Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
This morning, I had half an hour checking the gulls in the harbour area around Anstruther. I spotted a new species for the trip, Mediterranean Gull.
In the afternoon, Jayne and I checked the rocks below the golf clubhouse, and spotted 2 darvic-ringed Great Black-backed Gulls and a single darvic-ringed Shag.
Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a couple of weeks. On the drive up, we stopped off at Musselburgh Lagoons, near Edinburgh, to look for some scoters.
There were 4 species of scoter to find, but, as you can imagine, we only managed to find 2 of them, Velvet Scoter (185), Common Scoter (186). Annoyingly, the White-winged and Surf remained elusive!! Other species seen were: Eider Duck, Razorbill (187), Redshank, Gannet, Sandwich Tern, Herring Gull and Goosander.
Arriving in Anstruther, we spotted 6 species of gull, around the harbour area: Black-headed, Common, Herring, Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed and a single Kittiwake. 2 Kingfishers were also seen feeding in the rockpools, along with Redshank, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Curlew and Turnstone. A single Shag (188) was spotted on the nearby rocks.
A walk along the coastal path to Pittenweem added Linnet, Painted Lady and a single Hummingbird Hawkmoth.
I've had a couple of 2-hour visits to Linacre this week and managed to record lots of insects, including a new species!
The first walk, on 28th, with 3 of the volunteer rangers, resulted in the new species, a queen Median Wasp, that was seen, basking on the bracken next to the middle reservoir.
I spent two hours at Rufford yesterday afternoon. There were about 65 Black-headed Gulls present, including 17 juveniles, and 4 darvic-ringed birds.
The darviced birds were 258A (first ringed in February 2020 and reported 42 times, mainly in Rufford. Today's sighting was the first since March 2025), 207C, 258C (both first seen back on 15th July) and 234F (ringed on 9th November 2024, as a 1st winter bird, seen 8 times last winter and last seen in February 2025).
Yesterday, Jayne and I had a walk up to Little Barbrook Reservoir on Big Moor. We went to look for dragonflies, and managed to see a couple of new species for the year.
The highlight, as always, was our first Golden-ringed Dragonflies of 2025. We saw two individuals, both males, including this one that had, unfortunately, damaged its body, presumably whilst emerging. Despite this, it appeared to be doing ok, and we got very lucky, when it perched by the main path eating a wasp!
Ring-necked Duck isn't a species I see that often, especially not in Derbyshire, so a report of an eclipse male at Ogston Reservoir this week had my "twitching" instincts up and running. As it turns out, this is my 3rd record this year, and my second in my home county!.
I popped down on Thursday morning (24th) and found the bird within 2 minutes, right out, on the water, in front of the public hide. The light was awful, but I got great 'scope views and managed a few half-decent photos.
As always, at this time of the year, the Year List slows down, as most of the easier-to-find species have been recorded. I have, however, managed to add a few new species.
The first is Long-eared Owl (179), that was seen in NE Derbyshire in June. Next up was Crossbill (180), that was recorded at Linacre on 5th July. Spotted Flycatcher (181) was seen on a walk in Tideswell Dale, also on 5th July. Green Woodpecker (182) was heard, but not seen, at Hardwick Hall last week, and the final bird, Yellow-legged Gull (183), was seen today, at Ogston Reservoir.
