Rufford - Site Tick!

Yesterday (17th), I went across to Rufford for an early start. I arrived at 8am (not that early!) and spent some time at the Abbey end of the park, before heading over to the mill for a look at the gulls.

I was there early on to look for Hawfinch. Whilst waiting, I picked up two "year ticks", Great-spotted Woodpecker (99) and Treecreeper (100).  Shortly after, one Hawfinch (101) flew in and posed beautifully, against the beautiful blue sky, for a minute or two.

Hawfinch (female?)

After enjoying the Hawfinch, I headed across the park to the Mill end to look at the gulls. I'll blog about that later. As it was still quite early, there weren't many people about, so I managed to see a species that I've never seen there before, a Great White Egret (102)! The bird flew the length of the lake, before landing and fishing just by the path. I walked across, and managed to get this back-lit image. A lovely addition to the site's birds.

Great White Egret

Linacre 21st March 2021 - Chiffchaffs are back!!

 It was a grey, still, overcast morning with a temperature of  9 degrees, as I arrived on site. As usual, I did a two hour walk around all three reservoirs, listening out for any new arrivals and counting the wintering duck.

Numbers of duck are beginning to fall now, as birds disperse from the water, to start their breeding activity. Having said that, there were still good numbers present: 51 Mallard, 14 Coot, 12 Moorhen (including a bird sitting on one of last year's nests!), 10 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Canada Geese, 3 Greylag Geese (flying over - year tick), 2 Cormorants, 80 Tufted Duck, 4 Great-crested Grebe, 1 Little Grebe and 28 Mandarin Ducks (including 6 in trees by the bottom car park - nest prospecting).

The woodland was very noisy this morning (with bird song!), and included my first Chiffchaffs of 2021, with 2 singing around the reservoirs. A Great-spotted Woodpecker was also watched drumming, a Skylark was singing in the fields by the top reservoir, and 3 Siskin were seen feeding on the path by the boardwalk.

Coal Aston Ringing - 20th January 2019

I was out with 2 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group this morning for our first ringing session of the year at our farm site in Coal Aston. The owners of the site had reported that the feeders had been very busy since our last visit, so hopes were high for a good number of birds.

We weren't disappointed with a very respectable 33 birds caught (new/retraps): Blue Tit 15/4, Coal Tit 1/0, Great Tit 9/0, Robin 2/0, Wren 1/0 and Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0. 

All the retrapped Blue Tits had been ringed at the same site; 2 on 30/09/17 (1 year 4 months ago), and 2 on 07/10/18 ( 3 months ago). They were ringed as 3s, so we know, more or less, how old they are. It'll be interesting to see how long they survive, and whether they breed on site this year.

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

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.

Linacre - 4th February 2017

Luke and I made our first visit to Linacre for February  this morning. It was cold (0 degrees on arrival), dry, bright and sunny, and we walked around all 3 reservoirs.

Water birds seen were: Mallard (66), Tufted Duck (27), Mandarin Duck (5), Moorhen (14), Coot (8), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (2; 1 very vocal bird on the middle reservoir, and another, quieter bird on the top reservoir, both birds in full breeding plumage), Cormorant (3, including 1 in full breeding plumage), Black-headed Gull (10) and Grey Heron (1 in trees on the middle reservoir).

The woods were quite quiet, but we did hear a couple of singing Song Thrushes, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker and Siskin. Robins were also in good voice, and the/a usual bird was still present by the top reservoir enjoying some free food!

Robin

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).

Ringing and Nesting

I haven't been out ringing since the end of March, what with one thing or another, so it was really nice to get out this morning for a few hours. I went out with 2 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, to the farm site in Coal Aston, and we managed to ring 14 birds of 6 species. Numbrs were as follows (new/retrap): Great-spotted Woodpecker (1/0),  Nuthatch (2/0), House Sparrow (1/0), Dunnock (2/0), Blue Tit (7/0) and Coal Tit (1/0). Here's a picture of the male House Sparrow from this morning.

House Sparrow

Whilst on site, we also put up a new owl nest box, and checked the 5 tit nest boxes. 2 were empty, but 3 contained the beginnings of nests, all of which looked like tits. The details of these nests wll be recorded for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Beginnings of  nest

Good Friday Sunshine

As the title suggests, the weather today has been great, with lots of sunshine, and bright blue skies for most of the day. I started the day at Linacre with Luke, where we had two and a half hours walking around all three reservoirs.

The highlights of today's visit were the first singing Chiffchaffs of the year (2, with another non-singing individual seen by the boardwalk on the top reservoir), and the juvenile Shag that was still present on the middle reservoir. The Chiffchaffs were 4 days later than in 2015.

