Ringing Recoveries

Lesser Redpoll ringed Deer Park Forest Croft, Highland, Scotland 10th October 2020 retrapped 720 km away at Landguard 11th November 2020 is a good indicator of how far away some of this autumns Redpolls have come.

Starling ringed Landguard 9th August 2019 retrapped 15 km away Ipswich 18th November 2020.

Blue Tit ringed Landguard 9th September 2020 retrapped 12km away Alderton 22nd November 2020.

Three Long-tailed Tits ringed Landguard 6th November 2020 retrapped 17 km away Holywells Park, Ipswich 2nd December 2020.

Saturday 5th December 2020

Poor offshore but when a Black-throated Diver goes past one shouldn't really bemoan the lack of birds. Also southbound 14 Red-throated Diver, 20 Teal, 4 Black-headed Gull, 3 Wigeon, 2 Common Gull, 2 Curlew Bonxie, Brent & Mallard with northbound 17 Red-throats & 2 Shoveler. Deadly quiet around the site with a Greenfinch the best one could muster.

With the moth traps put away for the winter if one is suffering from moth deprivation delving around the buildings will produce the Herald. The moth traps are lucky to see them throughout the year (just one this year) but the buildings always hold a few hibernating in the winter months.

Friday 4th December 2020

Bit grim early on with rain, sleet, snow and the temperature not much above freezing and when the wet stuff stopped the birding wasn't much better. At least 902 Cormorants headed out fishing into the snow & when the weather improved at least 1,000 big gulls were seen following shipping. What other movements there were consisted of southbound 8 Red-throated Diver, 3 Common Gull, Gannet & Golden Plover with northbound 7 Red-throats & Guillemot plus a Lapwing in off the sea. 21 Goldfinch went south to show that migration hasn't finished in this species yet, but as we know, they can keep trickling past up to xmas and even into early January some years.

Thursday 3rd December 2020

Confident this is Stubble Rosegill Volvariella gloiocephala whereas the fungi on the blog for 27th November may have been a variety of Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus, not as captioned but that's the trouble when us novices dabble in fields of natural history outside their skills base.

Weather grim & cold. 800 Cormorants went out fishing. Offshore very poor with southbound 6 Common Gull, 4 Red-throated Diver plus northbound 19 Red-throats & 2 Common Scoter. Little effort put in to site coverage in these conditions.

Wednesday 2nd December 2020

880 Cormorants headed out to sea fishing early doors. Took all the mist nets down for the winter this morning which restricted observations. On site singles of Chaffinch, Fieldfare & Mipit plus southbound 3 Goldfinch & 3 Skylark. That's your lot !

Moth traps still getting the occasional moth. Light Brown Apple-moth is an Australian adventive that can occur in large numbers in the autumn but is still out & about despite the cooler conditions.

Tuesday 1st December 2020

Feeling more like winter with a cold northerly. 1,150 Cormorant went out fishing early on. Southbound offshore 30 Teal, 13 Red-throated Diver, 4 Gannet, 4 Shelduck & 2 Oyk with northbound 16 White-fronted Geese, 6 Gannet, 4 Common Scoter, 3 Red-throats, Brent & Scaup. A Buzzard came in then south late morning. Migrants on site consisted of a couple of Blackies & a Fieldfare. 

Ringing: 1 Blackbird

November Ringing Totals

327 birds of 25 species. Lesser Redpoll is now a record ringing year & always good to get some late autumn Blackbirds. 3 Pallas's Warbler is a decent haul.

Monday 30th November 2020

Single Tundra Bean Goose with group of Brent.

Just when you think autumn is over the Blackies are still arriving with 40 present this morning with a back up of 10 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, Snipe & Woodcock. Despite belts of poor visibility and fog restricting viewing 6 Whooper Swan in off very early on is only the 15th site record. Offshore southbound 236 Shelduck returning from the Wadden Sea, 149 Brent, 126 Lapwing, 16 Black-headed Gull, 15 White-fronted Geese, 7 Red-throated Diver, 4 Goosander, 2 Teal, Bean Goose, Gannet, Great-northern Diver, Grey Plover & Wigeon. Loitering Firecrest & yesterdays Chiffchaff still present.

Ringing: 14 Blackbird, 1 Sparrowhawk.

Sunday 29th November 2020

Bit of a "goosey" morning. 2 White-fronts on the reserve loitered up to 9am, 8 more came in with 2 of them landing for a short while before moving onto the river with the other 6 going north then south plus another 8 that came straight in off and headed inland. 2 Bean Geese flew around offshore for a while before heading north. Offshore southbound 687 Brent, 385 Teal, 19 Common Scoter, 17 Wigeon, 7 Shelduck, 5 Red-throated Diver, 2 Pintail, Gannet, Pochard & Red-breasted Merganser with northbound 7 Brent, 7 Red-throats, 5 Common Scoter & Velvet Scoter. The only grounded passerines were a handful of new Blackies & a Chiffchaff. A good indication of the origin of the migrant Blackies is an individual wearing a Hiddensee ring from East Germany. Finally the Firecrest is still with us, Purp is on the point & the recent Great-spotted Woodpecker has come back for another visit.

Winter moth is a very common species, but not here, as this is only our 4th record in 30 years of trapping. 

Ringing: 5 Blackbird, 1 Chiffchaff.