Linacre WeBS - 27th February 2022

 This morning, I went down to Linacre to carry out this month's WeBS count. It was a beautiful, bright morning with a slight frost.

The highlights of this month's count were my first Linacre Greylag Goose record of the year (1 bird) along with 7 Canada Geese (down slightly from 9 on Tuesday 22nd) and a Green Woodpecker (year tick) that was heard calling by the middle reservoir. Mallard numbers were good (141 - the highest count of the year so far), as were Little Grebe (4) and Great-crested Grebe (4). Other counts included: Cormorant (2), Mandarin Duck (5 - 3 males and 2 females), Black-headed Gull (43), Moorhen (16), Coot (12), Tufted Duck (24 - the highest count of the year), Goosander (8 females) and Grey Wagtail (1).

2 Common Buzzards were also seen over the woods along with a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker and a singing Song Thrush.

Year List Update:                                                                                                                           105 - Golden Plover                                                                                                                                   106 - Green Woodpecker

Clumber and Rufford - 24th February 2022

On Thursday, in between the wind and snow showers (!), I had a walk around Clumber and Rufford looking for Black-headed Gulls.

Clumber had approximately 400 gulls, but, unfortunately, only about 50 or so were interested in my food offerings. Of these bird, only one had a darvic ring, number 295A. This is one of the Center Parcs birds, and this sighting was my first away from Rufford. There were two metal-ringed birds, but I only managed to get one number, VAO171, a Danish bird, that I've seen several times before. It was originally ringed  in June 2015. 

The Mute Swans at Clumber were very friendly, and I managed to read a few rings; Y204, Y677, Y358, 929Y and W47133. Y204 was ringed in Pontefract Park in August 2019 and was first seen at Clumber in November 2020. Y677 was ringed on 14th October 2020, as a 3, a bird born in that year. Y358 had been ringed on 6th September 2019, just 13km away, and had been seen at Clumber since August 2021. 929Y was ringed in August 2018, and had been seen at Clumber in August 2021. W47133 had also been ringed in August 2018, as a 5, born in 2017. I recorded this bird at Clumber in August 2021.

When I arrived at Rufford, one of the first gulls I saw was.... 295A!! Other ringed birds seen were: 258A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, JO116 and V77K.

Rufford - 21st February 2022

 After the wet and very windy weekend I went down to Rufford yesterday afternoon. There were about 100 Black-headed Gulls (and 1 Common Gull).

Ringed birds seen were: 281A, 289A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, 207B and JO116 (Norwegian bird). In addition, there were 12 Mute Swans (9 adults, including W17328, and 3 juveniles - born last year). 

289A and 207B were new birds. 289A was originally ringed on 8th December 2021, at Center Parcs, 2km away, whilst 207B was ringed at the same site on 8th January 2022. Both birds had been born in 2021, and yesterday's sightings were the first since ringing.

289A

207B

In addition to these sightings, news came through last week of Black-headed Gull 237A. This bird was ringed at Center Parcs on 20th November 2019, as a 1st winter bird, born in 2019. It was a regularly seen bird during the winters of 2019 and 2020, with the last UK sighting in January 2021. Last week's news was a report from may 2021, when it was seen, over 2000km away, in Novgorod, Russia!

Linacre Birds - 12th February 2022

 I managed to get down to Linacre for the first February visit. The weather was cool (5 degrees) and pretty windy, but there were decent numbers of most birds. 

Numbers were: Mallard (126 - highest count of the year), Coot (14), Moorhen (12- 11 adults and 1 of last year's juveniles), Tufted Duck (28-  the highest count of the year), Goosander (2 females), Mandarin (5 - 4 males and 1 female, still very low numbers), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1 breeding plumaged bird), Grey Wagtail (1), Grey Heron (1) and Cormorant (1). 

A Great-spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming, and I also recorded my first singing Song Thrush of the year.

Rufford - 5th February 2022

 I spent yesterday morning at Rufford Country Park. I got there earlier than I usually do, so that I could walk across the the Abbey and have a look for some Hawfinches. It was a little windy, but I managed to get  brief views of 2 birds in the trees around the car park. Walking back through the park, I also spotted 15 Redwings, a large flock of Siskin, 1 Grey Heron, 14 Goosander (8 females and 6 males), 1 Little Egret (my first record for this site), 6 Mute Swans (3 adults and 3 young birds, including W17357) and a whopping 66 Common Gull.

Also on the water were approximately 150 Black-headed Gulls. I spotted 12 darvic-ringed birds: 223A (first ringed in February 2019, and my first sighting since October 2020), 258A, 264A (ringed in February 2020, and the first sighting since), 281A (3rd sighting, since ringing in December 2021), 293A (5th sighting), 294A (first sighting), 295A (2nd sighting), EUM3 (Dutch bird), P519 (Lithuanian bird), JO116 ( Norwegian bird) and 204B, a new bird, first ringed in January 2022. In addition, I also saw the Norwegian-ringed Common Gull JN075.

264A

294A

204B

The Hawfinches were a new bird for the year and bring Year List to 103, following Raven and Chough, that I saw last week in Wales.

Year List update:

101 - Raven

102 - Chough

103 - Hawfinch