Linacre Ringing - 5th November 2022

 Just two of us managed to get to Linacre for this week's ringing session with Sorby Breck Ringing Group, but we had a fantastic few hours with 46 birds, of 8 species, ringed.

As always, the majority of the birds were Blue and Great Tits, with 18 (15 new and 3 re-traps) of the former and 9 (8 new birds and 1 re-trap) of the latter caught. 2 Coal Tits (both new) were also caught, along with 11 Long-tailed Tits (all new), 1 Blackbird (new), 1 Chaffinch (new), 3 Goldcrests (2 new and 1 re-trap) and, best of all, a young Sparrowhawk - the first to be ringed at Linacre!!

Sparrowhawk!!

As well as the ringing, we also managed to see a flock of c.30 Redwings, c.20 Fieldfares and we also heard Tawny Owls calling.

Linacre Ringing - 11th October 2020

 Last Sunday, 4 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group were down at Linacre for a ringing session. It was quite quiet, with just 19 birds of  8 species ringed, but 2 Lesser Redpolls were very nice.

Bird numbers were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 3/0, Robin 1/0, Dunnock 4/0, Goldcrest 2/1, Blackbird 2/0, Treecreeper 2/0, Chaffinch 2/0 and Lesser Redpoll 2/0. 

The retrap Goldcrest, was one that we had ringed in September 2020.

Garden Ringing - 15th June 2019

I haven't done any ringing in my garden since March, so this morning I decided to get the net out for a few hours (05:45 - 09.00). My main target was to try and catch some of the 20ish juvenile Starlings that have been feeding daily in the garden, along with several ringed adult birds. By the end of the session I'd caught 17 birds, including 8 Starlings (6 new birds and 2 ringed birds), 2 juvenile Dunnocks, 4 Greenfinches (2 adults and 2 juveniles), 1 adult Blackbird and 2 adult House Sparrows.

I was able to sex the juvenile Starlings using their eye colour. The male birds have an all dark eye, whereas the females have a pale ring around the eye.

Male Starling

Female Starling

The two ringed Starlings that I managed to catch were very interesting. The first bird was an adult female with a very well developed brood patch (indicating breeding), and, when I read the ring, turned out to be a bird I'd caught in the garden in 20th May 2018. It had a brood patch then too.

The second ringed bird was a juvenile, and turned out to be one of the four pulli I'd ringed in May in the nestbox on the side of my house (see here). This bird was the only one of the 6 juveniles caught this morning to have started its post juvenile moult, as seen in this picture below.

Starling with a few adult feathers

It could also be sexed as a female, using the eye colour.

Female Starling

Other birds seen. but not ringed, were Chaffinch (2;1 male and 1 female), Goldfinch (4; 2 adults and 2 juveniles), Blue Tit (1 adult) and Coal Tit (1  juvenile).

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!

Linacre Ringing - 11th November 2018

Yesterday morning we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) were down at Linacre to carry out a ringing session. Unfortunately, just one hour after we arrived, if started to rain, and we had to pack up. As a result we ringed just 11 birds, as follows (new/retrap): Robin 1/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Blue Tit 1/0, Great Tit 4/1 and Chaffinch 1/0.

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.

Linacre Ringing - 25th August 2018

Saturday was dry, so I was down at Linacre with 4 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group for our first mist netting session since the start of July (see here). Despite the sunshine, we had a good session catching 49 birds of 13 species, including another 2 fledgling Blue Tits that were ringed in the nestboxes this year, and our first juvenile Willow Warblers of the year.

Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/0, Robin 2/0, Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackcap 6/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Willow Warbler 6/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 14/5, Great Tit 5/1, Chaffinch 2/0 and Goldfinch 1/0. As last time, the majority of the birds were juveniles.

Other birds seen or heard during the session were: Tawny Owl (heard), House Martin (c.6 overhead) and the hybrid Canada Goose (flew over).

Linacre Ringing - 7th July 2018

Back at the start of the month I was down at Linacre with Sorby Breck Ringing Group for the first mist netting session since April. We had an early start, arriving on site at 4.45am, and caught a very respectable 74 birds of 13 species.

