What a turn up !

A change of scenery was to be had early Sunday (2nd. December) morning, Dave and I headed north to meet Mick in the Sea Palling area. Snow Bunting were the target, with maybe some Turnstone as well.

The venue.

Mick and his associates have been baiting an area on the beach for a while now and the numbers of Snow Bunting have been building up, with about 30/40 in the area.

Recently 40/50 Turnstone have been seen feeding in the same area as well.

While setting the net up 40 or so Turnstone and a few Snow Bunts were waiting patiently for their breakfast.

One of the Snow Bunting.

The Turnstone were first on and 17 (all new) were soon caught, they were quickly extracted and the net reset.

Within a few minutes 27 Snow Bunts were in the area, with some going on the food. 19 were caught , all new and mostly Nivalis birds.

1st. Winter (3) Turnstone

Adult (4) Turnstone

 Turnstone wing patterns, adult above, 1st Winter below.

Sunday afternoon we ventured to Hickling for a Teal session, James has been feeding the pond as usual.

Teal numbers have been fluctuating quite a bit, what's there one day may not be there the next, however we thought to give it a go.

Unfortunately only about 10 Teal came in, we managed to catch 2 , both drakes, at least it's a start.

Bunting and Finch harvest

Several recce's at the Ludham cover crop recently have produced large numbers of Bunting and Finch feeding there.
At least 350 birds have been present with approximately 40+ Yellowhammer, 60+ Reed Bunting, 30+ Brambling , 60 Linnet and 100+ Chaffinch.
The first trip to ring was 24th November, we arrived early morning to frost, fog, virtually no wind and a temperature of 0.5 degrees C. 
An excellent morning was had with 107 new birds and (7) retraps being caught and processed.This included our biggest one day catch of Brambling.

Male Brambling

Adult Male Brambling

1st Winter Female Brambling

Wren 0 (1) ringed 19/11/11

Dunnock 5

Robin 5

Blackbird 2

Blue Tit  4 (1) ringed as an adult 19/11/11

Chaffinch 17

Brambling 19

Yellowhammer 26

Reed Bunting 26 (5)These included birds from 12/11/11, 02/01/12, 21/01/12, 04/02/12 and a control Y886919.

Also one each of Greenfinch, Lesser Redpoll and Song Thrush.

 Male Chaffinch

The second session was on 1st December, sadly it never lived up to expectations as only 13 new and 1 retrap were caught. This was mainly down to the windy, showery weather.

Blackbird 0 (1)  ringed as an adult on 11/02/12

Chaffinch 2

Yellowhammer 3

Reed Bunting  8

1st Winter male Yellowhammer  

Up to 30 Golden Plover were present on the first date and several skeins of Pinkfeet went over on both dates.

Snowfall

The Snow Bunting are back at last!
We have been putting the seed out now for 3/4 weeks,but the local Crows and Pigeons have been finding it to their liking, however things were about to change with reports of the first Snow Bunting just North of us.
We must thank David for supplying us with Wheat again this year. 

23 were first reported at Caister on Saturday 10th Nov with 30 there on Sunday, then Gary had 48 on the Wednesday and Tony seeing 60 on Friday, it was time to have a go before they moved off.
When they first arrive they are always mobile moving from one place to another and don't seem to settle down for the Winter much before the end of December.
We arrived at Caister early Saturday (17th) morning, 10 minutes later several birds where flying around our heads calling. Within minutes of the net being set we were catching our first Snow Bunting of the Winter.

Adult female (Insulae race)  Snow Bunting

As above Tail feathers

46 Snow Bunting were caught with 41 new and 4 retraps and 1 control.

Of these 3 were colour ringed birds from Kessingland, Suffolk.
 These have a BTO metal ring on left leg and a Yellow colour ring with a Black inscription on the right leg. Please can any sightings of c/r birds be reported to colin.carter5@virgin.net and BTO. 

KI

KI  Was originally ringed at Caister on 24/12/11 then colour ringed at Kessingland on 15/02/12.

HP Originally ringed Caister 17/12/11 back at Caister on 24/12/11, it was c/r in between these dates at  Kessingland 22/12/11.

J7 Was ringed at Kessingland on 08/02/12.

Thanks to Colin for the c/r data .

The other two retraps were returning Caister birds being ringed  12/11/11 and 28/01/12 respectively. 

Winterton farewell

It's that time of year again to bid farewell to Winterton for another year. 
We had one last go on Saturday 3rd November, the day started with a sharp frost and no wind early on, then warming up slightly and an ever increasing Westerly.
Meadow Pipits were conspicuous by there absence, Thrushes and Finches were thin on the ground.
It was good to catch a few of our logo birds, just to keep those fingers nimble in the cold!

1st. Winter (3) Wren, our favourite !!!!

And an adult (4), stunning !

39 new birds and 5 retraps were processed, with Treecreeper, Jay and Redwing among them.

