Linacre - 14th April 2023

I was down at Linacre this morning from 7am - 11am taking a first check of the year nestboxes (thanks to Antony and Pete for your support!)

As always, I was a little early, with just one box showing any sign of nesting activity; Owl Box 2, which had 6 cold, uncovered eggs (most likely Mandarin Duck). It did, however, give me time to put back on lids that had fallen off and have a walk around the reservoirs.

Whilst walking around, there were frequent drizzly showers, and I was lucky enough to see a flock of c.30 Swallows, 3 Sand Martins and 1 House Martin, feeding over the top reservoir. These were my first Linacre records of 2023. Other species seen and/or heard were: 6 Chiffchaffs, 2 Willow Warblers, 3 Blackcaps, 1 Raven, 1 Tawny Owl, 4 Great-crested Grebes, 2 Little Grebes, my first Moorhen nest (bird sitting), 1 singing Mistle Thrush, 2 singing Song Thrushes, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, a pair of Greylag Geese that flew east along the valley, and 3 Canada Geese (1 pair and another individual).

If all this birdlife wasn't enough, I also found 3 roosting Brown Long-eared Bats in one of the boxes and spotted 2 Brown Hares and a very impressive adult Grass Snake. (thanks Antony and Pete)!!!

Brown Long-eared Bats

Grass Snake

RSPB Winterbourne Downs - 2nd April 2023

 Jayne and I have had a few days down in Wiltshire, visiting a few new sites and  seeing some nice birds.

Our first new site was RSPB Winterbourne Downs, which is a great spot to see Stone Curlews. We popped across on Sunday, and managed to see a couple of birds. Also on site were; Lapwing, Linnet, Green Woodpecker, Red Kite, Buzzard and Brown Hares. Whilst there, we also spotted a Comma butterfly, and a "Flifer" - a new species of fly (thanks for the new word Jayne!), Dotted Bee Fly.

Dotted Bee Fly

Year List Update: 105 - Swallow, 106 - Green Woodpecker and 107 - Stone Curlew.

Linacre - 2nd July 2022

 This morning I had my first visit to Linacre for a few weeks. It was just 13 degrees, overcast, windy and drizzling on and off (!), but I still had a walk around all three reservoirs. 

Water bird numbers were average for the time of the year, with the following birds see: Mallard (98, with 80 adults and 18 ducklings), Tufted Duck (29 birds, including 27 adults and the first 2 ducklings of the year), Mandarin Duck (16 adult birds), Little Grebe (2 birds, 1 adult and 1 juvenile), Great-crested Grebe (2 birds, 1 adult and 1 juvenile), Grey Wagtail ( 4 birds,1 adult and 3 juveniles), Moorhen (16 birds, 10 adults and 6 young), Coot (18 birds, 8 adults and 10 juveniles) and Cormorant (2 young birds).

The woods were quite quiet, but Chiffchaff (1), Blackcap (1), Blackbird and Song Thrush were heard singing. In addition, House Martin was heard, but not seen, whilst I had my first Linacre Swift record of the year (!), when 10 were feeding over the middle reservoir.

A single Brown Hare was seen on the bank of the top reservoir, as was my first Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle of the year.

Linacre - 27th March 2021

 Last Saturday morning, I spent a couple of hours at Linacre. It was five degrees, windy, with a few hail showers!

Water bird numbers had begun to fall, but there were still reasonable numbers around: 52 Mallard, 73 Tufted Duck, 13 Mandarin, 4 Great-crested Grebe, 3 Grey Wagtail, 1 Pied Wagtail, 2 Canada Geese, 1 Cormorant, 12 Coots and 11 Moorhens, including 1 sitting on a nest.

In addition, there were 5 singing Chiffchaffs, 3 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers (no Lessers!!), a singing Mistle Thrush, a Chaffinch with nesting material, a male Siskin by the top reservoir again, my first Linacre Treecreeper of the year, 2 Stock Doves in the bottom car park, a Brown Hare by the main entrance and, best of all, a female Yellowhammer, also by main entrance.

Linacre WeBS - 16th June 2018

Luke and I were down at Linacre yesterday to carry out June's WeBS walk. We had 2 hours on site and recorded the following: Mallard (70; 43 adults and 27 ducklings, 4 broods of 5, 7, 2 and 13), Mandarin Duck (30; 19 adults and 11 ducklings, 2 broods of 8 and 3), Tufted Duck (14 adults), Great-crested Grebe (3 adults), Grey Wagtail (2 adults), Grey Heron (1), Moorhen (7; 4 adults and 3 young chicks) and Coot (4; 3 adults and 1 juvenile).

