Saturday 27th January 2018

805 Cormorant went out fishing very early on. 2 Purps on the point but of more interest was a Sanderling which flew past from up the estuary round the jetty and had several attempts to pitch in on the beach but aborted due to far to many dogs both on & off leads and departed towards Felixstowe. Handful of Red-throated Diver & Kitts offshore with about 40 Kitts following a dredger in mid-day. Don't forget to keep your eyes open for colour ringed gulls - white on red background are our combinations with both WNU & ZJF regular in the car parks but we do all need to keep a track on other combinations that do not turn up very often.

Bird Observatory Council Newsletter

Bird Observatory Council annual newsletter now out. Link below:

http://anyflip.com/lmyq/wqho/

Friday 26th January 2018

Cold start followed by a glorious sunny calm morning is just what Mr Kestrel likes. 894 Cormorants went out fishing early. 2 Purple Sandpiper & Rock Pipit on the point (be warned they can easily disappear amongst the rocks and old jetty if the tide is down and it is strongly recommended that one does not venture onto the seaweed covered surfaces to look for them). 29 Linnet is definitely a sign of longer days and glorious sunny weather. In the "good old days" Linnet were non-existent here in the winter only reappearing in early March but these days many are obviously wintering near by as they can quickly reappear if favourable conditions allow. Last century the bulk, if not all, of them went to Spain for the winter. Only other bird worth a mention is a Sparrowhawk as they have been scarce here over the last couple of months preferring to frequent gardens to the north of us for richer pickings.

Thursday 25th January 2018

1,507 Cormorant went out fishing very early on in the half light. 2 Purps & a Turnstone on the point. 14 Linnet on the reserve and a Skylark heading south mid-morning must think spring is here and is going back from whence it came.

Winter Twiglet Tubaria furfuracea growing in profusion on the Holm Oak chippings in front of the observatory although this is confusing as in my book it is called Scurfy Twiglet which is now the same species that comes out in the summer. The scientific name of Winter Twiglet used to be T. hiemalis but I am reliably told that when the DNA specialists got round to sequencing the Tubaria species they found that both species are the same and are now all called T. furfuracea. Not surprising us novices find fungi difficult !

Wednesday 24th January 2018

A Song Thrush was singing early morning for the first time this "spring" whilst 1,570 Cormorant were counted going out to sea fishing. Offshore southbound 71 Kitts, 17 Common Gull, 11 Brent, 4 Red-throated Diver & 2 Oyks with northbound single Red-throat & Oyk. Windy with light rain or drizzle for most of the morning was no incentive to walk round the reserve. A Starling was only the fifth sighting this year which is a sad reflection of the state of play of this once abundant species - even making the effort to drive into the View Point car park to look around the cafe is failing to produce any. Following all the rain over recent weeks more fungi about the place including Turkey-tail on coppiced Sycamore stump.

Recent Ringing Recoveries

Chiffchaff ringed Landguard 30th September 2017 retrapped 926 km away at Marais-Moisan, Ouest, Landes, France on 9th October 2017. Lesser Redpoll ringed Landguard 9th November 2017 retrapped 15km away in Ipswich 14th January 2018.

Tuesday 23rd January 2018

Two Purps this morning. Offshore southbound 84 Brent, 11 Kitts & Great-crested Grebe with northbound 2 Red-throated Diver plus 23 Kitts & 2 Med Gulls following shipping. 1,847 Cormorants went out to sea fishing in the half light.

Monday 22nd January 2018

1,840 Cormorants went out in a five minute spell early on. Offshore a small handful of Red-throated Divers plus 33 Kitts pulling in behind the Stenna Britannica as it went out. Purple Sand & Rock Pipit on the point despite the tide being out when we walked past this morning (often hard to find these species at low tide). The sun has just come out after an awfully dull wet weekend that reminded one more of Wales than sunny old Felixstowe !

Sunday 21st January 2018

God it looks bleak down here at the moment. 2,583 Cormorants went out to sea fishing early on. Male Bullfinch on site continues the increased run of records of this species over the last couple of years (but it's still notable as less than ten records annually over the last 20 years). Fieldfare worth a mention as is a Lesser Black-backed Gull as they largely desert us in the winter. Now raining again - last year was an incredibly dry one but recent weeks seem to be making up for it.