Summer Migrants at Linacre

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre this morning and walked around all 3 reservoirs. We recorded good numbers of the usual waterbirds, along with a pair of Greylag Goose (present since Wednesday 29th) and our first singing Blackcap (3) and Willow Warbler (1) of 2017. The Willow Warbler was by the top reservoir, and was 3 days earlier than 2016, whilst the Blackcaps were by the middle reservoir (1), and by the stairs by the bottom reservoir (2) and were an  amazing 16 days earlier than last year!! Also singing this morning were: 9 Chiffchaffs, 7 Song Thrushes, Wrens, Stock Doves and Dunnocks. 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.

Greylag Geese (a pair?)

Waterbirds seen were: Mallard (33), Tufted Duck (27), Coot (6), Moorhen (12), Cormorant (3; 2 adults and a young bird), Great-crested Grebe (6; 3 pairs, including 1 pair that appeared to have a nest), Mandarin Duck (6) and Grey Wagtail (4: 2 pairs). A mixed flock of c.30 Siskins and Lesser Redpolls was flying around the Larch woodlands.

Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine and Coltsfoot were in all in flower. Interestingly, another 4 Perch and another dead Trout were in the overflow from the middle reservoir, along with, what looked like a half eaten duck, possibly a Mallard?

Mallard?

Year List update:
115 - Chiffchaff (at Linacre on 12th March)
116 - Willow Warbler

Linacre Ringing and the first egg of 2015

Hot on the heels of Saturday's ringing session, I was out at Linacre Reservoirs again on Sunday, with 4 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group for another ringing session, and a first check of the owl nestboxes. The ringing session was quiet, but the nestbox check produced our first egg of the year.

First up the ringing. We set up 4 nets this session, 2 around the feeding station, and a further 2 around the site. The ringing was quite quiet, as is to be expected at this time of year, as the birds disperse, and get on with business of mating, but we still managed to catch 3 new Chiffchaffs (our first to be ringed here this year), and another 24 birds of 8 other species (Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Song Thrush, Goldcrest, Robin, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Blue, Great, Long-tailed and Coal Tit).

After 3 hours ringing, we decided to go and check the 4 "owl boxes" that we have on site. The first box we checked contained our first egg of 2015!

Mandarin Duck egg?

We think it's a Mandarin Duck egg, so we'll keep an eye on this box and hope for more eggs over the next few weeks. The second box contained a female Mandarin Duck, but, as yet, no eggs; another one to watch! The last 2 boxes were empty, so again, we'll keep an eye to see if anything moves in.

Aside from the ringing and nestbox checking, we also managed to spot a few spring flowers (Cowslip, Coltsfoot, Lesser Celandine and a new one for me, Sweet Violet (see here for details of this plant).

Sweet Violet

We also managed a few other birds, including my first 2015 Linacre record of Tawny Owl, with 2 "twit-twooing" by the Rangers' Base when we arrived at 6am, a fly-over Sparrowhawk and a single Little Owl in the "breeding tree". Now I just need to get some more summer visitors- a Swallow or Willow Warbler would be nice!

Last March Visit

Yesterday morning the weather wasn't conducive to ringing, so instead I had a walk around all three reservoirs at Linacre. It was just 7 degrees, grey, overcast and windy when I arrived at 6am, but the Chiffchaffs were singing (3), as was a single Skylark (my first Linacre record of 2015), several Goldcrests (also my first singing record this year), and a few spring flowers had begun to flower (Cowslip, Coltsfoot and a single Marsh Marigold flower).

In addition, there was a pair of Canada Geese on the middle reservoir, along with a Moorhen that was sitting on an empty nest. The 2 Great-crested Grebe pairs were still on site, and I also managed 5 Mandarin Ducks ( 4 males and a female), which are always a bonus at this time of the year.

When I got home, I spent some time watching the garden birds for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, and was treated to another visit from this beautiful male Sparrowhawk, this time sitting on the feeders for 10 minutes, before chasing, unsuccessfully, after a Blackbird.

Sparrowhawk

I'm pretty sure its the same bird as last week, as it has 2 white spots on the back of its head. Just need to get a ring on it!!

New (ringing) species at Linacre

This morning was the first ringing session at Linacre since January (see here), when we were rained off after an hour, so we were very pleased to get on site and get a couple of nets up around the feeders. The morning started very well, when the first bird out of the nets was a species that we hadn't ringed at Linacre before - a Lesser Redpoll! Thanks David, for putting that recording on. This bird was a female, as was the second one, and then the third bird turned out to be a male- 3 Lesser Redpolls in one morning!!! Before these birds, I hadn't even recorded them on site this winter. Here's a few photos of 2 of this morning's birds:

Female bird

Male bird

The morning carried on well as the birds came "thick and fast", with 58 birds of 8 species ringed by the end of the morning's session (Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Lesser Redpoll, Wren and Dunnock).  My personal totals were (new/retrap):

Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Great Tit 2/2, Blue Tit 6/2, Robin 1/2, Dunnock 1/0.

In between net rounds we kept our eyes open and spotted a couple of Canada Geese flying over, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Sparrowhawk, 4 Mistle Thrushes and singing Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren and Dunnock.

One final record from today was my first sighting of Coltsfoot for 2014.

Coltsfoot

Linacre update- ringing tick and nesting success.

Two visits to Linacre this weekend, one for ringing and nest recording, and one to catch up with the summer migrants. A mixed set of results.

First up the ringing and nest recording. A four hour session with the nets resulted in just 17 birds ringed, but this total did include our first ringed Linacre Chiffchaff of the year and a ringing tick for me; a Woodpigeon! A very interesting bird and my first "F" ring.

Woodpigeon

 

Between net rounds we managed a bit of birdwatching and recorded the first records of Mute Swan (1 flew over) and Pied Wagtail (flew over), for Linacre this year.Other birds of note included a Sparrowhawk overhead, 3 Jays, 2 Canada Geese, yaffling Green Woodpecker and drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker. We also recorded our first butterflies of the year, Small Tortoiseshell, 3 feeding on the Coltsfoot, which was out in profusion today, along with super Cowslip and Wood Anenome.

 

Cowslip

 

The last job of the morning was to check on the owl boxes and the Little Owls. We checked the two owl boxes above Spire View and found both contained Mandarin Duck eggs!! The first box contained 5 eggs and no bird, while the second box contained 9 or possibly10 eggs and a female Mandarin Duck.

 

Mandarin eggs

 

The second box, shown above, was full of down as well, whereas the eggs in the first box were laid simply on the sticks and leaves that were already in the box. Anyway, we'll fill in BTO nest record cards for both boxes and watch what happens. I'll let you know. We also checked the tree where we'd seen a couple of Little Owls and were very pleased to find one bird sitting tight. The hole is pretty small, so we couldn't see what the bird was sitting on, but we'll keep monitoring over the next few weeks and hopefully record a successful brreding attempt here as well.

 

I popped back to Linacre again this morning and walked around all three reservoirs recording the first Willow Warblers (4 singing), Sand Martins (6 over the top reservoir) and Blackcaps (4 singing) of the year. Nice!!! Just need the flycatchers, Swifts and House Martins to come back now.

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