Derbyshire Cattle Egret!!

According to The Birds of Derbyshire, Cattle Egret is a "very rare vagrant" in the county, with just 7 previous records in 1966, 1968, 1986, 1996, 2009 (2 records of possibly the same bird), and 2014. Scrolling through Birdguides this afternoon, I noted that one had been reported at Poolsbrook Marsh, Staveley, so, as soon as possible Jayne and I had a drive over to see the bird.

We dropped lucky, with the bird still being present on the edge of the reedbed, and managed some good, if somewhat distant, views.

Cattle Egret

The bird stayed on the edge of the reeds for about 15 minutes before flying up into a dead tree, where I got this shot.

Cattle Egret

It looked as if it would roost there, but a report came through that it had flown off "high to the north". Hopefully, it'll turn up again somewhere in the county. An excellent Year, British and County tick!

Year List update:

120 - Sand Martin (1 on 2nd at Avenue Washlands)

121 - CATTLE EGRET

Hooded Crow - new Derbyshire Tick

Hot on the heels of this morning's Iceland Gull, I was out again this afternoon to try and catch up with a Hooded Crow that had been reported on Birdguides website (see here). The bird was reported near Beeley Moor, and I dropped lucky again, seeing the bird within 5 minutes of our arrival. It was perched up distantly in a Hawthorn hedge. Here's my very best shot!!

Hooded Crow

As the post title indicates, this is my first record of this species in Derbyshire, so I was very happy to see it. Looking in the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's  The Birds of Derbyshire, it's interesting to note that this species was much more common here in the 1920s, when it was described as "numerous", and then again in the 1960s and 1970s, with up to 24 records in the latter period. Between 2000 and 2010 there was just 1 record in Derbyshire, a single bird at Carsington Reservoir on 21st October 2007, making this bird only the second record of the millennium.

Year List update:

105 – Lesser Redpoll (3 on the garden feeders on 1st March)

106 – Hooded Crow

Common Scoter at Linacre

I rarely go to Linacre after work, but news of 4 Common Scoter on the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's website on the 19th (Monday) had me over there yesterday evening to see if they were still present. Unfortunately they weren't!! I've only ever seen one, a male, at Linacre, and that was back in October 2007, so I'm pretty annoyed to have missed these birds. Here's a photo of the male bird from 2007.

Common Scoter, October 2007

Despite not seeing the birds, it was still a lovely, sunny evening and I did see the immature Shag (now present for 10 months and 1 day), a juvenile Cormorant (the first record since the end of August), a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies basking in the sun and a Silver Y moth.

Speckled Wood

Derbyshire Sabine's Gull!

It was only last year that I saw my first Sabine's Gull at Pennington Flash, Greater Manchester (see here). On Wednesday news broke that a moulting adult bird had been seen on the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve.

I couldn't get over until today, so this evening I drive across with Lydia and found the bird feeding on the small flash, south of the main lake. It never came very close, staying about 30m away at all times, but I still managed some decent record shots, one of which I cropped. Unfortunately, no flight shots this time around.

Sabine's Gull

This record is only the 7th of this species in Derbyshire, and the first since August 1997. For me this is not only a "year tick", but it also my first ever Derbyshire record.

Whilst there, I also added Grasshopper Warbler to the year list, with 1 reeling bird, and about 20 Swifts.

Year List update:
157 - Grasshopper Warbler
158 - Sabine's Gull

Derbyshire Red Kite

Last night, following a text from my nephew, Luke, I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours watching a Red Kite at a site in North Derbyshire. I won't say where it was, because, as we all now, there are many people out there who find the thought of any type of predator in the countryside a very unwelcome thing, and would be quite happy to see it gone! Suffice to say, the bird has been present in the same area for at least 3 days, perching on fence posts, walls and feeding on the ground. This is only my second ever Derbyshire record. Hopefully, there will be many more in the future.

The bird never came very close. It was about 500m away when I arrived, sitting on a fence, and only moved to about 300m in the 2 hours I was there. In fact, out of the 2 hours I was watching the bird, it spent about 1 3/4 hours sitting round, and about 15 minutes feeding. Here are a few, heavily cropped photos.

