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).

Coal Aston Nests - 13th April 2019

I was out ringing this morning with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ring Group at a local farm in Coal Aston. We had a steady morning, with 12 birds of 6 species, including our first ever Chiffchaff record from this site. Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Nuthatch 0/2, Dunnock 1/2, Blue Tit 1/1, Great Tit 3/0, Robin 1/0 and Chiffchaff 1/0. All the retraps were birds that we had ringed at this site previously.

Whilst there, we had our first check of the nestboxes for 2019, and were very pleasantly surprised to find 6 out of the 7 boxes were occupied (up from 2 last year). 1 box contained a Nuthatch nest, whilst the other 5 nests were all tit nests (1 with a 1/2 built nest, 1 with 5 eggs, 1 with 10 eggs, 1 with 8 eggs and 1 with 2 eggs). All eggs were cold, so incubation hasn't yet started.

Nuthatch nest

Tit nest, with 10 eggs and lots of horse hair

Details of all the nests recorded, will be sent to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Linacre Ringing - 30th March 2019

This morning I was down at Linacre for the first ringing session since January with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We got on site at 05:30, and the first bird we caught was a retrap Chiffchaff. On checking, we found that it had been ringed, as a 3 (born that year), at Linacre, in August 2018. Great record!

The rest of the morning was steady, with the following birds caught and ringed (new/retrap): Dunnock 0/1, Robin 0/1, Blackbird 0/1, Chiffchaff 2/1, Goldcrest 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/1, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 4/3 and Jay 0/1.

The retrap  Dunnock was first caught and aged by us, at Linacre, as a 5, in January 2015, meaning it was born in 2014. This was the first time it had been retrapped.

One of the Blue Tit retraps had also been ringed by the group (me in this case), as a pullus, in one of our boxes (c.12) last year on 29th May. This was also, the first retrap of this bird.

Other birds seen during the ringing session were: Tawny Owl (2 seen), Buzzard (1 over), Sparrowhawk (1 over), Kestrel (1 over), Canada Goose (2 flew over), Blackcap (1 heard singing in the ringing site, the first Linacre sighting of 2019) and Raven (2 seen flying over).

Linacre - First visit of 2019

On Wednesday, Luke and I had our first visit of the year to Linacre. We walked around the middle and top reservoirs recording the following waterbirds: Mallard (79), Tufted Duck (11), Mandarin Duck (6), Moorhen (15), Coot (4), Kingfisher (1), Black-headed Gull (76), Little Grebe (1) and Grey Wagtail (2).

We also added another few species to the "year list". Greenfinch was recorded in the garden.

Year List:
31 – Green Woodpecker
32 – Wren
33 – Mandarin Duck
34 – Goldcrest
35 – Wren
36 – Blue Tit
37 – Long-tailed Tit
38 – Nuthatch
39 – Jay
40 – Chaffinch
41 – Little Grebe
42 – Kingfisher
43 – Great-spotted Woodpecker
44 – Grey Wagtail
45 – Dunnock
46 – Greenfinch

Linacre Ringing - an update

I've been out ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group a couple of times recently. Both sessions were quite quiet with the following birds ringed:

18th November 2018 13 birds: Wren 1/0, Robin 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/1, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 1/1, Great Tit 4/0.

16th December 2018 25 birds: Dunnock 1/0, Robin 0/1, Blue Tit 1/8, Great Tit 8/5, Jay 1/0.

The highlight was, obviously, today's Jay, a first year bird, and the first ringed at Linacre this year.

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.

Linacre Ringing - 15th October 2017

It wasn't a great morning weather wise today, but we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) managed to get out to Linacre for a few hours ringing.

It was quiet from the outset, but we still managed to ring 35 birds of 8 species, as follows: Dunnock 2/0, Robin 1/0, Goldcrest 15/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/2, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 5/1, Great Tit 4/1, Nuthatch 0/1.

Long-tailed Tit

Other birds seen/heard during the morning included Tawny Owl (heard on arrival), Jay, Redwing (c.30 over), Grey Heron (1 heard) and Mistle Thrush (1 over). A flyby Red Admiral butterfly was also seen briefly.

