Year List Update

 Yesterday, I added a few more birds to the Year List. The first four were all at Rufford CP, yesterday, and included my first site record of Raven. The final addition, Greenfinch, was seen in the garden today.

The additions are: Canada Goose (92), Lesser Black-backed Gull (93), Raven (94), Goosander (95) and Greenfinch (96). 

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).

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

Even Longer Distance Greenfinch

I recently wrote a post about a Blue Tit that had travelled 19km. Well, yesterday I got an email from the Data Manager of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, to let me know that a Greenfinch I had ringed in my garden on 9th June 2018 had recently been retrapped by ringers from North Lancashire Ringing Group at Heysham Harbour, Lancashire, 127km away!

Not only is this the first control of a Greenfinch ringed by me, but the distance is also pretty impressive. It'd be great to see this bird back in the garden again next June. Fingers crossed.

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.

New Year Ringing, Waxwings and Year Ticks

I know its not quite the new year now, but today was the first opportunity I had to get out ringing in 2017, hence the title of today's post.

This morning I was out with 4 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group visiting the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands Reserve in Chesterfield. We had a 3 and a half hour session, catching a super 104 birds of 15 species. Birds caught were (new/retrap): Wren 1/0, Dunnock 1/0, Robin 3/0, Blackbird 1/0, Goldcrest 1/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/7, Willow Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 8/6, Great Tit 4/9, Chaffinch 4/4, Greenfinch 3/0, Goldfinch 36/1, Bullfinch 9/2, Yellowhammer 1/1 and Reed Bunting 3/0.

As you can see, we had  a very good selection of bird species today. The most notable were the excellent number of Goldfinch, followed closely by the new Willow Tit ( a species which seems to be declining quite quickly), the Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and Bullfinch (all "year ticks" as well).

After ringing Jayne and I had a drive to Chesterfield to see a group of 18 Waxwings on Whittington Moor. We then had a drive out to Bakewell, where we had a spot of lunch and a walk by the river, adding Canada Goose to the "year list". Whilst here, we also spotted the Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid duck, that is back on the river for the winter. Details of this bird can be found here.

Hybrid Duck

Year List update:
47 – Canada Goose
48 – Willow Tit
49 – Bullfinch
50 – Yellowhammer
51 – Reed Bunting

Garden Finches and a juvenile Woodpigeon

I watch and record the birds in my garden every week for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. I don't blog about the results often, but this last week has been so good I wanted to share the news and a few photos.

Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches are regular visitors to the garden throughout the year, with weekly winter totals averaging 15, 5 and 20 respectively. This year, however, these 3 species have been joins by their much less common cousins; Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Brambling and Bullfinch.

Siskin in particular, have been very numerous this winter, with sightings in every week since the end of January. Numbers started off quite low, with 1s and 2s, but have steadily built up, culminating in a superb 14 birds this morning!

4 of today's 14 Siskins

Lesser Redpolls are not so numerous, but have again been present on and off throughout much of the Winter/early Spring.The maximum count so far being 6 present on 2nd April, including this very colourful male bird.

Lesser Redpoll and male Greenfinch

Bramblings were first recorded in mid January, with just 1 present. This built up to 3 birds; 2 males and 1 female, in February, until this afternoon, when I looked out and saw 7 birds, 2 males and 5 females, feeding on the lawn. This is my highest ever count!

Brambling

Bullfinches are the least common finch species in the garden, with just a few sightings each year. So far this year, I've recorded them on just s couple of occasions, including a pair today. Unfortunately, neither bird would pose for a photo.

Along with all the finches, the garden also attracts several other species on a daily basis, including Dunnock (3 today, singing and wing flicking to each other), Blue Tit (2), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (1), Blackbird (4; 2 males and 2 females, 1 of which was collecting nesting materials), House Sparrow (1 male and 2 females, inspecting the nest box), Starling (4, including 2 nest building in the box), Collared Dove (1) and Woodpigeon (7, including the year's first juvenile bird!).