Red Kite

Other birds seen in the area included this Pied Wagtail, 2 Curlew, 2 Lapwing, Yellowhammer (male heard singing), and Linnets. The Red Kite record was sent to the Derbyshire Ornithological Society.

Pied Wagtail

Linacre WeBS and a New Species

I was down at Linacre on Saturday to carry out a guided walk as part of the Chesterfield Walking Festival. 19 people took part in the walk, and we saw 33 species of bird in just over 3 hours. Whilst there I also logged the number of water birds for this month's WeBS walk. Results were: Mallard (26, including 2 broods of duckling, 12 and 4), Coot (6 adults), Moorhen (6; 4 adults and 2 chicks), Grey Wagtail (1 on the middle reservoir), Mandarin Duck (7 males), Great-crested Grebe (5 birds; 2 pairs, including 1 pair on a nest on the top reservoir, 1 pair on the middle reservoir and 1 bird on the bottom reservoir), Little Grebe (1 breeding plumaged bird on the bottom reservoir), Tufted Duck (12 adults) and the Shag (now into its 7th month!!).

Mallard and 12 ducklings

One of the first species we saw at the start of the walk was this Mistle Thrush. As you can see, it was collecting food by the bottom car park, and then flying to an unseen nest in the woods. A great record.

Mistle Thrush with food

The final record, and unfortunately not one that I made, was a report of 2 Redstarts at Linacre on Saturday. The report was on the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's website, but no further details were given. It would be great to catch up with this species at Linacre!

Monsal Dale Redstart

The sun was shining again this afternoon, and despite it being only 9 degrees and pretty windy, Jayne and I went for a walk along Monsal Dale.

As soon as we got out of the car we heard the first of six or so singing Chiffchaffs, and a Willow Warbler. We also came across this Common Toad that was walking back across the path away from the water.

Common Toad

 

We then set off following the River Wye towards Monsal Head where we spotted 4 Dippers, including this pair, a Grey Wagtail, a pair of Mandarin Ducks, 3 Swallows, a Common Buzzard and several Mallards.

Dippers

 

After a spot of lunch at Hobb's Café at the top of Monsal Head (lovely Watercress and Potato soup for Jayne and a Banana and Peanut Butter toastie for me!), we walked back along the valley when Jayne spotted a flash of red fly out from this tree; a male Redstart!! We managed to get a decent view as it landed in a tree on the other side of the river, but unfortunately it disappeared before I could get a photograph. Click here to see and hear just how amazing a bird it is.

River Wye

 

Checking in the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's Bird Report for 2013 I noted that the first Redstart reported in that year was 12th April, so today's bird beats that by 1 day- nice! Unfortunately, another bird was reported in Lathkill Dale on 9th April this year, so ours isn't the first for 2015.

 

Year List update:

102 - Redstart

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.

Derbyshire Bird Report 2013

Yesterday I received my copy of the new 2013 Derbyshire Bird Report that is published every year by the  Derbyshire Ornithological Society.

 

I always have a quick flick through to see some of the records I've sent in, to read the ringing section at the back, and to see if there are any extra records for Linacre that I missed last year. The best record in this year's edition is the Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull that I saw at Linacre in November 2013 (see blog post here).

 

As always, you can get hold of a copy in several local bookshops, or, if you join the DOS, you get a free copy as part of your subscription.

Black Redstart

Black Redstarts are very uncommon birds in Derbyshire, so when news of a summering bird at a site just 30 minutes from home, came out in July (see Darley Dale Wildlife blog here), I decided to have a drive over for a look. Unfortunately I didn't catch up with it then, but another record this week on Birdguides, made me decide to have another drive across today. This time I dropped lucky, with the bird showing within 10 minutes of me arriving.

The weather wasn't great (bit drizzly and misty), so, although I managed to get a quick photo, it isn't the best. You can just about make out the red tail.

Black Redstart

 

I also managed a short piece of video (see here).

