Linacre Nestbox and Butterfly Update

As you know, this year's nestbox season at Linacre has been our best ever (see here for details), and yesterday I went down to check the boxes to see if the chicks had all managed to fledge successfully.

I'm very pleased to say that out of the 232 pulli that were ringed by me and other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, only 5 had failed to fledge! That gives us a fledging rate of 98.2%, which compares very nicely with the 99.4% fledging rate last year, when 166 birds were ringed. I didn't have time to check on the Mandarin Box, so I'll check that soon.

After checking the boxes, I had a walk around all the 3 reservoirs. The bird life was very quiet, so I decided to look at a new area of wildflower meadow that is being developed by the Rangers, near Spire View. The sun had come out when I got there, and I managed to count a good number of butterflies on the flowering knapweeds: Peacock 11, Small Copper 1, Ringlet 1, Comma 3, Meadow Brown 10, Gatekeeper 6, Small Skipper 1, Green-veined White 2 and a day-flying moth, Common Carpet 1.

Green-veined White on Knapweed