Juvenile Woodpigeon (complete with downy chest!)

Snowy Garden adds two new species

Last night brought a few hours of snow to the garden, the first proper snow of the winter so far, and meant that I woke up to this lovely, if somewhat grey, scene.

Snow!

As you can see in the picture I went out and cleared a spot around the feeders, filled up the water and put out a mixture of sunflower hearts, suet pellets and soaked raisins for the birds. In the next 3 hours I recorded 17 species of birds for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, including 2 "year ticks"; Brambling and Blackcap.

The Bramblings consisted of 3 birds; 2 different males and a female bird. All 3 birds were feeding with a large number of Chaffinches (a minimum of 15 birds), and actually used the seed feeder, something I haven't seen before. I got a couple of photos.

Brambling (male)

Brambling (female)

The Blackcap was a male bird that flew into a Honeysuckle plant in the garden, pecked at a dried up berry, and then flew off again! Somehow I managed to get a photo in the minute it was present! 

Male Blackcap

This isn't the first record of this species in the garden in winter, but my last record was way back in December 2013 (see blog post here). They are a regular wintering bird in the UK now, and the BTO has just published some very interesting research about how garden feeding may have influenced this behaviour (see here).

The other species seen today in the garden were; Goldfinch (c.20), Greenfinch (2), Lesser Redpoll (1 male), House Sparrow (2; 1 male and 1 female), Magpie (2), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (5), Starling (14), Robin (1), Blackbird (11; 6 males and 5 females), Blue Tit (1), Coal Tit (1), Dunnock (2) and Wren (1).

Year List update:
89 - Brambling
90 - Blackcap

Garden Youngsters

The nice thing about watching the garden birds at this time of the year, is the fact that young birds start to fledge from nearby nests and appear in the garden. So far this year I've seen young Blackbirds, Starling, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch,  Woodpigeon, Dunnock and House Sparrow. All records have been entered into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Here are a few photos.

Blackbird

Dunnock

Starling

Goldfinch

Woodpigeon

Bullfinch

Blackcap and Chiffchaff

Today's ringing session saw 5 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group down at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands reserve in Chesterfield. The forecast wasn't great, so we got down nice and early to get a few hours in before the wind picked up. The ringing was slow, but we still got a single Chiffchaff and our first Blackcap of the year, a male bird born last year.

Blackcap

As well as these two species we also caught a couple of Reed Buntings, 2 Bullfinches, 2 Wrens, 2 Yellowhammers, 1 Blackbird, 1 Greenfinch , 1 Dunnock, 1 Long-tailed Tit and a few Blue and Great Tits.

The Blackcap was a "year tick" and we also had 3 Linnets flying around the site, which were also new for the year. A Barn Owl was seen just before I arrived, so this "tick" will have to wait for another day!

Year List update:
103 – Linnet
104 - Blackcap

Garden visitors

Whilst sitting having breakfast, and watching the birds for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme this morning,  I was lucky enough to spot this beauty. He flew in to the garden, hopped onto the feeders, fed for a few minutes and then disappeared.

Bullfinch

 

Other birds seen this morning were: Blue Tit (2), Great Tit (2), Coal Tit (2), Long-tailed Tit (2), Blackbird (8), Goldfinch (7), Chaffinch (9), Greenfinch (4), Lesser Redpoll (1), House Sparrow (2), Wren (1), Starling (4), Dunnock (2), Robin (2), Magpie (2), Sparrowhawk (1 male flew through), Woodpigeon (3), Collared Dove (2).

Ringing tick

This weekend's ringing session took place at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands. There were just 3 of us from The Group, but we still managed to ring 63 birds of 11 different species, including a "ringing tick" for me; a Mistle Thrush.