Birds ringed (new/retrap):  Dunnock 1/0, Robin 7/0, Blackbird 1/0, Blackcap 9/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/0, Blue Tit 24/4, Great Tit 13/3, Nuthatch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/1, Goldfinch 3/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

The best thing about the birds caught was that the majority were young birds, possibly indicating a good breeding season? We also had 3 of the re-trapped Blue Tits and one of the re-trapped Great Tits were young birds ringed by Sara from the Group in the nest boxes at Linacre a month earlier.

Three species, however, that were missing from the ringing totals were Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Whitethroat. All 3 species have been recorded singing in the area this year, so hopefully, we'll be able to confirm breeding next time we're down ringing.

Kestrel - new species at Linacre

I was down at Linacre this morning for the second ringing session of the year. We started off well with a great catch of 14 Long-tailed Tits ( 8 new and 6 retraps), but then things got quite quiet, until the last net round when we found a new species in the net - a Kestrel!! We often see a Kestrel flying and hunting around the site whilst we are ringing, so today's catch was a very nice surprise.

Kestrel

Other birds ringed today were (new/retrap): Robin 3/0, Blue Tit 6/3, Great Tit 1/3, Nuthatch 2/0, Chaffinch 1/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

Other birds seen around the ringing site were: Sparrowhawk (1 female), Common Buzzard (1), Great-spotted Woodpecker (4), Green Woodpecker (1 seen and heard), Mistle Thrush (4; 2 pairs, including 1 singing bird), Siskin (1 over), Cormorant (1 over) and Tawny Owl (1 heard calling at 6:45am).

Linacre Ringing - 20th January 2018

I was down at Linacre this morning for the first ringing session of 2018, with 4 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

We arrived at 08:00 and managed to get 3 hours in before it began to rain. Over the 3 hours we managed to ring 53 birds of 8 species (new/retrap): Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Robin 4/1, Goldcrest 0/1, Coal Tit 2/1, Blue Tit 18/15, Great Tit 6/2, Nuthatch 1/0 and Chaffinch 1/0.

As you can see, Blue Tit was by far the commonest species, as is usually the case. The woodpecker was a very nice bird, as were the Chaffinch and the Nuthatch. A great start to the year.

Very few other birds were seen, but 3 Siskins that flew over were the first record of the year.

Siskins and a Redpoll

I haven't been out ringing for a couple of weeks, so this morning's session at our private site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield was a nice chance to get back out again. We met up at 6.30am and ringed 44 birds of 12 species over the next 4 hours. As the title suggests, the highlights were the Siskins and a single Lesser Redpoll. We don't ring lots of these species, so when they're around, it's nice to catch a few. We've also had some good recoveries of Redpolls ringed at this site when they return to Scotland to breed. Hopefully, some of today's birds will turn up there later in the year.

Siskin

Today's totals were (new/retrap): Siskin 4/0, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Goldfinch 14/0, Chaffinch 4/0, Bullfinch 3/0, Robin 0/1, Blue Tit 3/4, Great Tit 2/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/1, Robin 0/1, Wren 1/0 and Goldcrest 1/0.

Other birds seen and heard this morning were: Song Thrush (singing), Blackbird, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Stock Dove (year tick). There were also at least half a dozen Common Frogs spawning in the pond.

Year List update:
110 - Stock Dove

How old??

How long do birds live? is a question we are often asked by members of the public at ringing demonstrations. I was asked this exact question whilst out ringing yesterday with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands reserve. The bird in question was a Blue Tit that we'd just extracted from one of the nets and was found to be wearing a ring already.

David checked the ring number when he got home, and emailed the following details. The bird had originally been ringed at The Avenue on 28th March 2010 and aged as a 5M i.e. it had been born in 2009. It had only been re trapped once before today, on 27th February 2011, also at The Avenue. This means that this bird is now 7 years old (in its 8th calendar year), which is a pretty impressive age for such a small bird. A quick check of the BTO's Longevity Records , shows that the oldest Blue Tit on record was 10 years, 3 months and 10 days old when it was last recorded, so "our" bird still has a few years to go!

