X794060 - where are you from?

This was a goldfinch that I controlled (someone else ringed) in the garden back in early November and I have just recieved the details.

It was ringed at Gilbraltar Point in Lincolnshire on March 29th 2010 making a total of 583 days since ringing and a movement of at least 40km.

I controlled another goldfinch at the weekend so it will be interesting to see where that one has come from.

The perfect day?

Pretty much!

Today was a day of monitoring so most of my time was spent out on the reserve made all the better by the fantastic weather - cold but calm and an awesome light.
The morning was spent on a lagoon count and although all the fresh water was still frozen there was a nice group of wildfowl feeding in a small open area right in front of the hide. All of the diving ducks had cleared off but the mandarin was still about. A siskin in the alders was the first of 6 yearticks of the day.

The end of the day was taken up by the first harrier roost count of the new year. I was covering the Gypsy Lane area and it started well with a male hen appearing almost as soon as I arrived. Unfortunatly the appearance was only brief and it headed back east. While it was over the saltmarsh it flushed a small flock of passerines which looked dark but were too far away to ID. I was further up the path to check them and eventually could hear the calling - twite. After a short while they flushed again and there was at least 35. Bearded tit activity in the tidal reedbed was good and a jay was added to the list.

The evenings are already drawing out and it was still possible to check through the greylag flock that few overhead at 4:45!! Awesome red sunset too.


This is a shot of a juv herring gull I took a couple of weekends ago at Brancaster Harbour. It was digi-scoped out of the car window only resting on a beanbag. I have edited it through Photoshop but I think it has come out pretty well.

Turdus

that is thrushes to everyone else!

The common 4 species (blackbird, song thrush, redwing and fieldfare) are usually easy to pick up on a yearlist but the other two (mistle thrush and ring ouzel) are much harder. Despite being locally common, it is amazing how difficult it is to catch up with mistle thruhes but this year I have already managed to bag one flying over the capark earlier in the week. Ouzels are even harder to get and I don't think that I saw one last year. Having said that there is a nice female wintering at one of our ringing sites at the moment which I caught uo with this morning.

Picked up the debatable wildfowl on our WeBS count yesterday morning. A pair of red crested pochard (returning?) turned up on the fresh marsh on Friday and I finally saw the wintering female manarin. 10 cranes (8 and 2) have been through this week but despite missing them there should be plenty of chance in the spring, the traditional time for the Broads birds to be on the move.

Despite a morning temperature of -4, the conditions have finally been good enough for opening the nets in the garden, overcast and more inmportantly no wind!. I have now got a 40ft to add to my existing two which now gives me greater coverage. A few hours produced 24 new birds, 2 re-traps an a control goldfinch from somewhere else.

Blimey!

I have just been collating my final ringing figures from last year and it makes interesting reading...to me anyway!
Most of my ringing activities took place either in the garden here or at our main site near Burnham Market although there was the odd excursion onto other sites.

By the end of the year I had extracted a total of 1612 birds, processed 780, and ringed 1161, a slight decrease from 1225 in 2010.

The garden has had an excellent this year although the last couple of were very quiet (15 new birds) mainly down to the dark evenings and windy weather. A total of 482 were ringed in the garden but it is the greenfinch figures really stand out. 235 birds were ringed and most of these were during the late summer and were youngsters. What is particularly interesting is the fact that most of them moved off to other areas with only 10 being re-trapped. Other high numbers included 48 blue tit, 48 goldfinch, 44 blackbird, 1 chiffchaff but the highlight of the year was the marsh tit I caught in March.

The main highlight for me was the opportunity to get involved with the pulli (nestling) ringing at Kelling Heath and especially the chance to ring some scarce birds. I was lucky enough to colour-ring stonechat, woodlark and Dartford warbler chicks in the nest.

This year I hope to set up a new ringing site on the coast which should give the opportunity to catch some acro warblers (something we don't do much of) and possibly some migrants and hopefully I may get back a few greenfinch controls!

Lists climb slowly

Bittern and stock dove added to the reserve list today (88), fieldfare and red legged partridge added to garden list (25).

Daves' found an Iceland

With the year well under way I thought I had better get some birds onto the yearlist. My plan is to use Saturday afternoon, after ringing, as my yearlist time while there is no chance of morning or evening birding.

Due to a shoot we couldn't go ringing so I decided to spend the morning on the reserve. Didn't worry about looking at the redpoll but headed straight to the fresh marsh to count the ducks and check for scaup and mandarin. Didn't manage to catch up with either but a phonecall from Rob changed things. Dave had just located an adult Iceland gull on the beach so I was in hot pursuit managing to leave my tally counter on the bench (it was handed in to the shop later). The bird had moved east along the beach but a quick call to Dave and the bird was located feeding on the tideline, only my 2nd reserve record.

The sea remains very quiet but I did manage to add fulmar, RB merg, GC grebe and guillemot taking the yearlist to 85.

After a couple of hours in Thornham Harbour things turned for the worse as the van cut out as I was heading home and I had to call out the RAC. They have towed it to the garage so I am expecting another large bill next week...stupid cars!!

Pied wag and turnstones at Thornham Harbour.

Added redwing (22) and coal tit (23) to the garden yearlist this morning.

Twitch and run

Sat in the office this morning when a call over the radio reported 4 white-fronted geese on the grazing marsh with the greylags. A quick dash out and they were on the yearlist. These birds are probably part of the flock that were in the Gypsy Lane area before Christmas as the flock contained the neck-collared bird SXX. With others, the yearlist now stands at 61.

A pheasant calling this morning takes the garden list to 21.