3 January 2022

Weather: Sunny, with a light southwesterly breeze. Interestingly, there was a sharp boundary to an area of cloud to the south of the reserve, with clear skies to the north.

 

Disturbance: Thankfully nowhere near as bad as during my last visit a few days ago. The only incident was some dog walkers near the fence at the east end of Langmere, which flushed a few gulls and ducks.

Sightings from Langmere:

Greylag Goose (17)

Mute Swan (6)

Egyptian Goose (1)

Shelduck (3)

Shoveler (26)

Gadwall (19)

Wigeon (1 - drake)

Mallard (32)

Teal (37)

Pochard (7 - 6 drakes and 1 female)

Tufted Duck (4)

Hybrid Goose (1 - Canada x Greylag)

Moorhen (19)

Coot (18)

Black-headed Gull (59)

Iceland Gull (1 - first-winter)

Herring Gull (28)

Yellow-legged Gull (11 - adults and two possible third-winters)

Lesser Black-backed Gull (856)

The Iceland Gull appeared at around 1533, arriving with some gulls that had came in to East Wretham from the northeast, so it sems likely that it is spending its time in the pig fields in that direction. It remained settled with the Lesser Black-backed Gull flock until this dispersed at around 1615.

First-winter Iceland Gull

 

North meets south: Adult Yellow-legged Gull and the Iceland Gull

This gull roost also had the highest count of Herring Gulls so far this winter, as well as my first double figure count of Yellow-legged Gulls. Interestingly, while the Lesser Black-backed Gulls that roost on Langmere virtually all adults, the majority of the Herring Gulls were sub-adults. The count for Yellow-legged Gulls is for adults only, as I am not that confident in the identification of subadult birds, though there were two birds which appeared good candidates to be third-winters.

Adult Yellow-legged Gull with LB's

 

 

Female Pochard in front of the Langmere hide

 

Female Pochard

Rest of the reserve:

Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Blue Tit

Goldcrest

Wren

Mistle Thrush (1 - singing south of Langmere)

Redwing (1)

Blackbird

Robin

Pied Wagtail

Goldfinch

Siskin

Yewllowhammer (1)

Rabbit

Only a quick visit to the hide in Langmere this afternoon so unsurprisingly the species list has a few gaps.