Linacre - 29th May 2011 - Breeding success!!!

Thankfully I didn't bother to take too much notice of the weather forecast for this morning and got up bright and early and headed down to Linace for a few hours birding. I'm so glad I did, because I managed to some see some good birds, including 2 new species to add to the list of breeding birds, namely Coal Tit and Willow Tit! As well as the birds, the wild flowers on the dam walls haven't been mowed down yet and looked really nice, especially the Ox-eyed Daisies and Birds Foot Trefoil.

Both Coal and Willow Tit are recorded around the reservoirs throughout the year, but up until now, we've never had evidence of actual breeding. This morning, however, I was lucky enough to see 2 family parties of Coal Tit and an adult Willow Tit feeding 2 recently fledged young. Brilliant!!

The Little Grebes on the bottom reservoir are alive and well with a family group of 2 adults and 2 stripey headed juveniles present today. 2 Grey Herons were also seen, including 1 juvenile bird. The traditional site on the middle reservoir hasn't been used this year, so presumably this bird has fledged elsewhere and come to Linacre for the summer. 3 juvenile Magpies were sitting on the edge of their nest and an adult Jackdaw was seen going into the chimney on the house. There were 29 adult Mallards around and 4 different broods of 7, 3, 6 and 5 ducklings. The final piece of news on the breeding front was a juvenile Robin by the middle reservoir, the first of the year.

Several summer migrants were seen and heard around the reservoirs including 8 Swifts, 2 Swallows, 1 House Martin, 4 Chiffchaffs, 3 Blackcaps and 1 Willow Warbler.