22 active nests and ducklings

I managed to get down to Linacre yesterday to check the nestboxes and was very pleased to see that 21 had eggs in them. In addition, the unknown nest I found a few weeks ago (see here), was still active and had 5 eggs instead of 3! Looking in my nest book I'm quite happy to say that it is a Robin's nest, so fingers crossed it continues to do well.

Robin nest?

The 21 nests in the nestboxes all appeared to be Blue or Great Tits as expected, but, with the exception of one box, none of the clutches were being actively incubated. The only bird found in a box was a Blue Tit. She was sitting tight, so I left her to it.

Blue Tit incubating

The bird will incubate for about 2 weeks, so all being well, by mid May we'll have some young in the nests.

As well as all the nests I was also lucky to see 50+ Swallows over the top reservoirs, 20+ House Martins (Year tick), the hybrid Canada Goose, 1 male Mandarin and 3 "redhead" Goosanders. The Goosanders were particularly interesting as they were my first ever May record. 3 Mallard ducklings were seen on the top reservoir and were the first of the year.

Year List moves on:

126 - House Martin