Saturday 30th January 2016

Cooler windy day, dull am & sunny in pm. Southbound 200 Golden Plover, 25 Kitts, 11 Red-throated Diver, 9 Brent, 6 Guillemot, Gannet, Oyk & Grey Plover plus northbound 12 Red-throats & 5 Brent. Usual mellee of gulls but Common Gull numbers have thinned out a tad to a mere 600 a figure we would have been delighted with a couple of weeks ago. This male Kes is still thinning out the local bird population having nobbled a Robin this afternoon.

Friday 29th January 2016

Wind got stronger as the morning went on. A Black-tailed Godwit south just offshore is an odd record for the winter. Considering how many Blackwits winter on the estuaries just inland from us we only rarely see any here & those that we do are in the summer months. A Porpoise is also a good mid-winter record as most of them we see are at the warmer time of the year. Southbound this morning 255 Golden Plover, 13 Auk sp., 10 Brent, 7 Gannet, 5 Guillemot, 4 Red-throated Diver, 2 Pintail, Wigeon & Grey Plover with northbound 13 Red-throats, 5 Brent & Gannet with single Guillemot, Razorbill & Bonxie offshore. Most of the Auk Sp. heading south offshore also pitched in but with poor viz they eluded confident identification. Still plenty of seagulls about & at least one Goldcrest is still on site.

Ringing: 1 house sparrow

Thursday 28th January 2016

Jupiter showing well next to the moon first thing on what turned out to be a glorious sunny morning. No sea watching out into the abyss due to the "currant bun" being retina burning but a plethora of gulls, including 5 Meds, still in the harbour & offshore. Skylark going south is this mornings migrant but apart from that it's just the locals in the usual places.

Wednesday 27th January 2016

1897 Golden Plover south heading to their day time roost is a site record. At least 3,500 assorted seagulls knocking around this morning. Also noted southbound 800 Common Gull, 131 Kitts, 5 Brent, 5 Guillemot, 4 Shelduck, 2 Red-throated Diver, Oyk & Turnstone plus northbound 2 Red-throats & Fulmar. Finally both Razorbill & Guillemot bouncing around on the waves offshore.

Tuesday 26th January 2016

Seagull city at the moment with estimates of at least 1,500 Common Gull, 1,250 Herring Gull, 1,000 Kitts, 300 Great Black-backed Gull, 150 Black-headed Gull, 3 Meds & 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull. Many of the Common Gulls & Kitts were drifting south, feeding offshore or following shipping. This is the best Kitt count for some time with the Common Gull numbers also pleasing as they have been inland on the fields for the bulk of the winter so far. Also noted southbound 264 Golden Plover, 8 Brent, Red-throated Diver, Great-crested Grebe & northbound 4 Brent plus a Razorbill that came in from before pitching in on the sea. An hour in the View Point car park with the camera pocked out of the car window after lunch produced the above Med ringed here as an adult in January 2010 plus a Black-headed Gull done here on the same day as this Med and another ringed here back in June 2000.

Monday 25th January 2016

Glorious mild almost spring like morning. A handful of Brents & a Golden Plover went past plus a Woodcock is still with us. Plenty of seagulls to go through but nowt odd.

Ringing: 1 wood pigeon, 1 house sparrow

2015 RINGING TOTALS

The updated ringing statistics for 2015 are now available on www.lbo.org.uk

Recent Ringing Recoveries

Chiffchaff ringed Landguard 5th July 2015 retrapped 188km away at Reserve Naturelle De Somme, France 5th October 2015 - this bird was ringed as a youngster here so will have been born somewhere near here.

Blackbird ringed 398km away at Rhostryfan, Caernarfon 28th February 2013 retrapped Landguard 22nd November 2015 - presumably a continental bird wintering in Wales and just passing through here.

Blackbird ringed Landguard 9th November 2014 retrapped 258km away at Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands 6th January 2016 - presumably a continental bird caught here on autumn passage one year and wintering in Holland in a subsequent year.

Blue Tit ringed Landguard 22nd September 2015 retrapped 25km away at Wivenhoe, Essex 29th December 2015 demonstrating how young Blue Tits go "walkabout" in the autumn.

Lesser Redpoll ringed Landguard 25th October 2012 retrapped 35km away at Arger Fen, Suffolk 24th October 2015.

Sunday 24th January 2016

With the milder murky conditions then we can't expect to much in mid-winter. Starring out did however produce southbound 220 Golden Plover, 58 Common Gull, 30 Teal, 14 Kitts, 4 Gadwall, Pintail & the first Bonxie for 12 days plus northbound 15 Brent & Common Scoter. The Cormorants seem to be leaving roost and heading out to the north of us, but look on the bright side, this saves us having to count them. This is more than compensated for by the sight of a right old "Roger Mellie" behind the Stenna Britannica when it went out with c.2,000 quarrelsome seagulls behind it including another 70 Kitts & a couple of Meds. Plenty of Great Tit argy bargy at the moment as the local males compete for females constantly calling and advertising their wares - to be honest we have more pairs of Great Tits than the site can support so competition is intense. Finally a Woodcock is on site (or the same one as a couple of days ago).