Year List Update - 14th January 2024

This weekend, I managed to add another 4 species to my "Year List" for 2024, taking my total so far this year to 101.

The first new addition was Barn Owl (98), when I was spotted whilst driving across to Center Parcs for some gull ringing. The second bird was Great Grey Shrike (99) that Jayne and I saw up at Ramsley Reservoir in the afternoon. It was quite distant, and the sky was grey, but I managed a record shot.

Great Grey Shrike

Late this morning, Jayne and I drove across to Ogston Reservoir, where we added two new species. The first, and my 100th of the year, was Brambling (100) - a stunning male. I love this shot, a bit different!

Brambling

The final bird was a Water Rail (101), that came out of the reeds to feed under the feeders briefly.

Water Rail

Year List Update

The Year List has continued to grow this week, with 9 new species added. Red-legged Partridge was seen whilst driving across to Rufford. Numbers 89 - 93 were added at Linacre on Friday. Brambling was seen at Shilito Woods, whilst Stock Dove was added at Attenborough Nature Reserve on Tuesday (I forgot to add it on then!) 

The last species, Snow Bunting, was seen today, feeding on Totley Moor, by the ventilation shaft for the Totley Tunnel. 

88 - Red-legged Partridge

89 - Goldcrest

90 - Kingfisher

91 - Nuthatch

92 - Mandarin Duck

93 - Grey Wagtail

94 - Brambling

95 - Stock Dove

96 - Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Year List Update

Last week, Luke and I visited Linacre (see here). Whilst there, I managed to add several birds to my "year list" (numbers 61 - 71). I was particularly pleased with the Woodcock and Pied Wagtail ( 2 species very rarely seen at Linacre).

The final species, Brambling, was seen at the National Trust's Longshaw Estate, where Jayne and I saw a flock of at least 20 birds in the Beech woods by the small pond.

Year List update:
61 – Mandarin Duck
62 – Grey Wagtail
63 – Woodcock
64 – Nuthatch
65 – Treecreeper
66 – Jay
67 – Chaffinch
68 – Siskin
69 - Little Grebe
70 – Green Woodpecker
71 – Pied Wagtail
72 – Brambling

Linacre Nestboxes and Summer Migrants - 14th April 2019

Luke and I were down at Linacre this morning to have the first check of the nestboxes for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. We went around all of the "tit" boxes and found 12 with eggs in them already, including one with a Great Tit sitting, and a further 20 with the beginnings of nests in them. All the eggs were tit eggs, and all but one of the nests were tit nests. One nest looked a little different with grass in it, so fingers crossed for this one. Unfortunately, there weren't any signs of Nuthatches using the boxes... yet. The owl boxes will be checked later in the week.

Tit nest with 12 eggs

Along with these nests, we also inadvertently flushed a female Mallard off a nest that was built on top of a 1m high wall (the first one I've ever found at Linacre), and also had a pair of very annoyed Chiffchaffs alarm calling and wing flicking at us as we walked past them. The Moorhen's nest that we found last weekend was still active, with a bird sitting on it, whilst a tiny, newly-fledged Moorhen chick was by the boardwalk on the top reservoir. Last, but by no means least, was a Blackbird carrying nesting material.

Mallard nest

Other birds noted this morning were: 4 Bramblings still around the top reservoir, Greylag Geese (birds heard honking, but not seen, 1st record of 2019), Teal (a pair on the top reservoir), Siskin and Lesser Redpoll (heard by the top reservoir), Blackcap (4+ singing), Willow Warbler (2 singing) and a very nice mixed flock of Swallow (c.40), Sand Martins (c.20) and House Martins (4+) feeding on the top reservoir, and coming in to roost on the dam wall (1st Linacre records of 2019).

Linacre Bird News - 7th April 2019

Luke and I were at Linacre this morning for a walk around all 3 reservoirs. We recorded the following waterbirds: Mallard (37), Tufted Duck (46), Mandarin (14), Great-crested Grebe (5 - including 1 pair displaying), Cormorant (2), Grey Wagtail (1 heard), Black-headed Gull (3 - unusual in April), Coot (9), Moorhen (7, including 1 sat tightly on a nest).

Moorhen

Whilst walking around the reservoirs we also recorded at least 9 singing Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps and the first Willow Warbler of the year. Other signs of breeding included both Mistle Thrush and Chaffinch seen carrying nesting material.

