Saturday 9th April 2016

A cold, bleak, wet and windy day today at the observatory with very little of note. Still, a few migrants appeared in between the spells of rain..

On the move - 1 Meadow Pipit, 5 Goldcrest, 1 Firecrest, 2 Wheatear and 1 Black Redstart.

Sea watching produced 56 Cormorant, 4 Oystercatcher, 1 Greylag Goose, 2 Common Gull and our 1st Whimbrel of the year.

Ringing: No birds ringed due to the weather.

Friday 8th April 2016

A beautiful calm and clear morning, bringing the sun out until lunchtime. A good morning for new arrivals and migration.

In the early hours of the morning, a Kingfisher was caught and ringed and is possibly our 1st ever spring record of this species. It's also the 18th ever ringed at the observatory.

Migration today came in the form of 50 Woodpigeon, 2 Firecrest, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Continental Coal Tit, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 6 Meadow Pipit, 4 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 White Wagtail, 3 Swallow, 5 Siskin, 4 Goldfinch, 1 Yellowhammer, 2 Jackdaw, 1 Sparrowhawk, 7 Greylag Geese, 5 Common Gull, 4 Cormorant and 2 Oystercatcher.

Ringing: 7 birds ringed this morning including 1 Kingfisher, 1 Firecrest, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Wren, 1 Great Tit and 1 Woodpigeon.

Recent Ringing Recoveries

Black-headed Gull in the Manor Terrace car park on 15th + 23rd February 2016 ringed as a pullus 47km at Foulness, Essex on 22nd June 2008. Three birds ringed 10km at Bawdsey Hall were retrapped at Landguard this spring being a Goldcrest ringed 10th October 2015 at Landguard 31st March 2016, Chaffinch ringed 26th November 2015 at Landguard 23rd March 2016 & Great Tit ringed 23rd February 2016 at Landguard 13th March 2016. Finally details of a Goldcrest ringed at Landguard on 4th November 1995 was retrapped 131km away at Hatton, Greater London on 7th January 1996 but why this information has taken over 20 years to reach us is unknown !

Thursday 7th April 2016

A rather cold, blustery and bleak feel to the observatory today, as the winds change direction and it all goes quiet here. Still, a few birds lingering..

Several of our veteran Dunnocks are still around at the observatory and on the nature reserve, with some of them that we've ringed in the past, dating back to 2012.

Birds on the move today and on-site came in the form of 79 Woodpigeon, 6 Rook, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 6 Goldfinch, 4 Siskin, 3 Wheatear, 7 Meadow Pipit, 1 Black Redstart, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Redwing, 1 Swallow, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 Continental Coal Tit.

Sea watching produced 15 Black-headed Gull, 3 Common Gull, 9 Cormorant, 4 Gannet, 1 Fulmar, 1 Common Scoter, 1 Red-throated Diver, 2 Grey Heron and 6 Brent Geese.

Ringing: 2 birds ringed today including 1 Blue Tit and 1 Dunnock.

Wednesday 6th April 2016

This adult male Firecrest was one of 5 on-site today.

After a lovely day yesterday, today was back to a cool, windy and showery day, that we had hoped was long passed. Needless to say that far less in the way of birds was on offer. Apart from the Firecrests, only 2 Wheatear were on-site, along with 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Redwing and a lovely male Brambling, which sadly stayed but a few seconds before moving on. Offshore a Goosander and a Bar-tailed Godwit, both going south was the best of it. 

10 birds were ringed: 4 Firecrest, 2 Chaffinch and 1 each of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Goldfinch and Magpie.

Tuesday 5th April 2016

A calm and sunny morning at the observatory today with a pretty decent selection of species on offer. A good array of new migrants too.

Migrants today involved 8 Black Redstart, 9 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 5 Goldcrest, 3 Firecrest, 7 Goldfinch, 5 Siskin, 4 Chaffinch, 1 Redpoll, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Redwing, 10 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 1 Skylark, 1 Woodlark, 4 Wheatear, 1 Yellowhammer, 1 Continental Coal Tit, 1 Rook, 2 Stock Dove, 1 Sparrowhawk, 8 Oystercatcher, 1+ Curlew, 2 Brent Geese, 4 Red-throated Diver, 11 Shelduck, 33 Black headed Gull, 27 Cormorant and 3 Common Gull.

Ringing: 28 birds ringed today including 6 Chiffchaff, 4 Goldcrest, 3 Blackcap, 3 Wheatear, 2 Robin, 2 Blackbird, 2 Redwing, 2 Firecrest, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Great Tit and 1 Black Redstart.

Monday 4th April 2016

A light south-westerly wind this morning, along with spells of light rain made recording difficult. Still, a few new arrivals noted.

These were 5 Swallow, 8 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, 5 Goldcrest, 4 Firecrest, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldfinch, 3 Wheatear, 3 Meadow Pipit, 1 Rock Pipit, 1 Black Redstart, 2 Redwing, 1 Continental Coal Tit, 1 Rook, 26 Cormorant, 18 Oystercatcher, 1 Redshank, 1 Turnstone, 1 Grey Plover, 13 Shelduck, 3 Red-throated Diver, 2 Gannet, 1 Great Crested Grebe and 1 Common Scoter.

Ringing: 7 birds ringed this morning including 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Firecrest, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Song Thrush.

Sunday 3rd April 2016

One of the small number of Chiffchaffs that turned up overnight.

The overnight rain and south-westerly winds did not produce as much as hoped, however, birds are still trickling through, with 2 Firecrest on-site along with a Goldcrest, 8 Chiffchaff, another continental Coal Tit, 3 Black Redstart, 2 Blackcap, Swallow north, 2 Wheatear and a Redwing.

8 birds were ringed: 5 Chiffchaff, and 1 each of Firecrest, Blackcap and Robin.