Coal Aston Ringing- 30th September 2017

I was out yesterday morning with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group at our farm site in Coal Aston. We had 3 hours on site and caught 23 birds of 7 species, including a re trap Blue Tit (details to follow).

Totals were: Blue Tit 10/1, Great Tit 4/0, Coal Tit 3/0, Wren 1/0, Dunnock 1/0 and Robin 2/0.

After the ringing session we put up a Barn Owl box on a tree on the farm. Barn Owls have been seen in the area, so hopefully we might see some interest later in the year. If not, I'm sure the local squirrels will love it!!

Barn Owl box

Linacre Ringing - 23rd September 2017

I was out ringing at Linacre yesterday with Sorby Breck Ringing Group. This was our first session since the start of August, and we were on site from 06.30 to 10.30, catching a very nice 76 birds, including 2 warbler species and a species that we've only ringed twice at Linacre, once in 2012 and again in 2014. Can you guess what it was??
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Totals for the morning were new/retrap: Blue Tit 12/4, Great Tit 10/5, Coal Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Dunnock 1/0, Robin 4/0, Blackbird 1/0, Blackcap 1/0, Chiffchaff 9/0, Goldcrest 15/1, Meadow Pipit 1/0, Nuthatch 1/0 and Goldfinch 8/0.

As you can see, the two warbler species were Chiffchaff and Blackcap. All birds were aged as 3s (born this year). The other highlight was the single Meadow Pipit, also a bird born this year. This species is heard most years passing over the site, and we have managed to entice a few birds down in 2012 and 2014, so to catch one this weekend was very nice.

Other species seen between net rounds included a very impressive flock of c.50 House Martins (the biggest count of the year by a very long way), that were feeding over the ringing site, 5 Swallows, 1 Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk.

Linacre Ringing and a 2 new Species

I was out ringing with 3 members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group at Linacre yesterday. We had 3 and a half hours on site, but only caught 9 birds, most of which were retrap Tits (Blue, Great and a single new Long-tailed). We also had singles of Dunnock and Bullfinch (a 5 male). Unfortunately, no warblers were caught, although Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap were all heard singing.

Whilst there, the sun came out for a while, and a Peacock butterfly was seen, along with a moth. I grabbed a quick photo, and was very pleased to identify it later as a Water Carpet - a new species for me and for Linacre (as far as I'm aware).

Water Carpet

Apparently, this species is quite common in Derbyshire, so is presumably quite common here, but has, so far, been overlooked. A nice addition.

The other "new" species was , I think, a Short-tailed or Field Vole. The individual was found underneath an old manhole cover that was on the grass by the ringing site. I lifted it up, and spotted this.

Field Vole

As you can (hopefully) see, its the back end of a Vole, and appears to have a very short tail. According to The Wildlife Trust's website (see here),  a Field Vole's tail is approximately 30% of its body length, so I quite happy that the id is correct. We did, also, see its face, but I didn't manage a photo of that end!! Now I know what the Kestrel that we saw, was after.

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.

Ringing and Linacre

No ringing last week because of the weather, but I managed to get out this morning with David from The Group. We had a couple of hours at a private site in Sheffield, where we caught and ringed 11 birds of 7 species (new/retrap) : Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 0/1, Coal Tit 2/0, Goldfinch 2/0, Wren 1/0, House Sparrow 1/0 and Dunnock 1/0. Thanks David, for letting me ring them all!

I haven't managed to get around Linacre this weekend, but I did have about half an hour there this afternoon to see if I could find the Shag. Thankfully, after a "no-show" last weekend, it was back on its favourite perch on the bottom reservoir. Next week, the 21st, is the "anniversary" of the discovery of 8 Shags at Linacre (see here), so I'm hopeful that this one will remain until then. I'm keeping everything crossed.

Summer Migrants still here

Yesterday morning I was down at Linacre with 4 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group for a ringing session. We'd moved the feeding station to another area a couple of weeks ago, and this was the first session with it in its new home. We were there for nearly 4 hours (6:30am to 10.15am), and caught 25 birds of 8 species, including, as the title of today's post suggests, a couple of summer migrant birds.