Mandarin ducklings

Other birds seen around the site included: Swallow (2), House Martin (2), Swift (c.15- 20), Chaffinch (1 juvenile bird), Treecreeper (1) and Skylark (1 singing).

We also saw 2  Brown Hares in the fields as we drove down the main entrance.

Welcome Back EXP662

EXP662 is the ring number of a Chiffchaff that was ringed as a juvenile bird at Linacre on 16th July 2016 (see blog post here). This morning I was out ringing at Linacre with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, when we re trapped said bird. Where it's been in between we don't know, but most recoveries of British-ringed birds show this species moving south into southern Europe and North west Africa, so this the was likely destination for "our" bird. Hopefully, it'll hang around and breed here. Along with this bird, we also ringed another 4 Chiffchaffs (all new).

Chiffchaff

Also caught this morning were (new/retrap): Blackcap (1/0), Dunnock (1/0), Coal Tit (1/1), Blue Tit (1/2), Magpie (1/0), Nuthatch (1/0).

In between net rounds we also saw: Brown Hare (2), 1 Peacock and 1 Small Tortoiseshell (first Linacre records of 2017 for all 3 species), a Dronefly (Eristalsis sp), a Harlequin Ladybird, Mandarin Duck (2 flew over), Sparrowhawk ( 1 female over), Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow,  dozens of Cowslips and a single Red Campion flower.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

Harlequin Ladybird on Gorse

Linacre June WeBS - ducklings everywhere!

I spent 2 hours at Linacre this morning with Luke walking around all three reservoirs. Whilst there, we saw 6 species of water birds with young, some for the first time this year. We also spotted a couple of Brown Hares, the first Meadow Brown butterfly of the year, and had a singing Yellowhammer on the hedge on the main drive (the first Linacre record since 2013).

Meadow Brown

Brown Hares

The water birds with young were: Mallard (73 birds; 43 adults and four broods of 6, 14, 5 and 10), Mandarin Duck (16 birds; 6 adults and 3 broods of 1,6 and 3), Moorhen (3 adults and 1 large, well-grown chick), Tufted Duck (14 adults and 1 brood of  9- first record of 2016), Coot (7 adults, 1 nest and 1 brood of 5) and Great-crested Grebe (2 pairs, both with young, minimum of 3 chicks seen).

Mallard

Tufted Duck

Mandarin ducklings

Great-crested Grebe and chick

Other birds seen were: Grey Heron (2), Swallow (1),Wren (singing), Chiffchaff (2 singing), Grey Wagtail (2) and the juvenile/2nd year Shag.

We checked the Pied Flycatcher nest, and were very pleased to find it empty and undisturbed, suggesting a successful fledging of the 4 chicks.

Good Friday Sunshine

As the title suggests, the weather today has been great, with lots of sunshine, and bright blue skies for most of the day. I started the day at Linacre with Luke, where we had two and a half hours walking around all three reservoirs.

The highlights of today's visit were the first singing Chiffchaffs of the year (2, with another non-singing individual seen by the boardwalk on the top reservoir), and the juvenile Shag that was still present on the middle reservoir. The Chiffchaffs were 4 days later than in 2015.

Shag

As well as these records, we also had  lots of the commoner woodland birds, Wren, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Blue, Great and Coal Tits, singing in the sunshine, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Carrion Crow carrying nesting material, 2 Magpies, Jackdaws checking out potential nest sites, a Nuthatch plastering a hole, a singing Skylark, 2 Common Buzzards, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Mistle Thrushes and a flock of Siskin (phew!)

Along with the Shag, there were also 5 Canada Geese (2 pairs on the top reservoir and a lone individual on the middle reservoir- breeding this year perhaps?), 12 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 18 Tufted Ducks, 7 Mandarins (all males), 22 Mallards, 1 Grey Heron, Grey Wagtails (2, including 1 singing bird) and 4 Great-crested Grebes.

Great-crested Grebe

2 Brown Hares were also seen in the fields by the entrance and a single Wood Anemone was out in bloom.

Linacre sunshine, butterflies and a Swallow

On Thursday the sun was shining and it was about 14 degrees, so I decided to have a couple of hours down at Linacre, which resulted in my first Linacre butterflies and Swallow of the year.

I started at the top of the site today, and had a quick check of some of the tit nestboxes. As predicted at the weekend, there was no sign of any nests yet, but I did manage to see a couple of Brown Hares (in the woods, not in the boxes!), and these 2 little critters; Brown Long-eared Bats, I believe.