Blackcap

Interestingly, Luke managed to spot 4 Bramblings by the top reservoir, an excellent record!

Year List Update - 2nd February 2019

It's been a while since I updated the 2019 Year List, and, as you can see, there are a few new additions.

The Song Thrush was heard singing at Linacre on 26th whilst the Water Rail was heard down at Holmebrook Valley Park.

The Raven and Dipper were both seen today, whilst walking through Monsal Dale, and the last four species, 108 - 111, were all seen on the feeders at Shilito Woods.

Year List update:
104 – Song Thrush
105 - Water Rail
106 – Raven
107 – Dipper
108 – Lesser Redpoll
109 – Brambling
110 – Reed Bunting
111 – Yellowhammer

Linacre Ringing - 20th October 2018

This month's ringing session at Linacre started at 6:45am, just before it got light, so that we could set the nets up and ready to try and catch the first Redwings of the autumn/winter period. We were lucky and managed to catch 2 new birds (both adults).

Redwing

We also managed to catch a Brambling (the first to be ringed at Linacre). The bird was a very smart male bird, born this year.

Brambling

The other, slightly different bird was a Coal Tit that was noticeable greyer than our usual birds. We identified this a "continental type" bird, i.e. most likely from mainland Europe! Here's a picture showing the "continental type" (right hand bird) along side a regular bird.

Coal Tits

Finally, we also caught and ringed 2 Greenfinch, another new species for Linacre.

Birds ringed (new/retrap): Wren 3/0, Dunnock 1/0, Redwing 2/0, Goldcrest 4/0, Coal Tit 7/0, Blue Tit 14/6, Great Tit 12/0, Nuthatch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Brambling 1/0, Greenfinch 2/0 and Goldfinch 1/0.

Whilst on site we also noted 3 flocks of Fieldfare (10, 20 and 20) flying over, a lovely skein of approximately 100 Pink-footed Geese flying east and some very vocal (possibly 4) Tawny Owls.

Year List Update

After walking around Linacre yesterday, I had an hour up at Shillito Woods. I put out some seed, and within a few minutes there were 13 Bramblings, 5 Yellowhammers, dozens of Chaffinches, Robins, Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits.

Brambling

In the afternoon, Jayne and I went to Rufford Country Park. We walked around the lake, and added another four birds to the "year list"; Greylag Goose, Pochard (1 male), Common Gull (minimum of 5 birds, including at least 1 adult) and Goosander (10; 5 males and 5 redheads).

Pochard

Common Gull (2nd cy)

The final addition to this year's list is Pink-footed Goose, and relates to a skein of approximately 200 birds that were flying over the Avenue Washlands this morning during a ringing session.

Year List update:
74 – Brambling
75 – Greylag Goose
76 – Pochard
77 – Common Gull
78 – Goosander
79 – Pink-footed Goose

Garden Finches and a juvenile Woodpigeon

I watch and record the birds in my garden every week for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. I don't blog about the results often, but this last week has been so good I wanted to share the news and a few photos.

Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches are regular visitors to the garden throughout the year, with weekly winter totals averaging 15, 5 and 20 respectively. This year, however, these 3 species have been joins by their much less common cousins; Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Brambling and Bullfinch.

Siskin in particular, have been very numerous this winter, with sightings in every week since the end of January. Numbers started off quite low, with 1s and 2s, but have steadily built up, culminating in a superb 14 birds this morning!

4 of today's 14 Siskins

Lesser Redpolls are not so numerous, but have again been present on and off throughout much of the Winter/early Spring.The maximum count so far being 6 present on 2nd April, including this very colourful male bird.

Lesser Redpoll and male Greenfinch

Bramblings were first recorded in mid January, with just 1 present. This built up to 3 birds; 2 males and 1 female, in February, until this afternoon, when I looked out and saw 7 birds, 2 males and 5 females, feeding on the lawn. This is my highest ever count!

Brambling

Bullfinches are the least common finch species in the garden, with just a few sightings each year. So far this year, I've recorded them on just s couple of occasions, including a pair today. Unfortunately, neither bird would pose for a photo.

Along with all the finches, the garden also attracts several other species on a daily basis, including Dunnock (3 today, singing and wing flicking to each other), Blue Tit (2), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (1), Blackbird (4; 2 males and 2 females, 1 of which was collecting nesting materials), House Sparrow (1 male and 2 females, inspecting the nest box), Starling (4, including 2 nest building in the box), Collared Dove (1) and Woodpigeon (7, including the year's first juvenile bird!).