Mistle Thrush

 

Other species ringed were: Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Blue, Great, Willow and Long-tailed Tit.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Every week I take part in the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, and record all the wildlife that uses our garden. This weekend, in addition to this, I've also completed the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

The following birds were counted: Blackbird (9), Blue Tit (2), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (1), Dunnock (2), Starling (9), Collared Dove (1), Woodpigeon (2), Robin (1), Goldfinch (8), Greenfinch (3), Chaffinch (9), Magpie (1), Carrion Crow (1) and Lesser Redpoll (3).

All but one of these species are present every week. The exception being the Lesser Redpolls which were my first record in the garden this year and therefore also  a "year tick". Here's a photo of one feeding with a couple of Goldfinches, just a few feet from the back window. I think this is a female bird, nicely showing its "redpoll".

Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll

Here's  close up of the same bird.

Lesser Redpoll

Year List update:

61 - Lesser Redpoll

Linacre Ringing and Birding - Overview of 2014

At the end of the year I like to do a quick review of the birding  and ringing that has taken place at Linacre in the previous 12 months.

First up, the bird watching.  Overall, 2014 was a very average year with a total of 75 bird species reported. The only new species in 2014 were Common Gull and Greenfinch. Breeding birds included the usual waterbirds (Mallard, Mandarin Ducks, Tufted Duck; 2 broods, Coot, Moorhen and Great-crested Grebe, but no Little Grebes). The nestboxes were used by Blue and Great Tits as usual, but 2014 also saw a Wren's nest in one of the boxes for the first time. A Tawny Owl was roosting in  one of the "owl boxes" again, but didn't nest in it this year. Unfortunately, no Pied or Spotted Flycatchers were reported at all. Other species which seem to be in trouble included Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and Willow Tit, both of which were only reported once!

Chesterfield RSPB Group continued to carry out the monthly WeBS walks. Again, numbers were average in 2014, with no major surprises. Cormorants were recorded in every month, the first time this has happened since my recording began in 2006, and included a highest ever count of 8 individuals.

Ringing by me and 5 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group took place at Linacre on 13 occasions in 2014 and a total of 727 birds ( 352 fully grown, 235 pulli and 140 retraps) were ringed, our highest number so far. Just one new species was added this year; Lesser Redpoll (3 individuals in March and 1 in November). Blue Tit and Great Tit pulli numbers were the highest since we started, and we received our first record of a ringed Blue Tit away from Linacre, when a young bird was found dead in Old Brampton 27 days after ringing. Finally, summer visitor numbers were good in 2014 with our highest ever catch of Blackcap (31; 30 new and 1 retrap), and our first November record of Chiffchaff (a juvenile caught and ringed on 1st November).

So, that's that for 2014. Hope you've enjoyed reading this short summary, and will keep looking in again on 2015.

Garden birds in the snow.

We've had a bit of snow here over the last few days, so I've been watching the garden intently to see if we got any different visitors. Luckily today I spotted a Song Thrush and a Brambling, both very infrequent visitors to the garden.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Brambling

Song Thrush

 As well as these two species, I also had all the "usual suspects"; Chaffinch (15), Goldfinch (18), Greenfinch (4), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (1), Magpie (2), Blue Tit (1), Blackbird (8), Dunnock (2) and House Sparrow (2).

Starling

Goldfinch and Greenfinch

 

As always, I'll be sending the records into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Avenue Ringing - Finches galore!

The weather for the last few weekends has been grey, overcast and wet, so when we saw a half decent forecast for this morning we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) decided to get out and do some ringing - hurrah!

3 of us managed to get out to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield, where we ringed 49 birds of 11 species (Blackbird, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Robin, Blue, Great and Willow Tit) in three and a half hours.

As the title suggests, many of the birds were finches, and I was lucky enough to ring 3 new Bullfinches (and process 1 retrap), a retrap Greenfinch, 2 new Goldfinches, and 1 retrapped Chaffinch. Along with these birds I also had the following birds new/retrap: Blue Tit 2/3, Great Tit 4/6, Robin 2/0 and Willow Tit 0/1.

