Two 4 One

Yesterday I had a walk round the 'obs' in the cold northeasterly wind, in fact at 5.30 a.m. there was a ground frost. Even though it was cold there were a few birds on the move and all I had were 47 Goldfinch, 6 Swallows, Tree Pipit, 4 White Wagtails, 6 Lesser Redpolls, 28 Linnets, 3 Siskins, 2 Sand Martins, Meadow Pipit, 2 Whimbrel, Alba Wag and Yellow Wagtail.

 Goldfinch

There were a few more warblers in on territory including the regular Lesser Whitethroat plus 3 Whitethroats and 4 Sedge Warblers. The only grounded migrants as such were two female Wheatears.

 Sedge Warbler

The sea was fairly quiet but I did have an addition to the site for the year in the form of a Little Tern rapidly heading north. Other 'stuff' on the sea included 15 Eider, Atlantic Grey Seal, 2 Cormorants, 35 Gannets, 10 Arctic Terns, 15 Auk sp., Red-throated Diver and 2 Sandwich Terns.

This morning Ian and I had a ringing session in the reedbed and we processed 11 new birds (recaptures in brackets) as follows:

Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 2
Lesser Redpoll - 1
Mealy Redpoll - 2Y female
Sedge Warbler - 3
Chaffinch - 1
Reed Bunting - 1 (1)
Goldfinch - 1
Great Tit - (1)
Reed Warbler - (2)

Reed Warbler

The view from a birding perspective from the ringing station in the reedbed isn't brilliant but we did manage to have Whimbrel, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, Siskin, Tree Pipit and 6 Lesser Redpolls.