Rufford Gulls - 7th October 2023

 In a couple of hours at Rufford this afternoon ( in 21 degree heat!!) I had my highest number of Black-headed Gulls this season - with 62 present.

2 ringed birds were present: 293A and 254B. Today's sighting of 293A was my 22nd at Rufford, and it looks like it's settled in for another winter.

293A

254B was a nice surprise, as it was only the second record, since ringing (by me!) in October 2022, and my first since February 2023 (see here). I wonder where it's been over the summer.

254B

As well as the gulls, I also saw c.38 Canada Geese, 30 Greylag Geese, 1 Cormorant, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Buzzard.

As the temperature was so high, there were quite a few wasps flying around. I also spotted 1 Red Admiral, 1 Hornet, and, best of all, a male Willow Emerald Damselfly!!! This is my first site record, and very unexpected - great sight!

Willow Emerald Damselfly

Finally, whilst driving down to Rufford, I saw a Swallow flying around Marsh Lane - quite a late record.

Linacre - 31st August 2023

 It was the last day of meteorological summer yesterday, and I had 3 hours down at Linacre. There were several species of butterfly and dragonfly around, a new record count of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and amazing views of a Common Lizard.

Butterflies seen were: Speckled Wood (7), Large White (1), Green-veined White (2), Red Admiral (1), and Small Copper (1). There were dozens of hoverflies, including a sing Myathropa florea ("Batman" hoverfly), Eristalis sp and Syrphus sp. Other insects seen were: Bronze Shieldbug (1, my first Linacre record), 3 Hornets (my highest ever count), a single male Common Blue Damselfly, Migrant Hawker (5; including a pair in tandem) and Brown Hawker (2).

Bronze Shieldbug

Holly Blue

Birdwise, it was quite quiet, but I did hear a single Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler (both singing), two Ravens, over the top reservoir, two Buzzards, again over the top reservoir, Moorhens, Coots, Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Mandarin Ducks, a juvenile Robin and Dunnock and, as previously mentioned, a record count of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (36, made up of 31 adults and 5 juveniles.)

Robin (juvenile)

The final sighting of the visit was a super Common Lizard that was basking on the wall by the boardwalk around the top reservoir. This is a species that is recorded annually at Linacre, and is my second record of 2023. The views that this individual, however, are my best ever! One of the defence mechanisms of this species, is to drop its tail if a predator attacks. As you can see from the picture, this individual has regrown its tail after such an encounter.

Common Lizard

Linacre - 13th August 2023

 I had two hours down at Linacre on Saturday afternoon (1pm - 3.15pm). The weather was okay, at 18 degrees, overcast and breezy, but with a few sunny spells.

During the sunny spells I managed to see some butterflies, including my first Linacre records of 2023 of Painted Lady and Wall Brown (both in the ringing area).

Painted Lady

Wall Brown

Other butterflies seen were: Meadow Brown (9), Speckled Wood (6), Peacock (1), Gatekeeper (5), Large White (1), Green-veined White (3), Red Admiral (4), Comma (2), Holly Blue (2) and Small Copper (4). 

Other insects seen were: Grasshopper sp, Eristalis and Syrphus hoverflies, Soldier Beetles, a single Hornet, 1 Brown Hawker, a pair of Common Blue Damselflies (in tandem), a Straw Dot moth, a Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle, Myathropa florea (3), Volucella pellucens (3) and Volucella inanis (1- my first Linacre record of the year).

Volucella inanis

Bird seen included: Woodpigeon (a group of c20 in the top car park), Corvids, most likely Rooks (a flock of c40 in the field by the main entrance), Grey Heron (1 on the bottom reservoir), a juvenile Robin, 2 Ravens over the top reservoir, a Peregrine Falcon (1 over the top reservoir), Bullfinch (1 in the ringing site), Lesser Black-backed Gull (6; 5 adults and 1 juvenile), House Martin (1), Swallow (1), Kingfisher (1 on the middle reservoir), 6 Grey Wagtails, Chiffchaff (wheeting heard) and Tufted Duck (3 ducklings on the middle reservoir - my first record of 2023).

Tufted Duck

RSPB Minsmere - 9th August 2023

 On Wednesday, Jayne and I had 3 hours at RSPB Minsmere. We got there just after 6am, and walked around the main scrape area, before finishing off back at the café with a delicious vegan sausage cob!