Juvenile Woodpigeon (complete with downy chest!)

Snowy Garden adds two new species

Last night brought a few hours of snow to the garden, the first proper snow of the winter so far, and meant that I woke up to this lovely, if somewhat grey, scene.

Snow!

As you can see in the picture I went out and cleared a spot around the feeders, filled up the water and put out a mixture of sunflower hearts, suet pellets and soaked raisins for the birds. In the next 3 hours I recorded 17 species of birds for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, including 2 "year ticks"; Brambling and Blackcap.

The Bramblings consisted of 3 birds; 2 different males and a female bird. All 3 birds were feeding with a large number of Chaffinches (a minimum of 15 birds), and actually used the seed feeder, something I haven't seen before. I got a couple of photos.

Brambling (male)

Brambling (female)

The Blackcap was a male bird that flew into a Honeysuckle plant in the garden, pecked at a dried up berry, and then flew off again! Somehow I managed to get a photo in the minute it was present! 

Male Blackcap

This isn't the first record of this species in the garden in winter, but my last record was way back in December 2013 (see blog post here). They are a regular wintering bird in the UK now, and the BTO has just published some very interesting research about how garden feeding may have influenced this behaviour (see here).

The other species seen today in the garden were; Goldfinch (c.20), Greenfinch (2), Lesser Redpoll (1 male), House Sparrow (2; 1 male and 1 female), Magpie (2), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (5), Starling (14), Robin (1), Blackbird (11; 6 males and 5 females), Blue Tit (1), Coal Tit (1), Dunnock (2) and Wren (1).

Year List update:
89 - Brambling
90 - Blackcap

Year List update

This weekend has been very good for birdwatching, with 3 new species added to the Year List, in addition to the Black-necked Grebe mentioned in my last post. The first new species was a gorgeous male Brambling that appeared in the garden on Saturday morning.

Brambling

The next 2 species were seen on a trip with the Chesterfield RSPB Group to RSPB Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire on Sunday. in total, we saw 43 species of birds, with Brent Goose and Goldeneye being the new species.

Year list update:
175 - Brambling
176 - Dark-bellied Brent Goose
177 - Goldeneye

Linacre WeBS - January 2015

The first WeBS count of 2015 took place this weekend. Mandy from the Chesterfield RSPB Group carried out the count on Saturday. and Jayne and I added a few sightings on the Sunday. The weather on both days  was near perfect conditions of cols (2 degrees), dry, bright, sunny weather, with a covering of snow on the Sunday.

This month's count (a combination of both visits) was as follows: Mallard (105), Coot (5), Moorhen (12), Little Grebe (1), Mandarin Duck (11), Black-headed Gull (42), Tufted Duck (20), Goosander (1m), Grey Heron (2) and Cormorant (2, including one in breeding plumage).

The Little Grebe is particularly good, as this is the first record at Linacre in 2015 (thanks Mandy). This species didn't breed at Linacre last year, so hopefully, this returning bird is a sign of good things to come.

The woodland was quite quiet, but all the usual suspects were recorded with the exception of Siskin. Siskins are normally present at Linacre throughout the winter period, but so far this year, there haven't been any records. I haven't had any in the garden this winter either, which again is unusual.

One bird that was reported at Linacre via the DOS Website last week was Brambling. Again, this isn't a common bird here, and this was our first record of 2015.

Garden birds in the snow.

We've had a bit of snow here over the last few days, so I've been watching the garden intently to see if we got any different visitors. Luckily today I spotted a Song Thrush and a Brambling, both very infrequent visitors to the garden.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Brambling

Song Thrush

 As well as these two species, I also had all the "usual suspects"; Chaffinch (15), Goldfinch (18), Greenfinch (4), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (1), Magpie (2), Blue Tit (1), Blackbird (8), Dunnock (2) and House Sparrow (2).

Starling

Goldfinch and Greenfinch

 

As always, I'll be sending the records into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Garden Brambling

Whilst watching the birds in the garden this morning for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, I noticed my first Brambling of the winter.

Brambling

This is my 17th record of Brambling in the garden, my first since last winter. Hopefully, it'll hang around.

I also managed to get a decent shot of a male House Sparrow today that I thought I'd share.