Shag

As well as these records, we also had  lots of the commoner woodland birds, Wren, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Blue, Great and Coal Tits, singing in the sunshine, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Carrion Crow carrying nesting material, 2 Magpies, Jackdaws checking out potential nest sites, a Nuthatch plastering a hole, a singing Skylark, 2 Common Buzzards, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Mistle Thrushes and a flock of Siskin (phew!)

Along with the Shag, there were also 5 Canada Geese (2 pairs on the top reservoir and a lone individual on the middle reservoir- breeding this year perhaps?), 12 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 18 Tufted Ducks, 7 Mandarins (all males), 22 Mallards, 1 Grey Heron, Grey Wagtails (2, including 1 singing bird) and 4 Great-crested Grebes.

Great-crested Grebe

2 Brown Hares were also seen in the fields by the entrance and a single Wood Anemone was out in bloom.

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)

Something from the Weekend

After yesterday morning's Linacre walk, Jayne and I went for another walk in the afternoon, this time to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We walked around the Lower Lake where we looked at the Heronry on the island. There were at least 12 Grey Herons on the nests, including these two. We couldn't decide whether they were a pair, or a couple of males arguing over nest sites. Whatever the case, I was very pleased with this shot, especially the left hand bird with its crest raised.

Grey Herons

Whilst walking around the lake, we also saw approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls, a dozen or so Teal, 3 Goosander (1 male and 2 "redheads"), Greylag and Canada Geese, 2 Mute Swans, a single Redwing, and a first for this site, an Egyptian Goose!

This morning I was out ringing with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. Today we joined forces with other members of the group for a ringing demonstration at the National Trust's Longshaw Estate.  The fun started before we got there however, as a Short-eared Owl was spotted perched by the side of the road as we drove past at 6.45am. The session itself lasted for a good four and a half hours, and was very well attended, by at least 30 people. Thankfully, the birds turned up as well, and we managed to ring 60+, including crowd pleasers such as; Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Goldfinch and a lovely male Great-spotted Woodpecker.

After the ringing session, the sun was still out, so Jayne and I drove across to Bakewell for a walk and a spot of lunch. We also had a walk by the river, so I had a look for the hybrid duck that we'd seen back in February (see post here).  It was still present on the river by the bridge, and this time it came much closer, allowing a much better photo.

Hybrid duck

There were still a t least 100 Black-headed Gulls still present on the river, along with Mallards and 6 juvenile Mute Swans. As usual I spent some time taking photos of the gulls. Here's just one.

Black-headed Gull

On the drive back from Bakewell we drove past Barbrook Plantation and spotted a couple of Red Deer, which we able to photograph.

Red Deer

Spring is in the Air

Walking around Linacre for the March WeBS count this morning with Luke, there was a definite spring-like feeling in the air, despite it being just 3 degrees and quite misty. The songbirds were in very good voice, the ducks were chasing each other around, and the Shags appeared to have moved on.

We started our walk by the Rangers' Base, where we had the first of several drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers. As we walked down to the bottom reservoir we spotted a couple of Grey Wagtails ( 1 of which was singing), the first of 27 Tufted Ducks, and, best of all, a couple of Kingfishers. The Kingfishers, which were chasing each other about and flying up and down the south side of the reservoir, before flying off down towards the river, were, presumably a pair or 2 males in territorial dispute. Either way, very good to see. A Grey Heron was also present on the bottom reservoir.

Moving up to the middle reservoir, we had a very good count of 51 Black-headed Gulls, many in near breeding plumage, which was soon boosted by another 30 on the top reservoir. The first of 4 Great-crested Grebes were also spotted on the middle reservoir, and were seen displaying and nest building in the traditional site. The second pair, on the top reservoir, were present, but not showing any signs of nest building... yet. A pair of Mandarins were present on the middle reservoir, and, unusually, were eating bread with the Mallards (39 in total), allowing us to get some nice pictures of the male bird.

Mandarin Duck

In total, we spotted a total of 9 Mandarins today, including 1 pair looking at a potential nest site in a dead tree on the top reservoir.

Mandarin pair

Moving on to the top reservoir, we had 3 Greylag Geese fly over, and heard the first 2016 Linacre record for Skylark, with 1 singing by the fields on the north side. Coots and Moorhen were seen on all reservoirs, with 9 and 11 seen respectively. No evidence of nests yet though.

Linacre Sightings- 5th March 2016

Before jetting off to Dublin on Saturday I had a couple of hours down at Linacre with my nephew, Luke. It was grey, overcast and pretty nippy at just 2 degrees, but we still managed to record a few nice birds, including the 2 juvenile Shags, now into their fourth month!

