Saturday 26th November 2016

1217 Cormorants flew out first thing on mass on a glorious sunny morning that made starring out to sea difficult. Heading south 2 Brent plus north 30 Common Scoter, 3 Brent, 2 Red-throated Diver, Turnstone & Guillemot. After the movement of Eider yesterday a single was noted sitting offshore. Passerine movements were limited to 2 Mipits & a Rock Pipit south, Mistle Thrush briefly on site plus a couple of new Blackies passing through.

Ringing: 2 Blackbird.

Friday 25th November 2016

62 Eider north & 5 south is the best count for several years - it is presumed that these are birds originating in the low countries heading for areas off the North Norfolk coast for the winter. Also on the move southbound 35 Common Scoter, 31 Wigeon, 18 Brent, Red-throated Diver & Goldeneye plus northbound 40 Common Scoter, 8 Brent, 3 Gannet, Red-throated Diver, Shelduck & Curlew. A first-winter Glaucous Gull that put in a couple of appearances offshore is presumably the same bird noted a couple of times lately. 3 Snow Bunting were on the beach and a couple of late autumn Blackbirds are still passing through.

Moths at this time of the year are hard to come by with Dark Chestnut the only one to show up the last couple of days.

4 birds ringed: 3 Blackbird, 1 Greenfinch.

Thursday 24th November 2016

North-easterly wind has brought no passerines accept a single Skylark onto the reserve. Offshore southbound 316 Brents, 22 Black-headed Gull, 19 Teal, 19 Common Scoter, 11 Wigeon, 4 Eider, 3 Mute Swan, 2 Shelduck, Red-throated Diver,  Gannet &  Gadwall plus northbound 60 Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver, Gannet, Kittiwake & Pomarine Skua. Shaggy Scalycap has come up in the same spot for several years running and as it's one of the more impressive fungi here's your annual photo.

No birds ringed.

Wednesday 23rd November 2016

Just for a change we have some calm after the storm, not that it's made a lot of difference. A small fall of thrushes this morning with a few Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Redwings making a brief appearance on route elsewhere, also 11 Meadow Pipits and 1 Yellow Hammer south, whilst 1 Woodcock, 1 Turnstone (above), 1 Rock Pipit and 30 Goldfinch were on site and a Kingfisher was seen in the dock basin by view point car park. Offshore just 1 Red-throated Diver and 23 Common Scoter went north.

5 birds ringed: 3 Song Thrush and 2 Blackbird.

Tuesday 22nd November 2016

Southerly gale blowing with occasional showers for the first half of the morning. Southbound 53 Dunlin, 47 Knot, 7 Gannet, 2 Common Scoter, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, Shelduck & the first Kittiwake of the winter. A mere 736 Cormorants headed out fishing this morning. With the gale not a lot of other coverage carried out.

No birds ringed

Monday 21st November 2016

Rain early on then again from mid-morning is not conducive to getting a lot done. Another new Blackcap just goes to show how late in the autumn some of the migrants coming into this country from eastern Europe for the winter arrive on our shores. Yesterdays fat bird weighed in at 21.9 g whereas today's was a third lighter at 16.7 g illustrating how much aviation fuel (fat) some individuals burn up just to get here. A Fieldfare was here first thing with the highlight of a walk around the site between the rain being 4 Meadow Pipits at the north end. Offshore sea watching tedious with a couple of hours producing just 2 Gadwal south plus 2 Common Scoter north apart from a dose of Cormorants & seagulls.

Ringing: 1 Blackcap

Sunday 20th November

Wet & windy then flat calm as the eye of the storm passed through before the gale returned. Offshore southbound 37 Knot, 4 Common Scoter, 3 Gannet, 3 Shelduck, Great-crested Grebe, Pintail, Velvet Scoter, Goosander & Dunlin plus northbound 3 Gannet, 2 Common Scoter & Razorbill although several hours of effort put in for these returns. A fat Blackcap was new in although in these conditions not a huge effort was put into surveying the area.

2 birds ringed: 1 Blackbird, 1 Blackcap.