Brown Long-eared Bat

 

Waterbirds were quite sparse, but there were a couple of Grey Herons on site, along with a metal-ringed  breeding plumaged Cormorant. Chiffchaffs were singing around all three reservoirs, and I counted 7 in total, as well as a single Swallow over the top reservoir.

With the weather so nice, I spent half an hour at the bottom of the top reservoir, where there was a willow tree full of catkins and butterflies, with 7 Peacocks, 1 Comma and 3 Small Tortoiseshells present.

Willow Tree

First Chiffchaff

I managed to grab an hour at Linacre this morning (6am to 7am) and was rewarded with my first Chiffchaff of the year. When I arrived, it was quite grey, overcast and the wind was blowing, but by the end of the walk I had recorded one bird singing by the Rangers' Base. Last year, the first bird was reported on the 19th (see here), so today's bird was pretty much spot on.

As well as the Chiffchaff, I was also lucky enough to see a pair of the Little  Owls in the "breeding tree", and a great count of 5 Brown Hares that were "boxing" in the field by the main entrance. Lots of the resident woodland birds were singing and Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.

A quick walk around all 3 reservoirs produced the following birds; Mallard (34), Tufted Duck (20), Moorhen (10), Coot (11), Mandarin (5; 3 males and 2 females), Grey Wagtail (heard) and Great-crested Grebe (4; 2 pairs, 1 on middle reservoir and 1 on the top reservoir). Frogspawn was noted in the top reservoir for the first time this year.

Year List update:
86- Chiffchaff

Linacre -11th January 2015

The weather this weekend was pretty useless for ringing, so I had a couple of hours down at Linacre this afternoon to see what was about. It was quiet, except for three Grey Herons that were down on the bottom reservoir, my highest count since December 2013. This species is a former breeder at Linacre, 2010 being the last successful year that breeding was confirmed, so hopefully, they might hang around and breed again this year.

Grey Herons

Apart from the herons, I also spotted 115 Mallards, 130+ Black-headed Gulls, 2 male Goosanders, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (flying over),  8 Moorhen, 6 Coot, 7 Mandarin Ducks, 13 Tufted Ducks, 2 Grey Wagtails (Year Tick), 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Fieldfare, Redwings (heard flying over) and a Common Buzzard that was perched up in the woodlands by the bottom reservoir.

On the drive out I spotted a Brown Hare in the field, my first record of 2015.

Year List update:

54 – Song Thrush (on 5th)

55 – Grey Wagtail

56 – Pied Wagtail

More Linacre nests

Hot on the heels of the Tawny Owl nesting record on Saturday, I decided to go back down to Linacre yesterday morning for a couple of hours to see what, if anything, else was breeding.

As I walked around all 3 reservoirs I counted a total of 9 singing Chiffchaffs, but unfortunately, no further summer migrants. The Great-crested Grebes on the middle reservoir were still sitting on their nest, and a second pair was nest building on the top reservoir. My final nest of the morning was a Coot that was "sitting" in willows on the top reservoir. I had a quick check of a few of the tit boxes, but they were all empty. I'll check them again next week.

Other interesting sightings included a singing Curlew in fields above the top reservoir (first Linacre record of 2014), a single Hare in the woods by the picnic benches, a brief fly-over Crossbill, and a calling Toad from the boardwalk. 2 Grey Herons also flew over the site, and a breeding plumaged Cormorant was sat in the trees.

Linacre WeBS - March 2014

This month's WeBS count took place over the weekend, with 2 walks by Mandy of the Chesterfield RSPB Group on Saturday morning and me on Sunday morning. Both walks were quiet, as is to be expected at this time of the year. My walk only lasted just over an hour, as the wind was so strong and cold, and the water looked more like the North Sea! Unfortunately no summer migrants were recorded, due to high winds, which made singing and hearing almost impossible!

The results show the highest counts from both walks: Mallard (34 on 16th),  Black-headed Gull (1 on 15th), Coot (10 on 16th), Moorhen (5 on 15th,), Tufted Duck (13 on 15th), Mandarin Duck (8 on 15th), Great Crested Grebe (2 on 15th), Grey Wagtail (1 on 15th), Cormorant (1 on 15th), Canada Goose (2 on 15th).

Mandy also recorded 1 or maybe 2 Stock Doves , which is the first Linacre record for 2014. Other small birds seen were Crossbill (1 male on 16th), Bullfinch on 15th and a large flock of mixed finches (mainly Siskin), in the Larches by the middle reservoir.

Two Brown Hares were seen in the field by the main entrance on 16th.

Return to ringing and Patch tick!