House Sparrow

Chiffchaff ringing

Following on from last week's blog about my first Chiffchaff sightings of the year, today I was out ringing with The Group, and I managed to ring my first Chiffchaff of 2014.

Chiffchaff

 

Our session this morning took place at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands site near Chesterfield. In total we caught and ringed 3 different Chiffchaffs (all aged as 5s; born last year). These were the only summer migrants of the day, but we did see and hear 2 Bramblings, and I also added a new species to the Year List; 2 Stock Doves that were investigating an owl box.

 

Year List update:

114 - Stock Dove

 

As well as the Chiffchaffs, I also managed to ring the following birds (new/retrap):

 

 Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Great Tit 1/1, Greenfinch 0/1 and Reed Bunting 1/0.

 

 

Ringing Tick and Year List Update

Yesterday morning I was up and out with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group again. This time we helping out at a ringing demonstration at the National Trust's Longshaw Estate .

We set up at 7.00am and the first net round produced a very nice sight; an adult male Brambling. This was a first for me, and thanks to the generosity of the other ringers present, I got to ring it. Thanks everyone! No photos unfortunately, cause the ones I took were all rubbish and too poor to post! Have a look at this link to see just how nice a male Brambling is.

After this the weather started to deteriorate and we had the close the nets for a while. Luckily though, we reopened them after half an hour or so and managed to record 34 birds including 3 male Bullfinches, Great, Coal and Blue Tits, 1 Chaffinch,  a couple of  Blackbirds and a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

In the afternoon I went out to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my wife, daughter and her boyfriend, for some lunch and a walk.  We went down to the lake, where we saw a couple of  "year ticks"; Grey Heron and  Great-crested Grebe. The herons were back on their nests on the islands on the lake. They aren't breeding yet, but are back rebuilding the nests and preparing for the forthcoming breeding season. Here's a picture of the lake with the nests in it. Its well worth a visit later in the Spring, as the nest can be seen very well from public footpaths.

Heron nests at YSP

Year List update:
81 - Grey Heron
82 - Great-crested Grebe

Garden Birding and Year Tick

I spent a few hours watching the birds in the garden this morning, and was really happy to count 17 species including at least 39 Goldfinches, 2 Long-tailed Tits and 5 Lesser Redpolls. I get Goldfinches coming in everyday to feed on the sunflower hearts, but such a high count is very notable. Lesser Redpolls are annual winter visitors to the garden, but 5 together is again,  a good record. The records will be sent off to the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk with Jayne and Lydia to the National Trust's Longshaw Estate and Padley Gorge. We walked for about an hour, and although we didn't see much in the way of birds, we did come across a lovely flock of between 40-50 Bramblings feeding in the beech woodlands by the pond. A very nice Year Tick!

Beech woodlands at Longshaw

Year Tick update:
80 - Brambling

One bird - three ticks

I'm not a twitcher (honestly!!), but when I switched Birdguides on today and saw news of a Glossy Ibis in Bakewell I just had to go over and have a look. Not only was it a Year tick, but also a British Tick and a Derbyshire Tick- wow!

The bird had been seen late yesterday and had then spent this morning flying up and down the River Wye. It was reported on the Bakewell Showground at 1.00pm, so I drove across with Jayne, just in time to see the bird heading off "high to the west". Phew, just made it. We had a look around the area for a while, but couldn't relocate it, so no photos unfortunately. Instead here are a couple of a flock we saw in Lesvos in 2011.

Glossy Ibis, Kalloni Saltpans, Lesvos, April 2011

 

Year List update:

195 – Glossy Ibis

 

UPDATE: follow this link for a photo of the Bakewell's Glossy Ibis.

 

The Brambling is still in the garden today as well.

Garden Brambling

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) is an uncommon visitor to the garden, with my only other sightings usually in March/April, or during bad weather, so I was very surprised and pleased to find this lovely male bird hopping around in the Whitebeam tree this afternoon. Click on the RSPB's website here for some more information about this bird.

Brambling

 

He was feeding on the berries along with a male Chaffinch for a good half an hour. Lovely record for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, along with the 2 Redwing that popped in yesterday for a couple of minutes.

Two Bramblings

Just a quick post to show you a picture of two Bramblings that came into the garden this afternoon. We normally get the odd one or two at this time of the garden, as birds make their way back north to breed, but this is my first record of two birds together. Super record for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Bramblings