Linacre Ringing - 1st visit of 2016

After an enforced break of 6 weeks, due to wet and windy weekends, I managed to get out ringing this morning with my trainer and 1 other member of  Sorby Breck Ringing Group. The first visit of the year took us to Linacre Reservoirs, where we managed to ring 35 birds of 8 species.

The first bird out of the nets this year was...... a Blue Tit, followed closely by..... a Great Tit! After this, we continued to catch good numbers of these two species, but also added a nice flock of Long-tailed Tits (Lotties), Coal Tits, a Chaffinch, a Robin, two Nuthatches and a super 3 Lesser Redpolls.

Lesser Redpoll

Numbers were as follows (new/retrap): Blue Tit 11/3, Great Tit 4/2, Long-tailed Tit 1/5, Coal Tit 2/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Robin 0/1, Nuthatch 0/2 and Lesser Redpoll 3/0.

In between net rounds, we watched and listened for other birds using the site, and I was lucky enough to record 2 "year ticks" when a Raven flew over the ringing site, "cronking" away!. It, or another bird, flew over again about half an hour later. We also had a pair of Sparrowhawks in display over the woods, the first "drumming" Great-spotted Woodpecker, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls (2nd "year tick") flew over and a couple of Redwings were also in the area.

My nephew, Luke, came down with his friend, Izie, and they walked around the reservoirs. They spotted, amongst other things, the 3 Shags together on the bottom reservoir, 2 Grey Herons, a Grey Wagtail and a Kingfisher.

Year List update:
91 - Raven
92 - Lesser Black-backed Gull