Linacre Ringing and a Peregrine

After a break of a few weeks I managed to get out ringing again today for the first visit of the year to Linacre Reservoirs. We (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) spent a total of 4 hours on site and caught a total of 22 birds of 8 species (Blue, Great, Willow, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Jay, Nuthatch and Dunnock).

First bird in the nets was a Jay. We managed to catch 3 at Linacre last year, so 1 on the first visit of the year was a very good start. The next few net rounds produced a few birds each time with members of the tit family, including 4 Long-tailed Tits, scoring high. 1 Nuthatch and 1 Dunnock were the only other species recorded today.

My personal total for the day were: (new/retrap)

Blue Tit 2/1, Coal Tit 0/1, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/0 and Dunnock 0/1

Away from the nets we recorded Siskin and Redwing flying over, Song Thrush and Great Tit in song, a Kestrel hunting the area around the ringing site and 2 Sparrowhawks; including a young male bird which flew around the nets and landed on top of the feeders just as we were extracting some birds (well spotted David)! Black-headed Gulls were flying over and a group of approximately 30 were feeding in the fields on the way out. 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were seen flying over the ringing site.

After ringing I went into Chesterfield with my wife and daughter where we were lucky enough to spot a female Peregrine Falcon perched up on the Crooked Spire - very nice!

Year List additions:

70 – Sparrowhawk
71– Coal Tit
72 – Siskin
73 – Song Thrush
74 – Peregrine Falcon