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.

Winterton blues

With the fine weather of late and a few early migrants being recorded we thought we would have a change of scenery and give Winterton our first go this year. We arrived bright and early Saturday morning to open the nets, 8 x 60' and 1 x 50' were erected on Friday night.
The morning was cold (6.5 °C) and a light Easterly, however this strengthened through the morning to a moderate Easterly and started to rain steadily from 8.20 am. Luckily due to lack of birds and the weather we had already taken the nets down and missed out on a drenching!

Sharon, The Guvnor and Mr. Fix it with the 'logo bird '

13 new birds and 6 ( retraps ) were processed, with the first Chiffchaffs and Goldcrest of the year being ringed. At least 3 Chiff's were heard singing in the morning.

The ENRG logo !

WREN ; 1 (1 ) One originally ringed 14/09/08

DUNNOCK ; 0 (3)  One ringed 12/09/09 and another 21/04/07

ROBIN; 3

BLACKBIRD ; 1

CHIFFCHAFF ; 2

GOLDCREST ; 1

LONG-TAILED TIT ; 0 (2) One from 19/09/09

CHAFFINCH ; 1

GOLDFINCH ; 4

Male Goldcrest

A Sunday afternoon stroll down Winterton Valley produced 2 Black Redstarts, 2 Goldcrest and a hunting Kestrel.

Garden hat-trick and more Linnets

The weekend started well with Mel ringing me on Friday while I was at work to say there was a Hawfinch in the garden ( at Ormesby St. Margaret) feeding on the seed in the whoosh net area !!!!! After a few expletives I calmed down and said are you sure, the answer was a positive yes. I should not have doubted her as we have had 2 in the garden before and Mel has seen and identified them on her own before I had seen them !
Luckily I managed to get home early and the net was hastily set, after about an hour's wait that seemed an eternity the Hawfinch turned up.  I had made earlier phone calls to the other members of the group to try and get some one over to ring it as I had done the last one, sadly no one could make it so I had to ring it myself !

Female Hawfinch

Female Hawfinch Tail

Unfortunately no full frame photo's were taken , the bird was very active and brutally inflicted pain with its large bill ! 

This is the hat-trick for the garden with a Female ringed in May 2000 and a Male ringed in June 2006.

Only another 5/6 years to the next one then boy's !

Also present in the garden was a male Reed Bunting, only the second ever seen and caught (rarer than the Hawfinch !). On Saturday a Female Brambling and 3 Siskins (first of the year ) were seen but not trapped.

Also seen on Saturday was a Brimstone butterfly.

A trip to Caister beach on Saturday morning produced another 17 Linnets with 15 new, 1 control and a retrap from last week.

Male Linnet, control L692066

Adult (4/6) type tail feathers.

The only other birds of note were 32 Red throated Diver flying North offshore.
Also we may have a clue to where some of the seed is going, there were several tracks in the sand leading to the food and from it, we followed one back which led to a hole in the dunes with half eaten seed near the entrance. Obviously the work of some Vole/mouse species.

Trail of the seed thief 

Been busy. 

Return of the Linnets

All but one of the Snow Buntings have gone North on their travels now, this has left the seed free for some Linnets to feed on. 19 were seen feeding the weekend before so we thought it was worth a go on Saturday.
We arrived at Caister for 5.45am, as we approached a Snow Bunting could be seen feeding on the seed.
The whoosh net was set and then we waited for the Linnets to arrive.

5M Linnet

5M Linnet, Red starting to come through.

5M Linnet , White (persil white) on the inner primaries nearly reaching the shaft.

1st Winter (male) Linnet tail feathers with the centre pair and right feather being replaced adult type.

21 were caught, all being new birds. 11 were Males and 10 Females with 4 adults and the rest 1st. Winter's (5).

There was probably another 10/15 in the area, they are hard to count as they don't fly around in one big flock, but arrive in 2's and 3's.

5F Linnet

5F Linnet, much more bolder streaked.

5F Linnet, less white (dull white) in wing not reaching the shaft.

1st. Winter Linnet (female) tail feathers, all juvenile.

The only other birds of note seen were 'squadrons' of Cormorants, at least 400 were seen flying from the West and landing on the sea.

Snow Bunting again...

Sunday morning saw the team arriving at Caister  for 6am , it was still dark with a moderate NE blowing making it feel quite chilly.
 The local Blackbirds were very vocal, proclaiming there territory's. 
The net was set, then the wait began, unusually there were none about at dawn !
60 have been seen on and off for the last couple of weeks but have been very jumpy.
After about half an hour 26 turned up and then proceeded to fly around for the next half an hour  and when they did land they were very unsettled.
Eventually after several feeding flurries they settled enough to catch a few.
15 Were caught comprising of 7 new, 6  retraps (all from this Winter) and 2 controls (one from Kessingland, Suffolk,the other control was VE82059 ringed right leg any takers?)

1st. Winter (5) Female Insulae race.

1st. Winter Female Insulae Tail. 

10 were of the Insulae race , 4 Nivalis and one unraced. All had a fat score of at least 2 so presumably are getting ready to move on soon.

1st. Winter (5) Male Nivalis race.

1st. Winter Male Nivalis wing & tail pattern.

The net was taken in as it was felt we would not get another opportunity, however 10 minutes later the rest of the flock turned up, another  34 ! You can't win them all. 

10 Linnet were in the area and several flew over the seed to investigate. Also seen was a very lost Brent Goose that landed on the sea then twice  flew inland .