Guess what? The weather was rubbish again this morning (too windy again), so no ringing. Instead I went to .....? You guessed it.... Linacre! I had a couple of hours on site, filled up the feeders on the ringing site and got 2 new species for the Linacre List 2014, including 1 for the Year List as well.
One of the first birds I saw this morning was the "Year List" addition - Raven. In a normal year, we record Raven on a couple of occasions, at Linacre, so this morning's sighting was a good start to the year. What made it even better though, was the fact that today's sighting involved 2 birds flying together, low over the woods - possibly prospecting for a nest site??
The second "new" bird was a Great-crested Grebe, seen on the middle reservoir. It was in full summer plumage, and looked very smart. In addition it was calling and appeared to be looking at last year's nest site. 2 Little Grebes were also present on the bottom reservoir, so hopefully, we could have both species breeding again in 2014.
Other sightings today were: 14 Mandarin Ducks, 75 Mallards, 65 Tufted Ducks, 13 Black-headed Gulls, 12 Moorhens and 13 Coots. Unfortunately, no Kingfisher, Wagtail or Crossbill sightings today.
The woods were quite quiet today, but I did hear Siskins calling, and Dunnocks, Wrens, Chaffinches, Blue, Great and Coal Tits were all singing in the sun, so perhaps Spring isn't too far away.
In the afternoon I had a call from my nephew telling me that he'd had a small group of about 20 Redwings feeding in the field by the entrance. Thanks Luke!
Year List update:
84 - Raven (41st for Linacre)
Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
No comments:
Post a Comment