Rufford - 18th January 2025

 Yesterday morning, I had a couple of hours at Rufford, before grandparenting duties took over. Whilst there, I managed to add 3 new Year Ticks, as well as spending some time checking the gulls.

I arrived on site at 8am, and parked up in the main car park. Within about 10 minutes, 4 Hawfinch (112) flew into the trees and posed beautifully. Unfortunately, the light was terrible, but I still managed a decent enough record shot.

Hawfinch

I then set off around the lake, where I added Stock Dove (113) and Marsh Tit (114) to this year's list. The Marsh Tit (s) were seen around the feeding station, and I managed to get a shot, showing the distinctive  white spot, on the lower mandible.

Marsh Tit

Carrying on to my usual spot, by the main lake, I was surprised to see c.100 Black-headed Gulls hanging around, waiting for breakfast, along with 6 Lesser Black-backs and a couple of Common Gulls. The Group ran out of green darvic rings a few weeks ago, so yellow ones have been used. Two of these birds were spotted: 2V00 and 2V05.

2V00

2V05

Other ringed birds were: 293A, 280B, 207C, 258C, 264C, 273C, 207F, 219F, 221F, 234F and 276F.

3 Mute Swans (Broken Beak, his partner and 1 juvenile), Kingfisher (heard), Siskins and 10 Goosander (7 males and 3 females), were also  recorded.

Rufford and Attenborough - 28th December 2024

 This morning, Luke and I went across to Rufford to try and catch up with Hawfinch (202). Whilst there, we also had a quick check on the Black-headed Gulls, before driving down to Attenborough to catch up with a 1st winter male Scaup (203).

The Hawfinch "showed well" within a few minutes of our arrival at 8am, and we counted a maximum of 8, in the trees, around the main car park.

Afterwards, we popped down to the lake, where we spotted 273A, 208B, 280B, 207C, 264C, 255F and a new bird, 276F. 

276F

Our final stop was Attenborough GP, where we were searching for a Caspian Gull. Unfortunately, we didn't have any luck on this occasion, but we did pick up a Scaup and a Great White Egret.

Rufford - 5th February 2022

 I spent yesterday morning at Rufford Country Park. I got there earlier than I usually do, so that I could walk across the the Abbey and have a look for some Hawfinches. It was a little windy, but I managed to get  brief views of 2 birds in the trees around the car park. Walking back through the park, I also spotted 15 Redwings, a large flock of Siskin, 1 Grey Heron, 14 Goosander (8 females and 6 males), 1 Little Egret (my first record for this site), 6 Mute Swans (3 adults and 3 young birds, including W17357) and a whopping 66 Common Gull.

Also on the water were approximately 150 Black-headed Gulls. I spotted 12 darvic-ringed birds: 223A (first ringed in February 2019, and my first sighting since October 2020), 258A, 264A (ringed in February 2020, and the first sighting since), 281A (3rd sighting, since ringing in December 2021), 293A (5th sighting), 294A (first sighting), 295A (2nd sighting), EUM3 (Dutch bird), P519 (Lithuanian bird), JO116 ( Norwegian bird) and 204B, a new bird, first ringed in January 2022. In addition, I also saw the Norwegian-ringed Common Gull JN075.

264A

294A

204B

The Hawfinches were a new bird for the year and bring Year List to 103, following Raven and Chough, that I saw last week in Wales.

Year List update:

101 - Raven

102 - Chough

103 - Hawfinch

Year List 2018

Last Monday I was out for my first birding trip of 2018. I just had a few hours around home and managed to see 45 species..

I started the morning at St Helen's Church in Darley Dale where a group of approximately 20 25 Hawfinches had been reported. I managed to pick up about 15 feeding in the Yew trees- a great start to a new year! Numbers 1 - 26 were seen driving then and back.

Hawfinch

Afterwards I drove on to Holmebrook Valley Park and Linacre, where I had a walk around all 3 reservoirs, adding numbers 27 - 44. House Sparrow was added at home, and Peregrine Falcon was seen today flying over Dronfield.

