Friday 1st July 2022

On the move southbound 20 Sand Martin, 18 Curlew, 12 Swift, 9 Black-headed Gull, 3 Med Gull, Barwit, House Martin & Whimbrel with northbound a Little Egret. Apart from this its the locals in the usual places. Worth a mention is up to 500 Starling in recent days with a high proportion adult which suggests that they have not had a bumper breeding season. Sand Martins arrive early in the spring and once breeding is over start abandoning the UK in the last week of June onwards. Sorry folks but autumn is well underway for several species despite others attempting to churn out another brood.

Crescent Plume lives on Restharrow so likes it here although its a bit more complicated than that. After a drought year when the Restharrow struggles then the following year the Plume suffers but following wetter years when the Restharrow has enough to drink then this species does ok.

Ringing: nil. 

June Ringing Totals

 182 birds of 23 species is 15% better than last year but continues the ongoing downward trend in the numbers ringed which is not due to any lack of effort just the ongoing decline in birds. Marsh Tit is the 'rarest' for us with a June Long-tailed Tit very unusual.

Thursday 30th June 2022

On the move southbound 46 Black-headed Gull, 34 Curlew, 8 Little Tern, 5 Swallow, 3 Med Gull, 2 Common Tern, 2 Whimbrel, Kittiwake, Mute Swan & Shelduck plus northbound 2 Common Scoter, Common & Little Tern. Nightingale still with us plus plenty of baby birds on the reserve.

First site record of Olive Crescent which is a species with only a handful of Suffolk records in recent years which was not on the radar. Also the first Spurge Hawk-moth here for five years and another species with only two Suffolk records since that year.

Ringing: nil.

Wednesday 29th June 2022

Heading southbound 112 Curlew, 63 Black-headed Gull, 6 Oyk, 6 Swift, 4 Med Gull, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Gannet, 2 Sandwich Tern, Common Gull, Sand Martin, Shelduck & Whimbrel with northbound 9 Common Scoter & Sandwich Tern. On site a couple of dispersing warblers turned up having been bred elsewhere. On file we have only five bigger autumn counts of Curlew with the highest count 261 south on 5th July 2007 but with far fewer Curlew around these days due to population declines it is doubtful this sort of figure will ever be achieved again.

Shore Wainscot is a nationally scarce species that has increased in numbers here with the spread of Marram Grass along the shore.

Ringing: 3 Wren, 1 Blackbird, 1 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Robin, 1 Whitethroat.

Tuesday 28th June 2022

 Not a lot to offer this morning. Basically baby birds with single dispersing juvenile Blackcap & Great-spotted Woodpecker turning up. 6 Swift flew south and at least one Nightingale is still here.

Langmaid's Yellow Underwing was first noted here in 2004 and has been annual since 2017. This years first was five days ago with another three this morning so one concludes that they now live here.

Ringing: 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Blackcap, 1 Blue Tit.

Monday 27th June 2022

A hobby passing over early morning was the highlight of a moderately interesting morning. Large numbers of gulls were feeding off the point, and a good number of curlew flew south. A juvenile magpie ringed this morning was a surprise and probably not very local as most of the local chicks were ringed as nestlings this year. 

Scarce emerald damselflies were mating in the Butts Pond this afternoon, a good sign that they may reappear next year. Several species of butterfly are on their second hatching, with fresh peacock and small tortoiseshells on the wing along with meadow browns who are still on their first emergence. We await our first ringlet butterflies, which are already out further up the coast at Minsmere.

Following on from yesterdays blog, another Sciota rhenella was recorded, though of a different colour morph, which led to quite some head scratching during the morning. 

Birds Ringed: Blackcap 2, Goldfinch 2, Lesser Whitethroat 1, Magpie 1. 

 

Sunday 26th June 2022

 

Several Pyramidal Orchid are out on the Butts.

Bright n' breezy morning. Heading south 7 Black-headed Gull, 5 Curlew, 3 Swift & Kittiwake. On site an adult Chiffchaff is presumably a failed breeder from elsewhere and one of the recent Nightingales called by the back gate. A Black Redstart is the first seen since the end of May.

With only eleven British records up to the end of 2020 it was good to get the first site record of Sciota rhenella which lives on Poplars on the continent so the trees here should be to its liking.

Ringing: 4 Great Tit, 2 Goldfinch, 1 House Sparrow, 1 Linnet, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Wren.