Filthy weather starting with wet snow, then sleet, then heavy rain plus a fair wind making offshore visibility very poor with nothing noted apart from seagulls & a handful of Cormorant. A British race Songie caught whilst checking out the bird feeders will be one from inland moving to the relatively milder coast.
Ringing: 1 Song Thrush
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http://online.anyflip.com/lmyq/teij/mobile/index.html
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Sparrowhawk ringed LBO 24th January 2019 found dead 13 km away at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex 3rd January 2021.
Goldfinch ringed LBO 4th July 2019 found freshly dead 182 km away at Bours, Pas-de-Calais, France 3rd January 2021. Ringed as a youngster here and presumably wintering in Northern France.
Lesser Redpoll ringed LBO 28th September 2020 retrapped 16 km away at Hollesley 4th November 2020.
Goldcrest ringed Westkapelle, Veere, Zealand, The Netherlands 7th November 2020 retrapped 153km away at LBO 9th November 2020. Trapped just two days after ringing in Holland its always good to get a rapid movement across the North Sea.
One doesn't think of Pied Wags coming to bread crumbs in the car parks but when times are hard.
Deluge abated. 136 Cormorant headed out early on. Offshore southbound 4 Shelduck & northbound 3 Red-throated Diver, 2 Common Scoter, Brent & Gannet plus 24 Kitts following the Stenna Britannica. On site single Fieldfare, Redwing & Woodcock.
This glutton is often the nearest gull to the car when one turns up with some bread.
We have migrants in the shape of 2 Fieldfare, Skylark heard flying south plus a new Blacky. 78 Cormorant headed out fishing with 1,246 coming in from the north later. 2 Common Scoter went north & a Great Crested Grebe south. 1,000+ gull following ships including 10 Kitts.
Ringing: 1 Blackbird.
Common Gull numbers have been pathetic this winter.
140 Cormorant went out fishing plus 1,670 came in from the north. Hour & a half starring out produced southbound 7 Red-throated Diver, Eider, Shag & Shelduck with northbound 9 Red-throats & Brent plus a couple of hundred assorted seagulls including 14 Kitts.
Ringing totals plus an updated summary of ringing recoveries are available on -
https://www.lbo.org.uk/ringing-totals/
Total number of birds ringed is a third down on 2019 but more in par with 2018. Numbers have been declining for years with the drought and hot in spring bringing record low returns. The "day record" for Pied Flycatcher had stood since 1984 was beaten which was a record we never thought would go. Lesser Redpoll had a record autumn. Species diversity was more than acceptable with the recoveries producing some absolute crackers including a pullus Wood Pigeon retrapped in Germany plus a Lesser Whitethroat ringed in France.
Tough learning curve for young Grey Seals once they leave the colonies.
Cold morning with the mist & fog slowly clearing. Only half the number of yesterdays Cormorants noted heading out to fish but in the poor visibility that's hardly surprising. 9 Gadwal headed south close inshore but no other sightings of note.
SEASONAL WARDEN LANDGUARD BIRD OBSERVATORY
Applicants need to be competent birdwatchers and have a BTO bird ringing ‘C’ permit with a mist net endorsement as a minimum requirement. An interest in other aspects of natural history and biological recording is also needed.
The position runs from Mid-March until mid-November 2021. A job description is available on request. If you require any specifics, please don’t hesitate to ask. Please e-mail landguardbo@yahoo.co.uk