Thursday 12th August 2021

A couple of Southern Migrant Hawkers at the Butts Pond in early July this year were the first site records and two males caught today in the Heligoland trap continued this species advance through the country in 2021

 Pretty clear skies at first light but heavy cloud soon rolled in and while it stayed dry with light winds, it was overcast throughout the morning; there were a couple of ornithological highlights including a Great White Egret which flew south at sea and (maybe yesterday's) Nightingale which found at mist net.

A few birds heading south at sea today comprised 15 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Common Gulls, a Curlew, 5 Grey Plover, 29 Oystercatchers, 22 Ringed Plovers, a Sanderling, 2 Turnstone, 3 Whimbrel, 2 Shoveler and 13 Teal.

Elsewhere 9 Barnacle Geese flew north, 8 Sand Martins and 6 Swallows flew south and 5 Willow Warblers were the only other grounded migrants.

Ringing: Robin 1, Willow Warbler 4, Blackbird 1, Nightingale 1, Whitethroat 1, House Sparrow 1

Becoming scarcer here, it is good to get Pyrausta purpuralis the last couple of days.   It lives on Self-heal, a member of the Mint family which has a long history of use in traditional medicine

Wednesday 11th August 2021

On the move southbound 495 Swallow, 60 Sand Martin, 21 Oyk, 3 Common Gull, 2 Teal, Curlew & Turnstone. On site 10 Willow Warbler, 6 Black-headed Gull, 5 Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Wheatear & Nightingale.

Gypsy Moth is a migrant only noted here in four previous years. Its only males that get here as females are very poor flyers so its a bit of a daft move for these males to even bother.

Ringing: 3 Willow Warbler, 1 House Sparrow, 1 Whitethroat.

Tuesday 10th August 2021

Living on Birch and Alder which don't grow here, its always a delight to catch an Iron Prominent

 A lovely, warm , sunny day with a light westerly breeze which was mainly notable for the first half-decent arrival of 21+ Willow Warblers of the autumn, whilst not a huge number, it was still great to see the delicate, lemon-yellow sprites flitting around the bushes.

Other birds of note were thin on the ground but did include 10 Barnacle Geese north, a Black Redstart, 16 Common Terns, 4 House Martins, 24 Sand Martins and 8 Swallows south, 12 Oystercatchers, 2 Sparrowhawks, a Turnstone, 4 Whimbrel and a Yellow Wagtail.

Ringing: Woodpigeon 1, Willow Warbler 10, Wren 3, Whitethroat 1

Monday 9th August 2021

We do quite well for the variable Marbled Green that feeds on lichen

 The weather was all over the place right through the day with numerous showers sweeping through, the wind picking up and then dropping down again and the sun appearing and disappearing every so often; once again the main interest was offshore where totals heading south included 21 Oystercatchers, 9 Grey Plover, 16 Turnstone, 8 Dunlin, a Pochard, 4 Sanderling, 9 Ringed Plover, a Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Redshank, 3 Curlew, 8 Golden Plover and 4 Common Scoter whilst 111 Swifts also went south.

Ringing: Nil

Sunday 8th August 2021

Windy, gusting Force 7 makes the birding difficult. 7 Willow Warbler is the highest count of the autumn so far which is worrying as numbers should be far higher at this stage of the autumn. Other movers were southbound 134 Swift, 6 Redshank, 4 Common Tern, 4 Oyk, 3 Cormorant, 3 Great Black-backed Gull, Knot, Med Gull & Whimbrel with northbound 4 Cormorant, 3 Common Tern & Gannet.

Moth numbers very poor. Small Fan-footed Wave is apparently a common species but is very infrequent in occurrence here.

Ringing: 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Robin, 2 Wood Pigeon, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Linnet.

Saturday 7th August 2021

Windy with showers becoming more frequent as the day progressed. Southbound 89 Swift, 7 Turnstone, 6 Oyk, Barwit & Grey Plover with northbound 41 Barnacle Geese. If there were any grounded migrants on site we failed to notice them. 

Vine Moth is another nationally scarce species that is common here but infrequently encountered elsewhere in Suffolk just along the coast.

Ringing: 1 Whitethroat, 1 Wood Pigeon.

Friday 6th August 2021

Ground Lackey is a nationally scarce species that occasionally wanders down here from its saltmarsh habitats

 After some overnight rain it was a breezy morning bringing waves of clouds scudding across the sky changing the light conditions over sea every five minutes but despite this sometimes challenging seawatching, that's where most of the interest lay.   Totals heading south today comprised 18 Bar-tailed Godwits, 66 Common Terns, 21 Curlew, 3 Dunlin, a Gadwall, 9 Golden Plover, a Greenshank, 24 Grey Plover, 4 Knot, a Little Tern, 7 Oystercatchers, a Redshank, 4 Ringed Plover, 60 Teal, 10 Tufted Ducks, a Turnstone and 7 Whimbrel.

The odds and ends on and over the land included a Hobby south, a House Martin, 109 Swifts south, yesterday's Wheatear and a Willow Warbler.

Ringing: Willow Warbler 1, House Sparrow 3, Linnet 3, Goldfinch 4