Wren 3

Robin 5

Blackbird 4

Song Thrush 2

Goldcrest 7 (1)

Long-tailed Tit 8 (1)

Blue Tit 5 (1) originally ringed 22/10/11

Great Tit 1 (2) one from 17/10/10 and the other 01/10/11

Plus one each of Redwing, Chiffchaff, Treecreeper and Jay.

1st Winter (3) Redwing

The second invader caught, this time a 1st. Winter (3)

Not much was going overhead apart from a flock of 10 + Brambling and Tony had a Swallow briefly.

Time now to concentrate on Snow Bunting and the cover crop, hopefully may get a Teal catch as well.

PS The Great Tit control mentioned in the previous post was ringed at Burgh Castle this year as a 3, thanks to Paul Noakes for the info.

Everything turns Rosie!

With the appalling weather forecast for Saturday and various members out of action, Winterton was postponed until Sunday. A look at the weather late Saturday afternoon didn't fill us with optimism so we decided to call it off. Yet again we made the wrong decision or so I thought, as Sunday (28th Oct) dawned with a cold but light NW.
I decided to put a couple of nets up in the garden at Ormesby as there were at least 25 Blackbirds coming in to the downfall apples.
On the first net visit a Blackbird and a Finch were in the net and duly extracted. When approaching the Finch it looked streaky and I thought to myself  'that it was a bit late for a juvenile Greenfinch', on inspection there was no green or yellow colours on the bird. Several species then ran through my head but I dismissed them all, it was either something good or some sought of hybrid.  It suddenly dawned on me that the only thing that fitted was a Common Rosefinch.
 Dave was called and I said the immortal words  'I've caught a bird and I am not totally sure of what it is, ' with this Dave was in his car and on the way round.  Several books later and with Dave seeing the bird, it was definitely a Common Rosefinch!  The first I had seen in the Autumn and in this Plumage, a few minutes later with Mel doing the Telephone calls Tony, Tina, Gary and John arrived to see the bird.

It was aged as a 1st Winter (3) and had a wing of 85mm and weighing 22.8g.  It flew off strongly when released and unfortunately has not been seen since.

Other birds caught were 9 Blackbird, 3 Goldfinch, Greenfinch, 2 Chaffinch, House Sparrow and surprisingly  a control Great Tit Y030700. 

Later on in the afternoon 2 Barn Owl sites were checked after tip offs from their owners to say something was going on in the nest boxes, both contained  a chick and both are second broods, these being successful earlier in the year.

The calm before the storm.

We arrived at Winterton on Saturday 20th Oct early morning to a dull,calm but pleasant day.There were a few Thrushes about early on but nothing compared to what happened later in the week when a major fall occurred on the East coast. Unfortunately for us 'workers' we can only go on a weekend, but a little further North from us Mick at Eccles and UEA ringing group at Waxham had excellent catches during the week.

It was another good catch of 45 birds with our best day tally of Meadow Pipits and the first Redwing of the Winter.

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit 14

Robin 6 (1) an adult male ringed on 10/04/11

Blackbird 8

Song Thrush 2

Goldcrest 3

Blue Tit 1 (1)

Great Tit 2

Lesser Redpoll 2

Reed Bunting 2

One each of Wren, Redwing and Blackcap.

Song Thrush, continental type looking very Grey.

The bird of the day however was a very confiding Woodlark that was found feeding near to the net rides, it was present for over an hour giving exceptional views and was often heard doing a sub song while feeding.

Woodlark

There still seems to be a few Jays about in the woods, also a newly arrived Short eared Owl was hunting the dunes and the first Woodcock of the Winter was flushed.
Cranes were still very audible nearby and a Brambling flew over.

On Sunday an adult female Brambling was trapped and ringed in my Ormesby garden.

Female Brambling (Not my nail varnish I hasten to add !)

One bird doesn't make an invasion.

As the weekend was upon us once more we were again at Winterton, Saturday dawned dry and dull but still with the persistent Westerly.
There were a few Thrushes about early on and the odd Jay calling in the woods, later on when doing a net round 12 Jays were seen coming in off the sea. There have been a lot of Jays arriving all along the East Anglian coast recently due to the failure of the acorn crop in Scandinavia  today was going to be the day! Sadly we only caught one, a first for the year, so not exactly an invasion, yet!

One of the invaders.

It seemed quiet again, apart from the Jays, but we had a respectable total of 102 birds with 92 being new to ring, Goldcrest being the most handled again, you can never get tired of these tiny waifs.

15/10/12 Winterton (retraps in brackets)

Meadow Pipit 8

Wren 12 (2)  one originally ringed 06/09/09 as a bird of that year.

Dunnock 2 (3) one from 12/09/09

Robin 4

Blackbird 5

Song Thrush 2

Blackcap 7

Chiffchaff 3

Goldcrest 16 (1)

Long-tailed Tit 8 (3) 2 from October 2011

Blue Tit 12

Great Tit 4 (1)

Lesser Redpoll 2

Reed Bunting 3

One each of Coal Tit, Jay,Chaffinch and Siskin.

3M Blackbird

Other birds seen were a flock of 14 Siskin and 5+ Redpoll, a Crossbill was heard flying over.