Linacre - 10th September 2016

I was supposed to be ringing at Linacre on Saturday morning, but the weather forecast gave wind and rain, so we decided to call off. As always, when I woke up on Saturday, it wasn't raining or windy at all, so instead of ringing, I had a couple of hours walking around all 3 reservoirs.

The highlight for me was the immature Shag, now into it's 10th month (surely it'll make it to the 1 year mark in november?), that was still present on the bottom reservoir. I managed to get quite close, and got a nice photo of the bird perched up. It's also nice to see that the bird's eye is starting to turn green, just like an adult's.

Shag

Other birds noted on the reservoirs were: Mallard (60), Mandarin Duck (68, including 30 together on the top reservoir), Tufted Duck (14), Grey Wagtail (8, all together on the overflow of the top reservoir), Grey Heron (2), Great-crested Grebe (4; 2 adults and 2 juveniles), Little Grebe (3 breeding plumaged adults all together), Coot (3 adults) and Moorhen (8: 5 adults and 3 juveniles).

Summer migrants were still present, with c.30 Swallows and 3 House Martins over the water, and a singing Chiffchaff by the boardwalk on the top reservoir.

The last record wasn't a bird, but a slug! It was sliding ( is that the correct word?) across the path by the top reservoir, and was at least 10cm long. I think its a Leopard Slug, and is my first ever record. More details here.

Leopard Slug