Saturday 30th July 2022

More visible migration today, with whimbrel, turnstone, sand martin, swallows, teal and common terns heading south. Other common terns were feeding offshore all morning, with a few sandwich terns and gulls. The great black backed gull pair nesting in the dock brought their juvenile out to the beach today to cause havoc amongst the other birds. There really aren't many pairs of this gull nesting in Suffolk, so its nice this pair was successful. 

A couple of Jersey Tiger moths and a Clouded Yellow butterfly were the most colourful lepidoptera of the day, and one of the former even posed for photos. 

Acleris cristana is a species we see infrequently despite living on hawthorns which we have in abundance. 

Birds Ringed: Blackbird 1, Dunnock 2, Goldfinch 4, House Sparrow 2, Linnet 2, Starling 19, Whitethroat 2, Woodpigeon 1. 

Friday 29th July 2022

A day of autumn promise today. Several notable migrant birds including an arctic tern on the beach and the first site record of wood warbler for the year. Common and sandwich terns were feeding off the point and a flock of teal flew upriver. The first garden warbler of the autumn was ringed, a nice fresh juvenile, and another green woodpecker paid the Obs a visit. Another family of lesser whitethroats were ringed, it really does seem to have been a good year here for the species, unlike their cousin the common whitethroat which seems to have struggled, at least locally. 

Formerly very common we now consider ourselves fortunate to a see a Garden Tiger.

Birds Ringed: Dunnock 1, Garden Warbler 1, Green Woodpecker, House Sparrow 1, Lesser Whitethroat 5, Linnet 1, Starling 35

Ringing Recoveries

 

This Lesser Black-backed Gull on the beach at Landguard 27th July was ringed as a pullus on Havergate Island 3rd July 2011. Since then it has been seen in various locations around Malaga, Spain in February & December 2013, February & December 2016, February & December 2017, January 2018, January 2019, February 2021, January & February 2022. In between times it has been nesting on rooftops in the Port of Felixstowe in 2015, 2017 & 2018 plus quite probably in other years between. As a summary it breeds in the docks & spends the winter in Malaga. More similarities between Felixstowe & Torremolinos than one thinks as far as this gull in concerned !

Willow Warbler ringed Pedraza de Campos, Palencia, Spain on 26th August 2021 was retrapped 1197 km away at LBO 13th May 2022. This bird would have been ringed on its autumn passage to Africa & retrapped here on its spring passage to somewhere up north.

Thursday 28th July 2022

A reasonable day for movement offshore, with various seabirds, ducks and waders passing through either north or south. A late very young robin and an equally young wren are signs that the breeding season is still going, even if autumn is basically upon us. 

Lesser Cockroach are regular in one of our moth traps. Usually they are 'stumpy with white bands', so presumably this is a different stage in its lifecycle, unless anyone has a different suggestion?

Mother of Pearl is common on nettles but with the drought devastating the nettles, not many are being seen. A subtly beautiful moth.

Birds Ringed: Dunnock 2, Linnet 1, Robin 1, Wren 1
 

Wednesday 27th July 2022

Signs of autumn were a new Nightingale, Reed Warbler & a dispersing young Great Spotted Woodpecker. Heading south 3 Sand Martin & Grey Wagtail. Offshore a handful of terns headed north with 2 Kitts coming out of the river going the same way plus 5 Teal south.

Euspilapteryx auroguttella is a tiny tot that likes it here as it lives on Perforate St. John's Wort.

Ringing: 5 House Sparrow, 2 Linnet, 1 Nightingale, 1 Reed Warbler,  1 Wren.

Tuesday 26th July 2022

Pleasantly low temperatures today, though still warm. A great spotted woodpecker and 2 green woodpeckers paid the peninsula a visit, like previous days. One of the green woodpeckers got ringed during the morning, the 4th to be ringed here this year, not a record breaking number but certainly notable this early in the season. 

A mystery raptor seen heading north was very likely a juvenile sparrowhawk, the first seen here in some weeks. 

A note from the moth identifier today, "best to avoid controversy and keep to easy identifications", a motto many could relate to, and one that's applicable to most invertebrate identification! This species is an Iron Prominent, a species which lives on birch and alder and so is infrequently seen here.

Birds Ringed: Blackcap 1, Goldfinch 1, Green Woodpecker 1, House Sparrow 1, Lesser Whitethroat 1, Linnet 4, Robin 1, Wren 1.

Monday 25th July 2022

 

Its the time of the year when Sanderling drop in on the beach early morning on their way down from the Arctic heading to somewhere like Mauritania. Southbound this warm windy morning 217 Swift, 17 Common Tern, 17 Curlew, 12 Oyk, 8 Black-headed Gull, 5 Sandwich Tern, 3 Sand Martin, 3 Swallow, 3 Turnstone, 2 Dunlin, 2 Med Gull, Barwit & Whimbrel. Only other migrant apparent was a Grey Wagtail over the observatory. About half a dozen drops of rain fell over night evaporating on impact so whoever is doing a 'rain dance' out there they need to put in a bit more effort as it's getting very dry & dusty with the leaves now falling off the trees ! 

Can't beat a dull grey brown noctuid moth to get the brain cells churning over. Dingy Shears is very infrequent here so it would help if a few more turned up to help get one's eye in although several folks have suggested this is actually a form of Common/Lesser Common Rustic & coming to the conclusion they are probably correct. Live & learn (or just chuck away the odd ones!).

Ringing: 1 Linnet.

Sunday 24th July 2022

 A warm wind with southbound 9 Curlew, 8 Common Gull, 7 Oyk, 7 Whimbrel, 6 Black-headed Gull, 4 Barwit, 4 Sanderling, 3 Common Tern, 2 Dunlin, 2 Swift, Greenshank, Grey Plover, House martin & a Little Egret that cut inland over the observatory with northbound 7 Sandwich Tern. A begging juvenile Sandwich Tern following an adult is pleasing to see when one considers the doom & gloom stories from many of the colonies this year. On site single Chiffchaff & Nightingale.

Small Rufous lives around wetland areas only ordaining us with its presence on a handful of previous occasions. With the warm wind last might it probably had no intention of visiting a site that is slowly starting to look like a desert at the moment.

Ringing: 2 Linnet, 1 Goldfinch.