 

Year List update:

174 - Black Redstart

Siberian Lesser Whitethroat

This winter has seen several records of over-wintering Lesser Whitethroats in Britain. Several have been spotted feeding in gardens on suet feeders, and at least two have been caught, ringed and their DNA has been analysed by scientist in Aberdeen.

The upshot of all this clever science is that the birds seen in Sheffield and Tynemouth; Northumberland, have been identified as "Siberian Lesser Whitethroats", most likely from Kazakhstan!

There is an article on the Sorby Breck Ringing Group website with a picture of the Sheffield bird here .

Information about the Tynemouth bird and pictures of another bird seen in a Derby garden can be found on the Birdguides website here.

Birds of Derbyshire - a new book

Last month I blogged about a brilliant new book detailing the breeding birds of the Sheffield area. Well, yesterday I got a very nice surprise when this smart looking book appeared in the post.

Nice!!

 

My wife, Jayne, had ordered this book for me as a Christmas present, but with a few problems at the printing stage, it has only just arrived. Was it worth the wait? What do you think? At nearly 400 pages, and over 300 individual species accounts, this amazing piece of work is absolutely brilliant. The book contains everything you need to know about "birds and birding in Derbyshire", from historical records, right through to the most recent addition to the "Derbyshire List" (Western Bonelli's Warbler in 2011).

 

As you can imagine the first thing I did when I opened the book was look for references of Linacre Reservoirs! Obviously, at a county level Linacre isn't the most important area, but it does get quite a few mentions including a brief outline of the key species on p.30 and a very nice reference to "our" owl-box-nesting Mandarin Ducks on page 91.(see here for details and a picture of the eggs).

 

Hope you've enjoyed this little review, and if you fancy getting hold of a copy, follow this link to the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's website.

 

 

Derbyshire Bird Report 2012

Hot on the heals of the BTO Atlas came another superb publication through the post this week: The Derbyshire Bird Report 2012.

As always, the DOS do a brilliant job in publishing the Bird Report in the following year i.e. 2013 for the 2012 report, and again, as always, its a great read. I particularly like looking through to see which reports I sent in and, of course, to see all the records relating to Linacre Reservoirs.

Reading the section on the Mandarin Duck, it's interesting to see that Linacre was the best site in Derbyshire in 2012 for this species, in that we had the highest count of the year (70 in October, in case you were wondering).

At the back of the book there's a short section on some of the key ringing recoveries for the year, including a Coal Tit that Alan from our group ringed at Ramsley Reservoir on 13th September, and that I re trapped at Linacre 16 days later, a movement of 6km.

If you want to get a copy for yourself, you can usually find them in local bookshops, including The Bakewell Bookshop or by following this link to the DOS website for details. Well worth the £8.65, or better still become a member and you'll get next year's free!

Avenue Ringing - 1st June 2013

Out this morning to the DWT's Avenue Washlands with the guys from the Sorby Breck Group for a few hours. The ringing was quiet with just 14 birds ringed, but it was nice to be out again and we were treated to our first Robin and Great Tit pulli/juveniles of the year, a new ringing tick for the site, Mistle Thrush, and to a great sighting when a Great White Egret flew up out of the reedbeds!!! This is still a pretty uncommon bird here in Derbyshire, a first for the site, and my first county record, so I sent the record off to the Derbyshire Ornithological Society.

Birds ringed today were: Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Wren, Goldfinch, Mistle Thrush, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Robin.

My totals were: (new/retrap)

Wren 0/1, Robin 1/0 and Blackcap 1/0.

juvenile Robin

Waxwings over

Just a quick blog to say that whilst clearing snow from my car and the driveway a flock of approximately 40 Waxwings flew over the house and disappeared onto the golf course. Although not a year tick, they were very nice to see and the record was sent off to Birdguides and the Derbyshire Ornithological Society.

With a lot of new snow overnight there were still lots of birds visiting the garden again today, with the same species as yesterday. The only new additions today were a couple of Mistle Thrushes, which popped in a brief visit.