Year List:
1 – Blackbird
2 – Carrion Crow
3 – Dunnock
4 – Feral Pigeon
5 – Magpie
6 – Woodpigeon
7 – Jackdaw
8 – Rook
9 – Collared Dove
10 – Kestrel
11 – Greenfinch
12 – Jay
13 – Blue Tit
14 – Herring Gull
15 – Black-headed Gull
16 – Wren
17 – Nuthatch
18 – Pied Wagtail
19 – Hawfinch
20 – Goldfinch
21 – Chaffinch
22 – Coal Tit
23 – Robin
24 – Common Buzzard

25 – Redwing

26 – Lesser Black-backed Gull
27 – Starling
28 – Great Tit
29 – Mute Swan
30 – Mallard
31 – Coot
32 – Moorhen
33 – Greylag Goose
34 – Grey Heron
35 – Bullfinch
36 – Long-tailed Tit
37 – Tufted Duck
38 – Cormorant
39 – Little Grebe
40 – Goosander
41 – Great-spotted Woodpecker
42 – Mandarin Duck
43 – Great-crested Grebe
44 – Raven
45 – House Sparrow

46 – Peregrine Falcon

Year List Update - 3rd December 2017

The year is coming to a close, but I'm still managing to add a few more species to the Year List. As you'll see below, I'm up to 197 species, so hopefully, I should manage to top the 200 mark this year, especially as I'll be visiting Norfolk before the end of the year.

The new additions are: Marsh Tit, Hawfinch, Bewick Swan and European White-fronted Goose.

The first two species were seen at The Yorkshire Arboretum last weekend, whilst the latter two species were seen today at WWT Slimbridge. Here are a few photos.

Hawfinch (female)

Hawfinch (male)

Hawfinch

Bewick Swan and White-fronted Goose

Year List update:
194: Marsh Tit
195: Hawfinch
196: Bewick Swan
197: White-fronted Goose (European)

More Year Ticks

After yesterday's visits to Linacre, I went for a walk around Rufford Country Park in the afternoon with Jayne. Whilst there I managed to add another 4 species to the "year list", namely Hawfinch (1 in the Lime trees by the car park), Greylag Goose (dozens on the main lake), Gadwall (1 pair on the lake) and Treecreeper (1 in the trees by the main lake). Unfortunately, no photos of these new species.

We also noted Mallards, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Coot, Moorhen, Goosander (c.10), Black-headed and Common Gulls (c.10). I got a few photos of the Common Gulls.

Common Gulls (2 different 1st winters/2nd calendar year birds)

One last "year tick" was a Barn Owl that I saw hunting in fields in Apperknowle on Wednesday. It was in the fields by "the triangle" at 7.30am. Great sight!

Year List update:
84 - Hawfinch
85 - Greylag Goose
86 - Gadwall
87 - Treecreeper
88 - Barn Owl

100 up

On Monday I decided to have a day where I go to several sites to see a few birds that I otherwise wouldn't catch up with. As you can see from the Year List update below it was quite a busy and successful day, with me breaking the 100 barrier.

First stop was Rufford Country Park in Nottinghamshire. This is a reliable site for my first target of the day: Hawfinch. Birds are usually to be found around the main car park, but unfortunately on Monday there was some work going on in the site, and so the birds weren't in the area. After an hour, however, I managed to pick one up as it flew in and landed at the top of a tall tree.

Next up was the Idle Valley Nature Reserve, which is part of the Lound Gravel Pits complex. where a Slavonian Grebe had been sighted.

Slavonian Grebe

Last stop of the day was the wonderful RSPB Blacktoft Sands reserve. My main target was Hen Harrier, which is a winter visitor to the reserve. The birds come in to roost on site, so I had to wait 'til the end of the day to see this species, but it was well worth it. Whilst waiting I also managed to catch up with a few other species, including a flock of Twite that have been feeding in and around the car park for most of the winter.

Twite

Also present were 4 Marsh Harriers, an immature Scaup, 2 female Goldeneye, loads of Tree Sparrows, flocks of Pink-footed Geese and 20+ Snipe.

Year List update:

95 - Hawfinch

96 – Slavonian Grebe
97 - Tree Sparrow
98 - Twite
99 - Pink-footed Goose
100 -Goldeneye
101 - Scaup
102 - Marsh Harrier
103 - Hen Harrier