31 December 2021

Weather: Clear skies with a southwesterly breeze. Amazingly warm for late December.

Disturbance: Again, way too much between scrambler bikes, dog walkers and visitors walking in areas that caused maximum disturbance to the wildlife. The latter included a couple walking all over Langmere island as well as the south and eastern part of the lake. Birds were being flushed from the lake about once every 10-15 minutes while I was there.

It would certainly be good for Norfolk Wildlife Trust to review this and possibly add some signage and/or fencing to keep visitors to the reserve from causing disturbance. The fence along the east side of Langmere for example could be moved closer to the A1075 to ensure that walkers cause less disturbance.

Sightings from Ringmere:

Mute Swan (1)

Unfortunately a couple of other birders were using the small hide overlooking Ringmere so I did not get a chance to do a count of the birds on the lake.

Sightings from Fenmere:

Coot (2)

Moorhen (2)

Sightings from Langmere:

Greylag Goose (11)

Mute Swan (9)

Egyptian Goose (2)

Shelduck (3)

Shoveler (2)

Gadwall (14)

Mallard (61)

Teal (4)

Pochard (7)

Tufted Duck (19)

Moorhen (15)

Coot (7)

Little Grebe (2)

Black-headed Gull (185)

Iceland Gull (1 - first-winter)

Herring Gull (10)

Yellow-legged Gull (7 - adults)

Lesser Black-backed Gull (594)

Despite the continuous disturbance, there was a surprisingly good gull roost with the Iceland Gull making a reappearance after being absent for over a week. The bird appeared shortly after 3pm, but flew off with the majority of the gulls a few minutes later due to disturbance by scrambler bikes. 

At its peak, there were possibly around 900- 1,000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls present but they proved very difficult to count. There was a good candidate for a first-winter Caspian Gull as well, but again the flock flew up shortly after seeing this bird. 

Counts of dabbling duck were well down from my last visit due to being flushed, with, for example, 76 Teal noted on Wednesday and just four seen this evening.

Gull oddity #1: This unusually pale gull

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gull oddity #2: A very dark headed Lesser Black-backed Gull

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rest of the reserve:

Pheasant

Tawny Owl (2-3 calling at dusk)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)

Jay

Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Coal Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Goldcrest

Wren

Redwing

Blackbird

Robin

Dunnock

Pied Wagtail

Goldfinch

Siskin

Rabbit

Despite the frustration with the frequent disturbance, it was a lovely afternoon to be out and about, and the colourful sunset proved a nice end to the year.