Raptor Fest - Upper Derwent Valley- 19th March 2011

The last time I blogged about the Upper Derwent Valley back in January the news wasn't good. I was reporting about raptor persecution during the 2010 breeding season. Thankfully today's post is a lot more pleasant and hopefully enjoyable.

Today's walk was organised by the Derbyshire Ornithological Society and involved a morning watching raptors dispalying above the skies of Howden and Derwent Water. Unfirtunately no pictures of the birds as they were too far away and too high up!

We met at Fairholmes Car Park at 9am and the first raptors soon put in an appearance, when an enormous female Goshawk was identified flying high over the moors. This wasn't to be our only sighting of this iconic species, however, and several more were spotted throughout the morning. Common Buzzards lived up to their name,with numbers in double figures. A pair of Kestrels were also recorded and several Sparrowhawks were noted high up in display. One Peregrine Falcon was seen in the company of two Buzzards amd the honourary raptors, Ravens, were also recdorded, when four birds were seen together at the top of the valley. The final raptor of the day was a "ringtail" Hen Harrier, which was found from Windy Corner, high over the moors.

Other birds present included a beautiful male Red-breasted Merganser preening and feeding on Howden Water, my first Meadow Pipit of the year, Siskin, Red Grouse and a pair of Pied Wagtail.

Pied Wagtail

These sightings prove that the area is still a very popular one for many different birds of prey. Let's hope this year's breeding season is a lot more productive than last year's!!!

Cromford and Carsington Water - 30th January 2011

Welcome to my last blog of the month. Today saw the family head up to the Severn Trent reservoir of Carsington Water, via Cromford Wharf, for a spot of winter birding.

First stop was the Derbyshire County Council car park in Cromford Canal, a traditional winter birding spot for Hawfinch. Birds are regular here in the winter months and we were not disappointed as one was immediately spotted at the entrance to Willersley Castle. It sat at the top of a tree for a good 5 minutes and, despite the grey conditions, I managed to get a few decent shots. Note the enormous bill on the bird below!

Hawfinch

 Next stop was Carsington Water where a redhead Smew had been frequenting the dam area for a few weeks. Our search started at the Millfields Car park, and we spent a cold, but enjoyable, half an hour searching amongst the 150+ Tufted Duck, dozen or so Goldeneye, Canada Geese and Coot for the diminutive "sawbill". Unfortunately our first attempts were unsuccessful so we decided to warm up in the restaurant at the Visitors' Centre. After a spot of lunch (veggie breakfast- nice!!) we had a quick walk down to the main hide, which was surprisingly quiet, with "just" 50+ Wigeon, Tree Sparrows, a few Black-headed Gulls and Mallards.

Wigeon

We then headed back up to the dam wall to have another look for the Smew. Another search through the Tufties eventually paid dividends when the bird was spotted diving and fishing just 20m from the bank. Again, the bad light and the bird's constant diving didn't make it easy to get a photo, but, with persistence, we eventually managed a few record shots.

Redhead Smew

Whilst watching the Smew, we also noticed a couple of Ruddy Duck, a real rarity nowadays, a group of approximately 50 Lapwing feeding on the fields behind the dam and three Pink-footed Geese, which flew directly over our heads! Not quite sure where they came from or whether they're "real", but nonetheless a good record which I sent into the Derbyshire Ornithological Society.

Avenue Washlands and Apperknowle 22nd December 2010

Following news of a Bittern at this Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Chesterfield yesterday, I decided to have an hour down here this morning. The site was very snowy and more or less completely frozen over, with the exception of the Duck Marsh. I wasn't lucky enough to see the Bittern, but there were 14 Teal, 20 Black-headed Gull, 2 Common Gull, 1 Snipe, 6 Mallard, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Grebe and several Coot and Moorhen.

The feeding station was very busy with Yellowhammer, Magpie, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Robin and Blackbird present. Redwing were heard overhead.

On the way back home I stopped off at Apperknowle and managed to see a small covey of 7 Grey Partridge feeding in a snowy field. A great site and my first record for the year!! Record sent into the Derbyshire Ornithological Society for inclusion in their annual Bird report.