Winter's here

Winter's here, at least it feels like it. 8 deg C, rain and a force four NW wind.....this is June not February!

With ringing curtailed at Druridge by the presence of our travelling friends (already a good collection of 'human eggs' in the bushes), we ringed at Ellington Pond this morning, until the rain set in, catching 28 birds including this ugly blighter.

moulting great tit, we renamed him 'vulture tit'

A combination of the honest romany folk and the Arctic-like conditions put me off going to Druridge this afternoon. I had a couple of hours on the patch yesterday morning however.

A fine vista - what better place to camp?

It was nice to see these sedge warblers feeding young, no chance of ever finding the nest though.

Sedge warbler feeding young

Spot the male

Offshore there were thousands of birds in the bay, the easterly wind must've have brought food with it.

One of several feeding frenzies

There were several of these 'feeding frenzies' with gulls, gannets, terns and auks all after the same food. away from these gatherings, there were large rafts of guilliemots and puffins with the occasional razorbill.

The drift-netters are also active in the bay and by some strange coincidence, the first freshly dead puffins of the year appeared on the strandline.

Dead

On the big pool, this pair of displaying common terns kept us amused and on the Budge fields there are still two spoonbill and amazingly, they were both awake......well, most of the time.

perfect choreography