A lot can happen in a week, when it comes to the nestboxes at Linacre. This morning's check, showed that 3 had been predated - adult feathers and broken eggs (most likely some kind of rodent or mustelid), the chicks in one box were, thankfully, still going strong, and the pair of Pied Flycatchers had built a nest. Hopefully, they'll lay some eggs this week. The Mallard nest found last week was empty but undisturbed, so hopefully they've hatched.
Out on the water there were 80 Mallards (52 adults and 4 broods of 9, 6, 6 and 7), 5 Great-crested Grebes, 2 Grey Wagtails, 13 Moorhens (8 adults and 1 brood of 5), 29 Coots (12 adults and 3 broods of 7, 5 and 5), 9 male Mandarins and 25 adult Tufted Ducks.
Other birds seen were: 2 Swallows, 2 Yellowhammers (1 male and 1 female by the main entrance), 1 Skylark, singing by the top reservoir, 1 singing Mistle Thrush, 4 Chiffchaffs and 3 Blackcaps.
One species of insect was also seen, which is an Alderfly. There are three species in Great Britain, but they can only be identified to species level by genial dissection, so I think I'll leave it as Alderfly sp!!
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