Saturday 25 June 2016

Linacre June WeBS - ducklings everywhere!

I spent 2 hours at Linacre this morning with Luke walking around all three reservoirs. Whilst there, we saw 6 species of water birds with young, some for the first time this year. We also spotted a couple of Brown Hares, the first Meadow Brown butterfly of the year, and had a singing Yellowhammer on the hedge on the main drive (the first Linacre record since 2013).

Meadow Brown

Brown Hares

The water birds with young were: Mallard (73 birds; 43 adults and four broods of 6, 14, 5 and 10), Mandarin Duck (16 birds; 6 adults and 3 broods of 1,6 and 3), Moorhen (3 adults and 1 large, well-grown chick), Tufted Duck (14 adults and 1 brood of  9- first record of 2016), Coot (7 adults, 1 nest and 1 brood of 5) and Great-crested Grebe (2 pairs, both with young, minimum of 3 chicks seen).
Mallard

Tufted Duck

Mandarin ducklings

Great-crested Grebe and chick

Other birds seen were: Grey Heron (2), Swallow (1),Wren (singing), Chiffchaff (2 singing), Grey Wagtail (2) and the juvenile/2nd year Shag.

We checked the Pied Flycatcher nest, and were very pleased to find it empty and undisturbed, suggesting a successful fledging of the 4 chicks.

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