As you might have noticed I haven't managed to get out ringing since the 3rd March, mainly as a result of the awful, snowy weather we've been having this month. Thankfully, we managed to get out this morning and a 4 hour session at Linacre ended with 21 birds, including a patch tick!

Throughout the morning we caught a steady stream of birds (Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits, Robins and Dunnocks) but it was the last bird of the morning that was the biggest surprise when a male Reed Bunting turned up in the nets!! Not only was this the first Reed Bunting ringed at Linacre, but it was also the first record here since we began recording in 2006. Presumably it was a bird that was passing through as there isn't any potential breeding habitat on site.

Reed Bunting

Other birds recorded around the ringing site today were: Canada Goose (2 flying over), Common Buzzard (1 bird over the ringing site), Cormorant (5 flying up the valley - the highest count this year), Lesser Black-backed Gull (1 over the ringing site). As well as the birds we also spotted 4 Brown Hares in the nearby fields.

Another interesting sighting this morning was my first flower on the ringing site, when we spotted a few Coltsfoot flowers popping up through the ground. I intend to keep a proper list this year, so you might have a few more "intersting" photos over the next few months.

Coltsfoot

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

Linacre 20th April 2011 - 2 Patch Year Ticks

Thanks to the Easter holidays I managed to get down to Linacre this morning. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with bright blue skies and I got 2 new year ticks for the site and evidence of breeding for Song Thrush and Blackbird.

The first year tick came in the shape of a singing Whitethroat in the scrub by the top reservoir. Unfortunately it wouldn't show itself, but here's a photo I took of one last year at Carsington Water.

Whitethroat

 In the same area there were at least 4 Willow Warblers that were also singing and displaying and I managed to get some decent photos. Note the pale legs and prominent supercilium (stripe above the eye), which help to distinguish it from the very similar looking Chiffchaff. As well as these i.d. points, the easiest way to tell the two species apart is to hear them singing, as the Chiffchaff sings its name (here) and the Willow Warbler sings a very distinctive descending song. (here)

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

The second year tick was a Lapwing that landed on the top reservoir whilst I was photographing the Willow Warblers. Unfortunately it only stayed for a few minutes and then flew off down the valley. Also on the top reservoir today were a Canada Goose and the hybrid bird, 18 of the 21 Mallard ducklings seen at the weekend and several Tufted Duck. 3 Great -crested Grebes were around, but I couldn't see any Common Sandpipers today (2 were reported on Monday - thanks Kathy).

Canada Goose and hybrid bird

2 Brown Hares were seen running through the woodland near the picnic benches, a Song Thrush was seen collecting food on the dam bank and a female Blackbird was seen collecting nesting material. Blackcap were heard singing and both a male and a fmale bird were seen. What a wonderful place this is!!

      



Linacre WeBS Walk - January 15th 2011

9 people braved the awful weather forecast to join me for the first BTO WeBS walk of the new year (many thanks for the great turn out!) Despite a slightly damp start and a few rain showers, the morning walk turned out to be much more enjoyable than I had imagined it would with a total of 23 species seen  and a great opportunity to catch up with several people who I hadn't seen for quite awhile!

The first, and for me at least, the best birds of the day were 2 male Goosander found swimming on the bottom reservoir. This species is an annual winter visitor to Linacre, usually seen between January and April and again in November and December. It can, however,be quite tricky to catch up with, so today's sighting was quite special.

Male Goosander

Also on the bottom reservoir this morning were good numbers of Tufted Duck (30 in total), 1 Little Grebe, a Cormorant perched high up in a tree, the first of 83 Mallards, as well as Mandarin, Moorhen and Coot. A Grey Wagtail found by the river was the first for the year and a welcome sight after all the cold weather in December.

Walking up to the middle reservoir we soon came across more waterbirds, including 14 Black-headed Gulls, another Little Grebe and an amazing 41 Mandarin Ducks.

Male Mandarin hiding behind some branches!

Continuing on up the valley through the woods towards the top reservoir we soon added a few woodland birds such as Treecreeper, numerous Nuthatch and the usual tit species. The reservoir itself was pretty quiet with just a few more Mallards, Coot and Moorhen. The last bird species of the day was another new one for the year; Jay, 2 of which were heard and seen around the car park, as we were changing out of our muddy boots.

Also of note were a pair of "boxing" Brown Hares seen in the field by the main entrance whilst driving out- very nice!

Next month's walk takes place on Saturday 12th February, meeting in the bottom car park at 8.30am and is open to anyone, so please feel free to come along and join in. Who knows what we'll see?

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.