Tern.
Ringing: 24 birds ringed this morning including 7 Chiffchaff, 5 Chaffinch, 2 Wren, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Dunnock, 2 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit and 1 Blyth's Reed Warbler.