Other birds caught during yesterday's session were (new/retrap): Wren 0/1, Dunnock 2/1, Robin 3/0, Blackbird 5/0, Song Thrush 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 0/4, Great Tit 3/1, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Bullfinch 4/3, Yellowhammer 1/0, Reed Bunting 11/1.

Garden Ringing

Sunday morning was perfect for ringing, with grey, overcast skies and no wind. I was out with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at the private garden site in Wingerworth, where we had a steady number of birds, resulting in 46 birds of 8 species caught.

Numbers were (new/retrap): Blue Tit (12/5), Great Tit (6/4), Coal Tit (3/3), Robin (1/3), Great-spotted Woodpecker (1/0), Chaffinch (4/0), Goldfinch (2/0) and Wren (2/0).

Linacre Ringing - 16th July 2016

We were rained off last weekend, but thankfully the weather was kinder on Saturday, and we (5 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group), managed to get down to Linacre to carry out a ringing session for the Chesterfield RSPB Group.

We started nice and early at 5.30am, and, over the next 4 hours, managed to catch and ring a total of 65 birds, our highest catch of the year so far. Particularly pleasing was the fact that  the majority of the birds caught were juvenile birds, born this year. Totals were (new/retrap): Blue Tit (16/1), Great Tit (11/0), Dunnock (6/1), Bullfinch (5/0), Chaffinch (4/1), Robin (3/0), Blackbird (3/1), Chiffchaff (8/0) and Blackcap (5/0). 

As well as the ringing,  we also recorded the following birds, flying over the site: Black-headed Gull (14), Lesser Black-backed Gull (6), Swallow (6), Swift (10), House Martin (2), Sparrowhawk (1), Tawny Owl (1 flew out of a tree by the nets), Buzzard (1 by the main entrance on arrival), and Stock Dove (2). Luke had a quick walk around the bottom and middle reservoirs and spotted 4 Grey Herons (highest count of 2016 so far) and  3 Grey Wagtails.

Linacre Ringing, a new damselfly and a Year Ticks

Yesterday saw the first mist netting session at Linacre since April with 3 members, including me, from Sorby Breck Ringing Group. To say it was quiet would be an understatement, with just 10 birds of 5 species ringed, but at least this consisted of 3 species of warbler, including a "year tick" .

The first bird out of the nets was the "year tick" - a Garden Warbler! Not only was this my first record of this species this year, but it was also a juvenile bird, proving breeding at Linacre. The next couple of birds were Chaffinch (re-trapped adult) and Nuthatch (new, juvenile bird), and then, about half an hour later, we caught a couple of Blackcaps (both adults, 1 new and 1 a re-trap) and a new juvenile Chiffchaff. The last four birds of the morning were a Blue Tit (new juvenile), Chaffinch (new juvenile), and 2 more Blackcaps ( new, adult birds).

After the ringing, we spent some time clearing some of the vegetation from the net rides, and managed to record a few insects, including  Red-tailed, White-tailed and Tree Bumblebees, a Small Skipper, a Bloodvein moth and a Large Red Damselfly, my first record of this species at Linacre. The damselfly, a female, was found resting on the Yellow Flag Irises in a very small pond on the ringing site.

Bloodvein

Large Red Damselfly

Other birds seen around the ringing site included a singing male Whitethroat (first Linacre record of 2016), 3 Swifts, 2 Swallows, and a  Mistle Thrush mobbing a hunting Kestrel.

Scotland - Day 2

Yesterday was our second day in Scotland. We started very early, meeting up at RSPB Loch Garten at 5.30am, hoping to see our first Capercaille. Unfortunately, we "dipped", and no birds were seen during the organised event. We did, however, see dozens of Siskins, Chaffinches, the famous Ospreys (see blog here for details of this year's nest) and Coal Tits. Best of all though, was a beautiful Red Squirrel, that was sat outside the hide eating the birds' peanuts.

