Linacre nest update- 19th May 2013

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I visit Linacre in a T-shirt. Sunday 19th was just one of those days, as the temperatures topped an impressive 17 degrees Celsius!! After a lovely walk around Bakewell earlier in the day I popped down for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon to see what was going on.

The first bird of note was the male Pied Flycatcher that was still present and singing in the same area by the middle reservoir. Although I was very pleased to see and hear him, my joy was tinged with a hint of sadness as a quick check of the nearby nest boxes drew a blank as regards any nests. Time's getting on if he's to attract a mate and breed successfully this year.

Other nest news was more positive. The Song Thrush nest found last week was still being actively incubated. An adult Mistle Thrush was seen with a beak full of worms indicating a nearby nest and out on the water we now have 2 Coot nests and 2 Great-crested Grebe nests complete with sitting birds! The second grebe nest is on the top reservoir about 4m out from the boardwalk. Fingers crossed it doesn't get too disturbed.

Great-crested Grebe nest

 

One bird that appears every year at Linacre, but which is sometimes very tricky to find is the Spotted Flycatcher. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to record one at Linacre on Sunday, but I did manage to see one at Dovedale on Saturday. This brings my year list to 125 species.

Year List update:
125-Spotted Flycatcher