More snow and ice

A quick look down the beach at Caister Saturday afternoon produced 60/70 Snow Buntings waiting to be fed !
All the food had gone, the remains were being cleaned up by 4 Carrion Crows (2 very startling birds with 'zebra striped wings' ) and a Common Gull. As soon as the seed was put out they were on, about half being ringed.
Another look Sunday morning produced 45 birds eagerly feeding, it doesn't seem fair to catch them at the moment so we will let them feed up ready for a go over Christmas.

A frozen Rollesby Broad

A quick look down Rollesby and Ormesby Broads to see what the Coot numbers were produced about 100 on two small areas of open water, also packed in were 10+ Tufted Duck and 30+ Pochard and a superb 1st.Winter female Goosander.

Amazingly it got out of the water,preened for a while then walked across the ice  to the other stretch of open water.

The ice man cometh

Snow Bunting numbers during the week were fluctuating again between 12 to 50 birds being present on and off. The tide had been high and washed some of the food out. So we decided to concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
I had a quick look Sunday morning and counted 64 with most feeding on the seed, at least two thirds of them were unringed!!! with no colour ringed birds present. So it goes to prove they are still coming in and moving about, we have ringed about 100 this Winter so far, where have they gone?


James kindly invited us back to the duck pond, it had thawed out a bit with a few Teal and Mallard using it during the week. We arrived at the pond 3pm Sunday afternoon, the gear was unloaded and the car parked, unfortunately I parked in the wrong place and duly got it stuck!

Oh dear

Luckily reinforcements were on the way, with the help of Dave, Justin and Gary driving, we managed to get it out, although it was now caked in mud after my first attempts of moving it.

With half the pond still frozen some energetic stomping was needed so we could erect the nets. Only 4 were put up, so it was the least number of nets we have had here.

The ice man

About 30 Teal and 30 Mallard were flying around, with 7 Teal and a Robin ! caught. These comprised of 5 males with 3 of them being adults.

Adult male top, 1st.Winter below

Adult left, 1st Winter right

Adult male left and 1st Winter male

1st Winter left, adult right

Adult top, 1st Winter bottom

7 Whooper Swans flew over the pond, with 2 Barn Owls and a Marsh Harrier hunting over the marshes.

Cranes and Pinkfeet could be heard in the distance. While waiting for the ducks at least 7 Woodcock were seen flying out of the woods.

We were standing under some Birch trees that had growths (broom's) in and amazingly watched at least a dozen Wren's enter the broom's to roost !

Snow Buntings again.

We kept a check on the Snow Buntings during the week, numbers have been fluctuating in the cold weather. At least 50 birds were about with around half not being ringed , 2 colour ringed birds were also in the flock ( from Kessingland). The wheat is still taking a hammering, Gary has been feeding every over day.
We decided to go again on Saturday as the birds are still moving about at present. Friday nights temperature was -4.5 degrees C so we expected a freezing morning, however when we arrived at 6.15 am the following morning it was a tropical +2.5 degrees with a light SW and light rain.

Ready and waiting.

Because of the rain we sat it out until it stopped, it eased up around 7.30am. We went to put some more seed out and around 45 birds were in the area ,so we decided to set the net and have a go.We quickly caught 17 birds with 16 being new. All the birds were 1st Winters (3's) with 10 Females and 8 being Insulae and 8 Nivalis and one being unraced. 

Also on the beach were a number of waders , some obviously brought here by the freezing weather in land.

6 Redshank, Golden Plover, 2 Sanderling, 2 Dunlin  and 4 Turnstone were seen. Also present were 3 Med Gulls and a flyby Goosander.