Linacre WeBS - 7th February 2015

This month's WeBS walk took place on Saturday, and was carried out by Mandy from the Chesterfield RSPB Group (many thanks). Waterfowl numbers were average for the time of year, although there weren't any grebes present at all. See here for last February's count to compare the counts.

Birds counted this month were: Mallard (63), Coot (6), Moorhen (4), Mandarin Duck (6), Tufted Duck (21), Black-headed Gull (c.60) and Goosander (3 females/redheads).

The woodlands contained the usual suspects, but also included a good record of 12 Lesser Redpolls, which was the first Linacre record of 2015.

I managed to get round Linacre this morning to check on the nestboxes in time for the coming breeding season. I'm glad that I did as well, because there were half a dozen that had fallen off the trees during the winter. These were put back up, and several lids were also put back on and secured! The highlights of the walk, however were a Brown Long-eared Bat that was sleeping/hibernating in one of the boxes, a pair of Canada Geese (the first 2015 record), 4 male Goosanders on the bottom reservoir, a Common Buzzard flying over the top reservoir and the ringed Little Owl  in her favourite tree.