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

Linacre - 28th July 2016

It was quite sunny this morning this morning, so I had  a couple of hours down at Linacre to see if I could catch up with the Shag. It took me about an hour, but I eventually found it on the overflow of the middle reservoir. It was quite confiding, and I managed to get a nice photo showing how its moulting into its adult plumage.

Shag

As well as the Shag, other birds spotted were, a female Sparrowhawk over the top reservoir, 5 Grey Wagtails (1 adult and 4 juveniles), a Kingfisher, 2 Great-crested Grebes, a Jay, 3 Grey Herons, 1 Swift, 30-40 House Martins and a female Tufted Duck with 5 ducklings.

A Common Frog was also spotted.

Common Frog

There were lots of insects about, but I'll save those for another post!!

Linacre Sightings - 1st April 2016

It's the first day of a new month, so I decided to have a couple of hours down at Linacre to see what was about. Luke was with me again, and we spent 2 hours walking around all three reservoirs.

The highlight of the morning was the Shag, that has now made it into its 5th month. It was present on the bottom reservoir along with 4 Canada Geese (another 2 were also present on the top reservoir), the first of 41 Mallards and 33 Tufted Ducks. 8 Coots were spread out around the site, as were 4 Moorhens. There were also 5 Great-crested Grebes (3 on the top reservoir, and 2 on the middle reservoir), 1 calling Little Grebe on the middle reservoir, 3 Grey Wagtails, 4 Mandarin Ducks and a couple of Grey Herons flying over.

Chiffchaffs were present again, with a minimum of 7 heard singing around the site. A Curlew was heard calling, but not seen, by the top reservoir, and the first frogspawn of the year was seen.

More Linacre Nestbox News

Last weekend I was down at Linacre checking the nestboxes (see here), and managed to ring the first chicks of 2015, a brood of Blue Tits. Well, this morning I was back again with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, and between us we managed to ring another 4 broods of chicks; 3 more Blue Tits and 1 Great Tit. One of the Blue Tit broods was 12 strong, which is always good to see! There were several other broods present that were a little too small to ring, along with several more clutches of eggs, so another visit or two will be needed to ring them all. The possible mixed clutch pictured last week was still being incubated, so we don't yet know what's in there! 

Last week, we found a Wren's nest in one of the boxes with 3 eggs, and today it was still going strong and contained 5 eggs. Also last week, we found a Blackbird's nest, which had 1 egg in it. Against all odds, it was still present today, and contained not 1, but 5 warm eggs!

Blackbird's nest

I think the egg on the far left is starting to hatch. What do you think? As always, I'm keeping everything crossed for this nest.  

The outcome of all nests will, as always, be forwarded to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Whilst walking around the reservoirs we saw a female Mandarin Duck with 5 ducklings, a Coot sitting on a nest (my first for the year here), a couple of Swifts, a fly-over Grey Heron and hundreds of tadpoles swimming in the shallow water by the boardwalk on the top reservoir. I also heard and saw my first Linacre Whitethroat of 2015, that was singing by the Rangers' Base when I arrived on site. 

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