Easter Joy

Our annual jaunt to Martham woods and fishing ponds took place on Easter Monday, Arthur was also available after a busy weekend.
The nets were erected the evening before ready for dawn the next day, the first Cuckoo of the year was heard.
As usual Sharon supplied the cakes ! Saturday it was chocolate fudge brownies and today it was Mum's Easter buns, very nice. Easter eggs were also supplied by Justin on Saturday.

Arthur with his bun.

It was another sunny day , but with a keen NE wind blowing making it feel a bit cooler.

An excellent mornings ringing was had with 57 being processed, 21 from the ponds and the rest from the wood.

Several firsts for the year being, Cettis/Reed/ Sedge and Grasshopper Warblers, Jay and the first pulli being Tawny Owl. The morning will also remembered as not one Willow warbler was caught, historically this has been one of the better sites for this species !

Cetti's Warbler

Gropper

The big surprise was catching a male House Sparrow , a first for the site !

Male House Sparrow

49 new birds were ringed with 3 of them pulli and 8 ( retraps).

One of the retraps was a Reed Warbler that was originally ringed at the pond site on 17/06/2006 and also re-trapped there on 03/05/2008 ! Its flown a few miles so far.

Another retrap from the ponds was a Reed Bunting that was originally ringed in Tony's garden on 29/01/2008.

 Male Jay

Tawny Owl 3, Wren 4 (1), Dunnock 1, Robin 1 (1), Blackbird (1), Cetti's Warbler 1,

Grasshopper Warbler 2, Sedge Warbler 4, Reed Warbler 1 (1), Whitethroat 3,

Garden Warbler 2, Blackcap 1 (1), Chiffchaff 3 (1), Long-tailed Tit 4 (1), Blue Tit 8,

Great Tit 3, Treecreeper 1, Jay 1, House Sparrow 1, Chaffinch 2, Reed Bunting 3 (1).

Tawny Owl pulli, Lunch in the box was 2 young Rats. 

Crane's could be heard calling in the distance.

Several Speckled Wood butterflies were on the wing, and a pair of Large Red Damselfly were seen.

Male Large Red 

Winterton 23/04/11

Another trip to Winterton on Saturday morning produced a few more migrants. The first Lesser Whitethroat , Garden Warblers and Whitethroats were ringed.
It was a glorious sunny day but by mid morning with the sun blazing down and the birds not moving the session was over.

Garden Warbler

27 birds were caught, with 18 new and 9 (retraps).

WREN; (1)

DUNNOCK; (1) originally ringed 12/09/2009

LESSER WHITETHROAT; 1

LESSER WHITETHROAT

WHITETHROAT; 2 (1) A bird originally ringed 26/04/2008

GARDEN WARBLER; 2

BLACKCAP; 6

CHIFFCHAFF; 4 (1)

LONG-TAILED TIT; (3)

GREAT TIT; 1 (1)

TREECREEPER; 1

BULLFINCH; 1 (1) A new female and a retrap male from 06/09/2009

WHITETHROAT

4 Little Terns offshore were the only other migrants seen.

Warblers Return

On Sunday 10th April we met at Winterton again for the second visit this year. The weather was good with a light SW, cool first thing then warming up to 14°C . There were a few more Warblers about now, with at least 5 Willow Warblers singing. It was nice to retrap some Wablers from previous years, see details below. 

Adult Male Blackcap

Mr. Blackie

37 birds were caught with 22 new and 15 ( retraps).

WREN; 1 (2)

DUNNOCK; 0 (3) One from 25/04/2009 and another from 21/04/2007

ROBIN; 2 (2)

BLACKBIRD; 1

BLACKCAP; 4 (3) One retrap was from Spring of last year and the other from the Autumn.

They were originally ringed 24/04/2010 and  04/09/2010 respectively.The first was a returning adult and the second a juvenile born in 2010.

CHIFFCHAFF; 3 (1)

WILLOW WARBLER; 4 (1) From two Spring's ago, being originally ringed 25/04/2009

BLUE TIT; 1

GREAT TIT; 1 (3)

GOLDFINCH; 5

1st Summer Female Blackcap

Mrs. Blackie

For the second year running a pair of Treecreepers were watched nest building within the same area as last year. A Roe Deer was seen on the track and Gary found an Adder skin that had been shed.

A couple of boxes have been checked recently, both containing Tawny Owls, one with 3 eggs the other 3 chicks.

Pretty Lady

On Thursday 7th April I arrived home from work earlier than expected, the first thing on my mind was to get a net up as quickly as possible. A few Chiffs and Blackcaps had been heard nearby earlier in the week.
At 15:20 one 40' mist net was erected, on first inspection it held 2 birds, a male Greenfinch and a superb Firecrest! This was a belated first for the garden at Ormesby.
It was a 1st. summer female with a fat score of 3, so must have been in for a while and presumably feeding up to make the next journey further North. This is also our first ever Firecrest  trapped in the Spring.

'Pretty Lady'

5F Firecrest

It was quality and not quantity this afternoon, with the next round producing a fine male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

5M Pecker

Looking impressed with himself.

The final net round produced another superb bird in the form of an adult Rook. These are really superb at close quarters when metallic blue hues really stand out. For such a big bird they are very gentle in the hand.

This was the first one ever to be mist netted in the garden, all the others had been whoosh netted or in the large trap.

Mr Softy

Adult Rook

2 Greenfinch and a Goldfinch were the only other birds ringed, a Chaffinch was retrapped and was originally ringed on 24th Feb. 2009. 

So all in all not a bad  couple of hours ringing.

A walk in the evening along Caister beach produced 3 Sand Martins going North and 2 Turnstone on the rocks.

Migrants arrive

Over the weekend more migrants have been arriving. The first Swallows were seen over the garden at Ormesby on Friday, Saturday had Wheatear at Caister, several Chiffs and Blackcap at Ormesby and Sunday produced a singing Willow Warbler at Caister and Brambling at Ormesby.


The most Stunning news was Sunday afternoon when several people had rang to inform me that a Juvenile White- tailed Eagle !!!! was moving along the coast and may be heading my way ! We moved to the garden and started to look skywards, after 3/4's of an hour we were beginning to feel it wasn't our day. Another phone call was taken, it was at Winterton now and still coming our way. This called for desperate measures, armed with my bins I scrambled up our  bungalow roof to get an all round view. Within 10 minutes there it was flying first East then on seeing Caister turning south towards Gt.Yarmouth , it was putting up everything in its path. A shout to Mel had her in the front garden watching it also. What an awesome bird !
Thanks to All for the updates and calls,it was tracked a very long way (from Lincolnshire thru' north Norfolk to east Norfolk) and could still be in the area for tomorrow morning. 

Armed, poised and dangerous!!!

On Saturday we were again at Caister for some more Linnets, there were about 40 in the area. 
18 were caught with 17 new and a retrap from a couple of weeks ago, the males are starting to look very handsome now........(no not the picture above, the one below....)

Mr. Handsome

Several small flocks of Linnet and Chaffinch were moving through south all morning and 7 Shelduck flew north offshore.