The 2 summer visitors caught today were, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. In total, 5 new Chiffchaffs were caught and 1 new Blackcap, a juvenile female birds weighing just over 18g. This bird was also beginning to build up fat reserves ready for its migration to sunnier climes. I say they are summer migrants, but Chiffchaff has now been recorded in every month bar February at Linacre, so it is possible that some of these birds may stay for the whole year, or the winter birds that have been recorded here, may come here from elsewhere. Hopefully, we'll get some recoveries of these birds ringed today to help us build up a picture of what they do in the winter months.

We also caught 12 Goldcrests today (11 new birds and a retrap). Again, we tend to think of birds caught here as being "home grown" birds, but last year, we caught a Goldcrest that had been ringed on the east coast at Spurn Point, so it is just as possible that the birds ringed today could have come from there, or even further afield.

The other species caught today were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 2/1, Coal Tit 0/1, Robin 0/1 ( a juvenile bird that we originally ringed at Linacre earlier in the year), Dunnock 1/0 and Wren 1/0.

In between net rounds we recorded the following birds around the site: Lesser Black-backed Gull (1 over), Raven (1 over), Mistle Thrush ( 1 over), Sparrowhawk (1 over), Tawny Owl (1 heard calling on arrival) and House Martin (2 over). Finally, a single Silver Y moth was found feeding on a buddleia bush.

Smashing Sunday

Four years ago, during the London Olympics, the British athletes celebrated what was called Super Saturday, when lots of medals were won. At the time, I "borrowed" the title for a blog post about a really good ringing session I took part in with Sorby Breck Ringing Group (see post here). Well, four years down the line, the Rio Olympics are taking place and the British athletes have had a "Super Sunday", with lots of medals won again, and guess what? I've "borrowed" the slightly amended title to describe a "smashing" ringing session I took part in with 2 other ringers on Sunday at Linacre Reservoirs.

In total, we caught 64 birds of 15 species, which, in itself is great, but what made it even more amazing was the number of warblers in the total. The most numerous warbler was Willow Warbler, with 12 juveniles ringed!! To put this total into some kind of context, since we started ringing at Linacre in 2012, we've only ever caught 13 adults, and have never caught any juveniles before, so Sunday's total was outstanding.

Willow Warbler (1 of 12 juveniles)

In addition, we also caught several other warblers, Chiffchaff (4 juveniles and a retrap adult), Blackcap (7 juveniles and 1 adult) and Whitethroat, (2 juveniles). I'm particularly pleased with the Whitethroat record, as I'd only heard and seen the male bird singing once this year, so proof of breeding was very welcome.

Whitethroat (1 of 2 ringed)

Along with the warblers, we also had a good morning with the Linacre "regulars" (new/re-traps): Blackbird 1/0, Robin 3/0, Wren 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Coal Tit 2/0, Dunnock 1/0, Blue Tit 12/0, Great Tit 8/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Bullfinch 4/0 and Goldcrest 3/0. Phew!

Poolsbrook Marsh - 24th July 2016

Every summer I go out ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at Poolsbrook Marsh. We were out there again at the weekend, and managed to ring 56 birds of 15 species. Birds caught were (new/retrap) : Blackcap 4/0, Garden Warbler 6/0, Reed Warbler 16/2, Sedge Warbler 4/1, Willow Warbler 4/1, Chiffchaff 5/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Robin 3/0, Wren 1/0, Great Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 2/0, Bullfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0 and Reed Bunting 1/0.

As you can see, we managed to catch 7 species of warbler, including 4 birds that we'd ringed at this site before. 2 of the birds, a Sedge Warbler and a Reed Warbler had both been ringed just over 3 years ago (3 years and 4 days to be exact!). The Sedge Warbler was a juvenile bird when ringed, which shows how birds born here return to breed. The Reed Warbler was aged as an adult in 2013. Another Reed Warbler and one of Willow Warblers (both adults), were first caught on 5th July 2015, and re trapped here on Saturday, 1 year and 19 days later). Great records!

The other notable record of the morning was the excellent number of Reed Warblers and Garden Warblers caught. Out of the 56 birds caught, 34 were juveniles, which is also great news from this wonderful site.

In between net rounds and ringing, we managed to record a few birds, including Grey Heron, Swallow, House Martin, Swift (10) and a Kingfisher that was fishing nearby.

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.