In between net rounds, as always, we kept our eyes open for other wildlife. Today we managed to record several Fieldfare, lots of Blackbirds, Skylark, a Kestrel, and, best of all, an over-flying flock of approx. 45 Pink-footed Geese.

Garden Mega!!

I don't blog that much about the birds in my garden, but today's an exception because I had a "mega" bird in - a Great-spotted Woodpecker!

Great-spotted Woodpecker



Looking back in my BTO Garden Birdwatch notes, the last time I recorded a woodpecker in the garden was in July 2001. Today's bird, as you can see from the picture, was feeding on fat pellets, which I only put out on Thursday, so hopefully, if I keep them topped up, it will return over the winter.

Other birds seen this afternoon, included this female Sparrowhawk, a male Sparrowhawk, that I didn't manage to get a photo of, 4 Greenfinch, 3 House Sparrow, a Robin, 2 Collared Doves, 3 Woodpigeons, 4 Blackbirds, 4 Starlings, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit 1 Coal Tit, and 15+ Goldfinch. A flock of approximately 30 Redwings were feeding on the Hawthorns behind the house. Hopefully, I can encourage a few into the garden over the winter. Bring on the snow!

 

Sparrowhawk (female)

Year List update and a new bird for Linacre

In the 9 years that I've been watching and recording the birdlife at Linacre there is one species of bird that, although very common in the surrounding area, I've never managed to record there, namely Greenfinch. I'm not sure why this is, but on Saturday, while leading a walk for the rangers, I spotted a male bird in the woodland by the bottom reservoir. A very nice new addition!

Apart from the Greenfinch, the walk was quite quiet, the highlights being my first Linacre Swift of the year, a couple of Common Buzzard, singing Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap, and 2 Coot chicks.

Today (Sunday), I spent a few hours with Jayne, at RSPB Old Moor. We'd just gone, for a walk and a spot of lunch, but, in the end, we ended up with super views of a hunting Hobby, 12 Whimbrels, a booming Bittern along with singing Reed Warblers, a Common Sandpiper and a lovely summer-plumaged Dunlin.

Year List update:

143 – Tree Pipit (Longshaw Estate on 5th May)

144 – Cuckoo (Longshaw Estate on 5th May)
145 – Swift
146 – Hobby
147 – Whimbrel
148 – Reed Warbler

Chiffchaff ringing

Following on from last week's blog about my first Chiffchaff sightings of the year, today I was out ringing with The Group, and I managed to ring my first Chiffchaff of 2014.

Chiffchaff

 

Our session this morning took place at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands site near Chesterfield. In total we caught and ringed 3 different Chiffchaffs (all aged as 5s; born last year). These were the only summer migrants of the day, but we did see and hear 2 Bramblings, and I also added a new species to the Year List; 2 Stock Doves that were investigating an owl box.

 

Year List update:

114 - Stock Dove

 

As well as the Chiffchaffs, I also managed to ring the following birds (new/retrap):

 

 Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Great Tit 1/1, Greenfinch 0/1 and Reed Bunting 1/0.

 

 

Ringing Demo and a new species

On Sunday I spent 5 hours carrying out a ringing demo with the Group at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield. As well as being a very enjoyable time I was also lucky enough to ring a new species of bird - a Snipe. This is my first wader and a beautiful bird to see "in the hand". Here's a photo of one we ringed  a few weeks ago at Blackburn, as Sunday's photos didn't come out too well.

Snipe

 

As well as the Snipe we also had a very good morning with a steady run of birds from every net round, 48 in total. My personal totals were (new/retrap):

Robin 0/1, Reed Bunting 0/2, Bullfinch 1/0, Blue Tit 1/2, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/2 and Greenfinch 3/0.

In between net rounds I spotted a Lesser Black-backed Gull flying over, a "year tick".

Later in the afternoon I went into Sheffield and saw a Peregrine Falcon sat on the breeding ledge on St George's Church- another "year tick". Here's a link to the website, which shows live footage from the nest.

Year List update:
111- Lesser Black-backed Gull
112 - Peregrine Falcon