Saturday 5th January 2019

Fish for breakfast (whiting ?).

Cold, dull day. 1,225 Cormorants went out fishing. Offshore northbound 28 Red-throated Diver, Common Scoter & Guillemot plus 7 Kitts following shipping. On site single Goldcrest, Sparrowhawk & a new Songie.

Ringing: 1 Song Thrush

Friday 4th January 2019

Very inhospitable coastline for young Shag - this one didn't make it through the winter.

1,555 Cormorant went out fishing. Some offshore action (but not a lot) with southbound 16 Black-headed Gull, 4 Brent & Red-throated Diver with northbound 127 Black-heads, 9 Red-throats,2 Brent, Gannet & Guillemot plus a couple of Red-throats & Guillys sat on the sea. On site cold & quiet although 10 Great Tit (don't get double figure winter counts very often), 4 Linnet & Goldcrest noted.

Ringing: 1 Chaffinch.

Thursday 3rd January 2019

Very pleasant sunny winters morning. A perambulation around the peninsula produced just the stuff that lives here (and not a lot of that either !).

Wednesday 2nd January 2019

Not a good start to the year for this Rabbit.

Offshore southbound 18 Red-throated Diver, 2 Shelduck, 2 Brent, 1 Guillemot with northbound 26 Red-throats & 3 Guillemot plus an additional Guilly on the sea in only a limited time spent observing as the sun was a bit bright. On site 9 Linnet, 2 Stonechat along View Point Road plus 4 Ringos & Purp at the point at high tide early on.

2019 Membership

Existing members are reminded that the 2019 membership fee is now due. New members are also welcome to join & support the work carried out at Landguard Bird Observatory. Further information on the website via the Home Page above or the link below:

https://www.lbo.org.uk/membership/

Tuesday 1st January 2019

1,780 Cormorant went out fishing. Plenty of Red-throated Diver offshore at the moment with 141 heading north in a 40 minute spell earlier & 28 south in a 15 minute spell late morning. Also noted moving south 5 Common Scoter, 3 Shelduck & a Skylark over the reserve. The 2 Stonechat are still at the north end. 3 new Blue Tit ringed is just what bird ringers would expect at other sites in mid-winter but here it is exceptional as we very rarely catch any new Bluey's between mid-November and early March. These three turned up with a couple of old hands plus a solitary Long-tailed Tit originally ringed here in October that we have not seen since. Also of note this morning was a Porpoise as we only rarely note this cetacean at this time of the year.

December Ringing Totals

For the sake of completeness - 4 birds of 4 species:

1 Blackbird, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 House Sparrow.

With no late autumn/winter thrush movements then this low December total has only been lower in one single year since the observatory started in 1982.

Monday 31st December 2018

1,815 Cormorant went out fishing. Offshore southbound 41 Red-throated Diver, 5 Guillemot, 3 Brent, 3 Goldeneye, 3 Shelduck, 2 Great-crested Grebe & 2 Oyk with northbound 247 Red-throats, 4 Common Scoter, 3 Great-crested Grebe, Brent Goose & Mallard plus 6 Great-crested Grebe & 2 Guillemot sat on the sea and at least 29 Kitts following shipping. Single Goldcrest & Sparrowhawk were around the compound and a Purple Sand was on the point. Most of the north bound Red-throats were early on and the Goldeneye are notable as we only managed three records all autumn.

Sunday 30th December 2018

Having been largely absent going out to sea here recently it was very much a case of "The Return of the Cormorants" with 2,200 going out on mass this morning. 50 minutes seawatch prior to the fog rolling down the river produced southbound 70 Common Gull, 40 Kitts, 14 Common Scoter, 6 Red-throated Diver with northbound single Common Scoter & Red-throat plus single Great-crested Grebe & Guillemot sat on the sea. On site 2 Stonechat at the north end, Rock Pipit on the point & a Golden Plover on the shore. Single Linnet also worth a mention at this time of the year.