Frost, Fog and Sunshine.

Saturday 17th April saw some of the group with Derek  (on a pass from Suffolk) at Winterton.
The nets were erected and furled the night before, this proved to be a bad move. When we arrived at 5.30am to open the nets we were greeted by frost and frozen nets with fog as well !
The nets were delicately opened , but with the zebra striped nets and the fog we could forget about catching much.

Frosty and Foggy start.

It took a couple of hour's before it thawed and the fog to lift , then it was wall to wall sunshine.

All very nice but not good for catching birds.

However we did manage to ring 22 new and get 7 retraps. With the 2nd. Cetti's for the site and the first Blackcaps of the year.

4F Cetti's Warbler

5M Blackcap

Ringing list, retraps in brackets;

Wren 2 (2) One originally ringed in 2008

Dunnock  (2) One from 2007 

Robin 1

Cetti's Warbler 1

Blackcap 3

Chiffchaff 5

Willow Warbler 3

Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 2 (1)

Treecreeper  (1)

Chaffinch 1

Goldfinch  (1)

Yellowhammer 1

Reed Bunting 2

5M Yellowhammer

5F and 5M Reed Bunting

At 10am with the temperature rising 9 Common Buzzard and a Female Marsh Harrier were seen circling above us. The Buzzards drifted off South and the Harrier went West.

Sevaral Brimstone and Peacock butterflies were seen, also a Common Lizard and Gary found a superb Adder skin.

Later on in the afternoon a shopping trip to Great Yarmouth had a slight detour to Bure Park to see a pair of Garganey that had taken up residence on the local park lake.

Male Garganey

Also at home the first Comma of the year was seen nectaring on a Berberis.

The Blackbirds have hatched and have 3 chicks and another one was found with the female on eggs.

Comma