Red Squirrel

After missing out on the Capercaille (and Crested Tit!) at Loch Garten, we decided to head back up Cairn Gorm to see if there were any Black Grouse at the RSPB's viewpoint there. There weren't!!! Unfortunately, it was VERY windy when we got there, and there was no sign of any birds at all. Undeterred, we set off to the car park and found the flock of approximately 15 Snow Buntings feeding there again. We enjoyed watching them for about 20 minutes before heading back to the hotel for breakfast.

Our first stop after breakfast was a loch where we'd be informed breeding plumaged Black-throated Diver could be found. We found the loch easily and a diver was found straight away. It was too far away to photograph, but we had great views through the 'scope. We also saw an Osprey here, along with 3 Greylag Geese, 2 Mallards, a pair of Wigeon (possible breeders?), a pair of Oystercatchers and several Red Grouse, including this confiding individual that I was able to photograph from the car.

Red Grouse

Our next stop of the day was the RSPB's Loch Ruthven reserve. This reserve is well known as a reliable spot for breeding plumaged Slavonian Grebes, and we managed to see 4 birds from the public hide. Again, they didn't come close enough to photograph, but we watched them well through the 'scope. There were also 2 pairs of Little Grebes on eggs, a male Goosander and several singing Willow Warblers.

Willow Warbler (singing)

Year List update:

142 - Black-throated Diver

143 - Slavonian Grebe

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!)

Finches and Redpolls

More often than not, when we're ringing in a garden setting, the commonest birds we catch are tits. Yesterday's session at our regular site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield, however, didn't follow this pattern, with the majority of birds ringed being, as the title suggests, finches and redpolls (32 from 57). The finch species caught were (new/retrap): Siskin 13/0, Lesser Redpoll 9/3, Chaffinch 1/0, Goldfinch 2/0 and Bullfinch 4/0. As well as these species, we also caught: Blue Tit 4/1, Great Tit 2/6, Coal Tit 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Nuthatch 0/2, Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Wren 1/0, Blackbird 2/0 and Robin 1/2. Here's one of the Lesser Redpolls, a super male bird.

Lesser Redpoll (male)

Linacre Ringing - 19th March 2016

I wasn't available for this morning's ringing session at Linacre, but 3 other members of The Group were able to get down and, in a three hour session, they ringed  a total of 19 birds of 8 species.

Tits predominated, as is usual at this time of year, with 3 new Great Tits being caught, along with 2 new Blue Tits, 2 new Coal Tits and 3 re-trapped Long-tailed Tits., one of which turned out to be a "control", i.e. a bird ringed elsewhere (more on that later). Other species caught today were (new/retrap); Chaffinch (1/0), Robin (2/1), Dunnock (2/2) and Great-spotted Woodpecker (1/0). 

The Long-tailed Tit "control" was a bird that had travelled 11km after being ringed, by our group,  at Renishaw Hall in Eckington, on 13th November 2010, making it at least 6 years old. The oldest known Long-tailed Tit is, according to the BTO's longevity records, (see here), 8 years and 11 months old, so a few more years to go yet for our bird to beat the record. The movement of 11 km is also interesting for a species that is normally regarded as being pretty sedentary.

Long-tailed Tit (not today's bird)

A very busy morning!

A break in the wet and windy weather meant that I was able to get out ringing on Sunday with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We met up at the private garden site in Wingerworth at 7.15am, and, in a non-stop session, we caught and ringed 115 birds of 13 species.

When we arrived, the homeowners told us that they'd had good numbers of both Siskin and Lesser Redpoll visiting the garden feeders during the week. The session started very well, and over the course of the morning, we caught and processed 11 Siskins (9 new and 2 retraps/controls), and 12 Lesser Redpolls (all new birds). One of the ringed Siskins was a bird that we'd caught at this site back in September 2015 for the first time (see post here). We're still waiting for details of the other ringed bird. Here's a picture of a male Siskin feeding in my garden from December.

Siskin

Other birds ringed on Sunday were (new/retrap): Goldfinch 5/0, Great Tit 12/6, Blue Tit 24/7, Long-tailed Tit 9/0, Coal Tit 3/1, Blackbird 4/0, Dunnock 0/3, Nuthatch 1/2, Goldcrest 1/0, Chaffinch 4/0, and Robin 7/3.