Yellow snow.

Snow Buntings at Caister were again the target on Christmas Eve.
There had been counts of 80/90 birds coming the the seed and quite a few seemed to be new birds.
They were being very cagey but we eventually managed to catch 21 birds, 12 new, 7 retraps and 2 from Kessingland, Suffolk.
The 6 of the retraps were birds that had been originally ringed by us at Caister in November but in the mean time had gone to Kessingland and been caught there on 22/12/2011 by Colin who had then colour ringed them, then returning to Caister on 24/12/2011. So there seems to be plenty of movement between the 2 sites.
A high percentage of the catch were again Nivalis birds.

One of the colour ringed birds , HP

All the Snow Buntings caught at Kessingland are being colour ringed as part of Colin Carters project, please report any sightings to the BTO colour ring scheme. They all have a BTO metal ring on the left leg and a Yellow colour ring on the right leg with 2 digits, either numerical or alphabetical. 

Male Yellowhammer

The new year started with the group ringing at the Ludham cover crop again on the 2nd.

The Yellowhammer numbers have been fluctuating drastically over the last few days, but Reed Buntings seem to be increasing.

James had been keeping and eye on them and kept the food topped up, Dave had also been checking to see if it was worth having a catch. About 30 Reed Bunting and 20 Yellowhammer had been seen in the area.

Male Reed Bunting

8 new Yellowhammer, 16 new Reed Bunting plus 4 retraps and a Chaffinch were caught.

The retrap Reed Bunting were 2 from 19/11/2011, 1 from 12/11 2011 and the other originally ringed 14/02/2009 , all from the same site.

The morning proved to be quite a raptor fest with Little Owl calling when we first arrived and Barn Owl, Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk and a pair of Kestrels hunting nearby.

Also about 15 Whooper Swan were seen flying over Ludham airfield.