Despite the very windy conditions (30mph in the night!), I decided to Holkham and have a look for some geese. It started well with 15 white fronts really close to Lady Anne's Drive. Although it was very windy, poor light and I was trying to shelter behind a tree, I don't think these shots are too bad. They are certainly better that anything I got with my Nikon Coolpix and all the digiscoping extras. Can't wait for some sunny days with decent light.

Most of the geese had already gone but from the Joe Jordan hide there was another flock of white fronts but at least 150 this time. They are cracking when you can see them up close. Pinkies were moving past in small groups and one of them included the adult Ross's that has been kicking about. Some people who were already in the hide had seen a rough-leg drop onto the ground but the only bird that I saw while I was there was common buzzard. They had described the bird as having a pale base to the tail so it was probably still sitting our of sight somewhere.

A quick look at the sea produced a few red-throated divers, eider and great-crested grebes but little else and Holkham Gap had just a few skylarks.

18 corn buntings at Choseley drying barns on the was home was the only other sighting of note.

Had a bit of a mooch along the coast today.

Highlights were:-

Cley - American wigeon with small wigeon flock by the east bank and 2 adult pale bellied brent geese in the same area. 2 adult and a juv pale bellied brents were with the large flock of dark bellies buy the beach carpark.

Stopped off at the Stiffkey roadside flood which was looking cracking - full of water and ducks. 83 pintail, 480 teal, 492 wigeon, 35 gadwall, 30 shoveler and 15 black tailed godwits.

Ended the afternoon at the Warham Greens roost. A nice surprise came in the from of 22 pale bellied brent geese and an adult black brant with the brent flock that was commuting between the arable fields and the saltmarsh. 8 ringtail hen and 2 female marsh harriers were in the roost.

Had a decent day garden ringing on Sunday. Highlights were 2 lesser redpoll and a small flock of 7 long-tailed tits of which 4 stumbled into the nets.

Blackbird - 2 new, 1 re-trap
Greenfinch - 8 new
Chaffinch - 1 new
Goldfinch - 3 new
Long-tailed tit - 4 new
Blue tit - 1 new, 1 re-trap
Dunnock - 1 re-trap

Pretty good afternoon at work today. Loads of people about despite the cold wind and they were probably attracted by the continuing quality of birds.

There are still loads of passerines on the brackish marsh, 121 skylark, 40 twite and 25 snow bunts today, the Northern harrier is still performing well and there has been 3 ringtails and male hen harriers in the last couple of days.

The highlight of the afternoon was finally catching up with the elusive hooded crow. Despite being around since before Christmas I never caught up with it for my 2010 list. While showing some visitors the 2 redhead smew I saw it fly through my bins and land on one of the islands. It was about for most of the afternoon but was still mobile and spent most of its time on the saltmarsh. It was a reserve tick taking my list to 257.

Usual excuses for the bad images but the light was pretty crappy.

How things have changed on the ringing front recently. Back in the early winter we were getting nothing but new birds, now it is nothing but re-traps. It is all valuable re-trap data but it is getting a bit mad. Yesterday we had 9 new birds including a cracking woodcock but an amazing 113 re-traps! Most of them were blue tits but a 1st year male bullfinch from last year was nice.

Getting home, there were 13 long-tailed tits on the feeders so I decided to open a net and see if I could get any. With a tape playing, I managed to get one within a few minutes but the only annoying things was that some of the others were investigating to trapped one by sitting on the net but not going in.

This cutie and 2 blackbirds were caught

This morning was the Snettisham WeBS count. Not really something to enjoy as it is a nightmare to count. It starts off with an hour walk to get into position and the you are counting at nearly a mile distance in poor light. This morning the high was too high before the light was good enough. There didn't seem to be many waders around and they had probably been pushed further up the river. The pinkies (ca 25,000) returned to the saltmarsh at dawn and there were 4 Lapland buntings and a barn owl over the farmland. On the way back to the hides for high tide, 3 corn buntings by the pumpstation was a good local record.

From the roost hide there was a decent numbers of waders on. Although not easy to count, there were 16,000 knot and about 5,000 oystercatchers on the pits.

On the way home I jammed in on the 3 waxwings just to the west of Bircham that had been around for a few days and a load of gulls in a pig field produced this adult med gull.

If anyone wants to comment on the large gull they are welcome. It was the only one at the site and when I first saw it I thought that it may be a Caspian. I only saw it briefly before it flew off but it did show pale pinkish legs and a small looking bill and this was the only shot if it I got.

The news this morning said that today was the most depressing of the year and they were not far wrong. I had everything planned for today, spend the morning ringing in the garden then head off to Cley for the American wigeon and Warham Green for the harrier roost.

I opened the curtains this morning, no wind but thick fog. As it lifted, I managed to get an hour ringing (1 new dunnock, re-trap coal and great tit) before the rain arrived and it pissed down until mid afternoon. At least I had the opportunity to nail the beginner level on Colin Mcrae rally on the XBox!

By the time the rain had eased off there wasn't time to go to Cley so I just went for the roost. On the way I bumped into 2 adult whooper swans just to the north of the village - a nice start.

The light was much better by the time I was in position at Warham and within a few minutes I had the first ringtail over the saltmarsh. 2 barn owls were hunting over the saltmarsh near East Hills and another one passed really close not even noticing me. By the end of the afternoon I had at least 10 ringtails of which 7 of the roosted on the far edge of the saltmarsh. The other 3, including a striking bird with an all-white left outer tail-feather, headed off towards Holkham. There was also 2 female marsh harriers and 2 peregrines kicking about the area.

After a crappy start, it turned into a good afternoon.

After nearly a month, we were back at our usual ringing site this morning. With all the bad weather delays and several pheasant shoots, it was interesting to see what was about. A 'bitterly mild' morning (9oc @ 5am) produced the first song of the year with a song thrush giving it some and at least 5 great tits holding territory - I am sure things will change oner the coming weeks!

After getting used to loads of new birds, this morning was a bit different although not unexpected.

Having said that, a haul of 16 new and 67 re-traps was pretty good. Goodies included 2 treecreepers, 2 goldcrests, 7 woodcock returning at dawn and a pair of 1st year bullfinches. In a normal year we would expect to catch 10-15 bullfinches but 2010 produced only one, so two in the first week was a good start.

This afternoon was hen harrier roost day and after missing the Northern harrier last month, I was hopeful that we would get it on today's count.

The conditions were OK but we could have done without the strong SW wind. Things started well with the Northern harrier hunting over the Thronham saltmarsh when I arrived. Good numbers of marsh harriers have been around recently and they soon started to arrive. 2 females over the Thornham side were first and then they started to come into the reserve. Next to arrive was a ringtail hen harrier from the north and showed really well for a few minutes with the Northern before heading east over the reserve. By now there were marsh harriers everywhere and it takes a bit on concentration to keeps tracks of the all. Another ringtail then arrived but quickly settled. By now there were 10 marsh slowly getting lower and dropping into roost when a 3rd ringtail was picked up just to the east of the reserve!

A great evening with Northern harrier, 3 ringtail hen and 13 marsh, plus buzzard, kestrel, barn owl and a huge flock of pinkies heading out to Scolt Head to roost.