Linacre WeBS - 25th January 2020

I carried out the first Linacre WeBS count of the year this morning. The weather was very still and grey, with a temperature of 7 degrees.

Birds seen were: Mallard (86), Tufted Duck (18), Mandarin Duck (30), Moorhen (11), Coot (6), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1 in full breeding plumage!), Goosander (2 redheads), Cormorant (1), Kingfisher (1) and Black-headed Gull (26 , but no rings!).

Many birds were singing in woods including Song Thrush, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker (yaffling), Great-spotted Woodpecker (drumming), Wren, Goldcrest, Robin and Woodpigeon.

Year List update:
80 – Barn Owl (1 at Apperknowle on 17th)
81 – Song Thrush 
82 – Kingfisher
83 – Goldcrest

Year List Update - 28th May 2019

I last blogged about my Year List a few weeks ago, and since then, I've added 5 new species. The first three: Garden Warbler, Tree Pipit and Little Owl, were seen in Derbyshire, whilst the last two: Little Tern and Little Stint, were seen in Northumberland.

The Garden Warbler (2), were seen and heard in Deep Dale, the Tree Pipit was seen at Padley Gorge and the Little Owl was a nice surprise, seen in Apperknowle, on the way to work last week.

I've seen 2 Little Terns in Northumberland. The first was fishing just off the beach at Seahouses, and the second was seen flying from Lindisfarne Castle.

The Little Stint, a breeding plumaged bird was seen yesterday, and again today at Low Newton Pools.

Year List Update:
173 – Garden Warbler
174 - Tree Pipit
175 - Little Owl
176 – Little Tern

177 – Little Stint

Year List 2019 - the first post

We arrived back in the UK on 1st January after a few days in New York. The first bird of the new year was a Starling, seen as we drove out of the airport. On the drive back we saw numbers 2 - 15. Numbers 16 - 30 were seen on a quick trip to Poolsbrook CP, and the final bird of the day, Golden Plover, was seen in fields above Apperknowle.

Year List:
1 – Starling
2 – Magpie
3 – Feral Pigeon
4 – Woodpigeon
5 – Jackdaw
6 – Rook
7 – Mallard
8 - Redwing
9 - Goldfinch
10 – Kestrel
11 – Herring Gull
12 - Lesser Black-backed Gull
13 – House Sparrow
14 – Collared Dove
15 – Black-headed Gull
16 – Coal Tit
17 – Mistle Thrush
18 – Blackbird
19 – Great Tit
20 – Great Black-backed Gull
21 – Moorhen
22 – Coot
23 – Tufted Duck
24 – Great-crested Grebe
25 – Greylag Goose
26 – Pink-footed Goose
27 – Cormorant
28 – Pied Wagtail
29 – Robin
30 – Golden Plover

Grey Partridge

Grey Partridge is always a tricky species to catch up with in Derbyshire, so I was very pleased to add this species to the "year list" today. The birds in question were found in a field in Apperknowle, one of the few regular spots that I know for this species.

I spotted the birds, a decent sized covey of 23 birds (my highest ever count), as I was driving home from school, and managed to get some photos.

Grey Partridge

Year List update:
52: Grey Partridge

Firecrest!

After a morning's ringing session (more about that later) I drove out to Silkstone near Barnsley, with Jayne, to "twitch" a Firecrest that has been present at the sewage works fora few weeks.

We arrived just before midday, and spotted a small group of birders, so headed in their direction. After about 10 minutes, and lots of false starts (pesky Goldcrests!!!), we managed to spot the bird, and watched it for about 10 seconds before it disappeared. We had another 10 -15 minute wait, before the bird was found again, and this time it hung around for about 1 minute, and gave some reasonable views. A great bird, and my first since at least 2010. I didn't manage to get a photo, but here's a link to a great shot on the Bird Guides website.

While looking for the Firecrest, we spotted a few other birds, namely: Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Pied and Grey Wagtails on the neraby sewage words.

This bird was, of course, a "year tick", and it's the second of the week, following a Red-legged Partridge that I saw stood on the top of a farm building in Apperknowle on Thursday. I was a bit taken aback to see it on the top of a building as I've only ever seen this species on the ground before!

Year List update:
118 - Red-legged Partridge
119 - Firecrest

More Year Ticks

After yesterday's visits to Linacre, I went for a walk around Rufford Country Park in the afternoon with Jayne. Whilst there I managed to add another 4 species to the "year list", namely Hawfinch (1 in the Lime trees by the car park), Greylag Goose (dozens on the main lake), Gadwall (1 pair on the lake) and Treecreeper (1 in the trees by the main lake). Unfortunately, no photos of these new species.

We also noted Mallards, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Coot, Moorhen, Goosander (c.10), Black-headed and Common Gulls (c.10). I got a few photos of the Common Gulls.

Common Gulls (2 different 1st winters/2nd calendar year birds)

One last "year tick" was a Barn Owl that I saw hunting in fields in Apperknowle on Wednesday. It was in the fields by "the triangle" at 7.30am. Great sight!

Year List update:
84 - Hawfinch
85 - Greylag Goose
86 - Gadwall
87 - Treecreeper
88 - Barn Owl

Poolsbrook Country Park and Apperknowle- 17th February 2012

After an exciting visit to Tesco this afternoon I thought I'd try my luck with the gull roost at Poolsbrook Country Park following recent reports of both Iceland and Mediterranean Gulls. On arrival there were approximately 300 gulls of the main lake, the vast majority being Black-headed Gulls. Mixed in amongst them were Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, but unfortunately no "white winged gulls" today.

Great Black-backed Gull with Herring Gull (left)

and Black-headed Gull (behind)

Great Black-backed (left hand bird)

and Lesser Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

On the drive back I stopped off at Apperknowle after spotting a few shapes huddled in the middle of the field. These turned out to be Golden Plover, 10 in total. Also here were 2 Grey Partridges (year tick), see here for a picture taken in the same field last year, and a Brown Hare.

Golden Plover

Brown Hare

The Year List has moved on 1 more species:

85 – Grey Partridge

Apperknowle 8th January 2011

The fields around Apperknowle in North East Derbyshire are a good spot to visit during the winter months as you can often locate a few hard-to-find species such as Grey Partridge.

So it was this afternoon when I headed up there for  half an hour. Straight away I spotted 11 Grey Partridge huddled in the middle of one of the field just by Snowdon Lane. Although they were quite distant, I managed to get good views through the 'scope and I even managed to get a shot or two. Whilst up there I also flushed 4 Red-legged Partridge and a male Pheasant that were feeding in the same field. A small flock of 12 Fieldfare flew over, along with a couple of Redwing and 20 Lapwings were also feeding in the nearby fields.

Driving back home I managed to spot a Brown Hare crouching low in a field as well as an enormous mixed flock of at least 1000 Jackdaw, Rook and Carrion Crow feeding on a field just behind Unstone.

Avenue Washlands and Apperknowle 22nd December 2010

Following news of a Bittern at this Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Chesterfield yesterday, I decided to have an hour down here this morning. The site was very snowy and more or less completely frozen over, with the exception of the Duck Marsh. I wasn't lucky enough to see the Bittern, but there were 14 Teal, 20 Black-headed Gull, 2 Common Gull, 1 Snipe, 6 Mallard, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Grebe and several Coot and Moorhen.

The feeding station was very busy with Yellowhammer, Magpie, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Robin and Blackbird present. Redwing were heard overhead.

On the way back home I stopped off at Apperknowle and managed to see a small covey of 7 Grey Partridge feeding in a snowy field. A great site and my first record for the year!! Record sent into the Derbyshire Ornithological Society for inclusion in their annual Bird report.