Saturday, 30 January 2016

Linacre - 30th January 2016

I was down at Linacre this morning at first light to walk around the reservoirs, and check on the Shags. Two had been reported on Thursday on the Sheffield Bird Study Group website, and I managed to find two again today on the bottom reservoir.

Apart from the Shags it was quite quiet this morning with just 48 Mallards and 16 Tufted Duck seen. Both Coot and Moorhen were, however, present in the highest numbers of the year so far, with 10 and 13  respectively seen. 17 Mandarins were on the middle reservoir, with 2 Goosanders (1m and 1 redhead), as was a Great-crested Grebe, that was just beginning to get its breeding plumage. Black-headed Gulls numbered just 20, and there was just 1 Cormorant today, a beautiful, breeding-plumaged bird.

The woodlands were quite quiet as well, but three species; Woodpigeon, Coal Tit and Mistle Thrush were heard singing. A Kestrel was seen flying over the top reservoir, as was a female Sparrowhawk. There were four species of tit on the feeders by the bridge at the top reservoir (Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed), along with several Nuthatches.

Long-tailed Tit

No comments:

Post a Comment