Linacre and Leash Fen - 28th January 2012

Had a couple of hours at Linacre this morning, mostly to have a check of the nestboxes for the forthcoming breeding season, but also to catch up with the birds.

Most of the boxes were still in place and complete with their lids. There were, however, a few exceptions such as this one below, which will need replacing soon!

I want to make sure we have the best season yet for the birds, but also because I will be ringing the youngsters (pulli) with my trainer, so the more birds the better. I'll blog about that when it happens.

Lots of birds were singing this morning as it was a lovely bright, sunny day, the most notable being Song Thrush (my first this year), Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Robin and Wren. Waterbirds seen this morning were: Mallard (106), Mandarin (7), Coot (7), Tufted Duck (14), Great-crested Grebe (1), Goosander (2; 1 male and 1 female), Black-headed Gull (46), Grey Heron (1), Moorhen (6) and Grey Wagtail (1).

An afternoon visit to Leash Fen provided two year ticks:

78 – Short-eared Owl
79 – Meadow Pipit