Two targets - Richards pipit and parrot crossbill. So, with a couple of days leave still to use up by end of the month I set off before dawn for Norfolk. Not even a 'is your journey really necessary' message from big brother. I managed to get a quite nice sequence of shots of the water rail despite it being a bit skulky and mainly staying in the shady area.īlimey! A day without rain or gale force winds predicted.

Over the next 30 minutes or so both were regularly in view (and song/call) together with a reed bunting on the bird table and a green woodpecker on the grassy area. I only had to wait about a minute for the Cetti's to burst into song, and about 5 minutes for a water rail to come out onto the marshy area and start feeding. I then hot-footed round to Rotunda, as the sun was shining bright and water rails and Cetti's warblers are being seen regularly from there. I've been after grey wagtails for the last couple of weeks as i needed them for my year list, which is now up to 152!! Not too much around on Lynster's field this week, even without the wildfowlers but I did pick up 3 grey wagtails, or possibly 4, coming off our lake and flying over towards Lynsters. The floods of the last few weeks seem to have subsided somewhat and the path down to Teal hide is now a path not a stream. Got down to Maple Lodge just after 7.15 with bird song all around and the trees just starting to show green. After a hectic end to her Phd she decided a bit of Nature Therapy was required, Landsort was the perfect place! She leaves today and will spend the next few weeks cycling through the Scottish Isles.A beautiful day, almost a feel of spring in the air. After eating all our food supplies he is now on his way back home (he did leave us a supply of Whiskey and Gin though!).Īnother guest, Chloe, who we met in Madagascar in 2015, has been staying with us for the last two weeks. Talking of migrants, Steve Taggart arrived on our doorstep on Monday! A complete surprise but lovely to see a fellow Manxman. Always a pleasure to see are the Bluethroat and an Ortolan Bunting was another species we hadn't ringed before.Ī lot of Willow Warblers and Lesser Whitethroat which we ringed in previous years have returned to the site, which is always a source of amazement, but that's exactly why we do this! We have also caught a Blackbird which was ringed in Holland, a Robin ringed in Poland, a Chiffcaff from Norway and a Goldcrest from another observatory in southern Sweden. The highlight bird was the Red-flanked Bluetail, we have seen one once before here last Autumn but have never ringed one (only two others have ever been ringed here). Despite that, we have caught plenty of birds and a nice selection of species. The start of the season through April was very good with lots of birds caught and ringed but once May arrived the winds changed and the birds were obviously following a different route North. By the time we reached Landsort the snows had stopped but the lakes and coastal bays on Töro were still thick ice, with the sun shining it made a very beautiful sight. We had an interesting journey here where we encountered quite a heavy fall of snow in Denmark which followed us over 'The Bridge' to Sweden. So another Spring and Autumn monitoring the migration of the birds on Landsort. Although we made the decision last year that that would be our last season, by February this year we were already missing the place. Well, here we are back again on the beautiful island in the Baltic.

Red flanked bluetail song