Other birds noted during our walk were: Mallard (41), Tufted Duck (15), Coot (7), Moorhen (10), Black-headed Gull (16), Mandarin Duck (9), Grey Heron (1), Grey Wagtail (2 heard), Little Grebe (1 heard) and Great-crested Grebe (5; all in breeding plumage).

Great-crested Grebe

The woodland birds were also in good voice with Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Chaffinch all singing. Great-spotted Woodpecker were also drumming.

Little Owl Nestbox

Regular readers of the blog will know that back in 2013 we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) found a Little Owl pair that was breeding at Linacre (click on Little Owl labels for details). We managed to ring the female bird and one juvenile bird. Unfortunately, the birds moved sites in 2014 and 2015, so we weren't able to ring any more birds. With this in mind I got a Little Owl nest box for Christmas 2015, and eventually managed to get it up today, with a lot of help from Jayne (thanks!). It's in the same tree that the birds used in 2013, so I'm keeping everything crossed, that they, or another pair, find the box and use it. Obviously, if they do, I'll record the nesting attempt for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, hopefully, ring any chicks and update the blog. Here's a picture of the box in place.

Little Owl box

After putting up this nestbox, Jayne and I, went round and checked the other "owl boxes" to ensure there weren't any Grey Squirrels in them. We didn't find any live squirrels, just 1 dead one, and lots of dried leaves. These were all cleared out, to hopefully make room for the Mandarin Ducks.

After that we had a quick walk around all 3 reservoirs in cold, but sunny conditions. Birds noted were as follows: Shag (2 juveniles still on the middle reservoir), Cormorant (2 in breeding plumage), Mallard (40), Black-headed Gull (105 - a great count, my highest of the winter by far), Great Crested Grebe (5, including 4 in breeding plumage, another great count), Little Grebe (1 heard on the middle reservoir), Grey Wagtail (2 on the river below the bottom reservoir), Coot (9), Moorhen (5), Tufted Duck (22), Mandarin Duck (6 on the middle reservoir) and Canada Goose (3 on the top reservoir). Several birds, including Song Thrush, Wren and Chaffinch, were singing in the settled conditions, and Great-spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming (no Lessers yet).

Linacre - 26th December 2015

I had a couple of hours down at Linacre yesterday morning. It was quite mild at 12 degrees, with a few drizzly showers and quite breezy. In the time I was there I walked around all 3 reservoirs.

Birds seen were: Shag (3 still present on the middle reservoir), Mallard (92),  Tufted Duck (18), Mandarin Duck (1 heard, but not seen), Coot (3), Moorhen (9), Grey Wagtail (1) and Black-headed Gull (69).

The usual woodland birds were present, including a Buzzard that flew low over the middle reservoir, Wrens and Robins that were both singing and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Weekend Ringing

I was out at the weekend ringing with 4 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, at the private site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield. Conditions were perfect, and over 4 hours we managed to catch 87 birds of 11 species (Blue, Coal and Great Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, Goldcrest, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Siskin).

As always, the majority of the species caught were the Blue and Great Tits, but the new Great-spotted Woodpecker, and  a couple of Siskins and Goldcrests, were good to see. One of the Blue Tits we caught had an overgrown upper mandible.

Blue Tit

The bird was aged as a 3, i.e. born this year, so it will be interesting to see how it copes with this over grown beak as the year goes on.

Sparrowhawk Ringed

I haven't been out ringing with the mist nets since early May, so I was very pleased to get out yesterday to the private site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield. I was out with 4 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group from 5am 'til increasing wind meant we had to take the nets down at 8.30am, after ringing 37 birds of 8 species (Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock).

The first birds in the nets were the expected Blue and Great Tits, quickly followed by a couple of Great -spotted Woodpeckers (1 adult and 1 juvenile), several adult and juvenile Robins, a single adult Goldfinch, 2 Blackbirds (1 adult and 1 juvenile) and a juvenile Dunnock. The highlight of the morning, however, came in the form of a beautiful male Sparrowhawk that flew straight over mine and Brian's heads into the nets. I managed to extract the bird from the nets (my first time) and Stewart got to ring it as he'd not ringed one before, and I'd already ringed one back in 2013 (see here). We aged the bird as a 5, a bird born last year.

Sparrowhawk close up

In between net rounds we decided to check the owl box, where we'd ringed 2 Tawny Owl pulli earlier in the year (see here). An adult bird and at least 1 youngster has been seen in the garden recently, and it was nice to find an empty box. Hopefully both birds are out there growing and getting stronger.

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!