It was quite quiet as we set off, but the first sighting, of a Common Lizard, warming up on a post was a great start. As the weather warmed up, we began to spot several Stonechats, Linnets, Reed Bunting, Common Terns, the first Common and Ruddy Darters, along with a couple of Migrant Hawkers and dozens of Gatekeepers.

Common Lizard

Arriving at the East Hide, we began to spot a few more birds, with the following waders seen: Green Sandpiper (3), Common Sandpiper (1), Ruff (3), Avocet (c50), Black-tailed Godwit (c.60), Redshank (2), Dunlin (6), Lapwing and Spotted Redshank (5). Gulls were far and few between, but we did spot a few Black-headed Gulls, a single, juvenile Mediterranean Gull, 1 adult Kittiwake and, best of all, 26 Little Gulls, including a few in breeding plumage. 5 Spoonbills were asleep, and there were also several Shelducks (juveniles), Teal, Mallard, Greylag, Canada and at least one family party of Barnacle Geese.

Avocets

We carried on around The Scrape, spotting another Migrant Hawker, a male Black-tailed Skimmer, more Common and Ruddy Darter and dozens of Red Admirals and Peacock butterflies, feeding on Hemp Agrimony.

Ruddy Darter

Our final stop was the Bittern Hide. Here we spotted Bearded Tit (heard only), a Muntjac Deer, a Kestrel, a distant Marsh Harrier and a fly-by Bittern.

Back at the Visitors' Centre, we had a few minutes watching the butterflies on the Buddleia bushes. Red Admirals and Peacocks were in good numbers again, along with a single Brimstone (1 male), 1 Comma, Gatekeeper (c.5) and at least a couple of Grayling. 3 Hornets were also seen buzzing around the bushes.

Grayling

Year List update: Little Gull (179)

Clumber Mute Swans - 16th October 2022

Jayne and I had a lovely walk around the main lake at Clumber Park this afternoon. Gull numbers were beginning to build up (200+ Black-headed Gulls were seen, but, unfortunately, no rings as the gulls stayed in the water) and we also saw 100+ Mute Swans, including 9 cygnets.

The majority of the swans also stayed in the water, but we did spot two darvic-ringed birds, Y204 (a 3-year-old bird with metal ring W48404) and Y677 (a 2-year-old bird with metal ring W51077). Both birds had been seen by us there before (click on the labels to see their life histories). The best sighting of the day (or rather hearing??) was two Cetti's Warblers that we had, our first record for this site. Two Little Egrets were also seen.

Y204

Y677

It was sunny and quite warm today, around 13 degrees, so there were plenty of Common Darters flying about (10+), including several pairs egg-laying. a couple of Migrant Hawkers were also seen, as were three Hornets.

Hardwick Insects

After a foggy start, the sun came out this afternoon and the temperature rose to a very pleasant 13 degrees, so Jayne and I had a drive out to the National Trust's Hardwick Hall Estate  for a walk around the lakes.

Hardwick Hall

As we walked around the lakes we saw approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls, 70 Canada Geese, dozens of Mallards, 1 Mute Swan, a Grey Wagtail and the first insect of the day, a male Common Darter.

Common Darter

We carried on and walked through the grounds, past the flock of Longhorn Cattle, and down to the Hardwick Inn pub, where we found an ivy plant in the full sunshine, and covered in insects, The most notable were 4 Hornets. that were very busy feeding, along with a couple of Speckled Woods, one Red Admiral and 1 Comma.

Longhorn Cattle

Hornet

Speckled Wood

Red Admiral

Comma

Nestbox checking and the first ducklings of the year - 16th April 2011

As you might have noticed, I've changed the picture at the top of the blog today and replaced it with one taken this morning of this year's Bluebells. They just looked so good this morning as we arrived to carry out the first check of the nestboxes, I couldn't resist.

Just to let people know, we monitor all the nestboxes around the reservoirs as part of the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. Any nests that are located are reported to the BTO and details of any eggs or young present are also recorded. The BTO then uses this information, together with other recorders' information from across the country, to monitor the success or otherwise of our native birds' breeding attempts. Disturbance is kept to an absolute minimum with weekly visits lasting just a few seconds to check and count the eggs and birds. As with all bird watching or recording the birds' welfare must always come first!

This year we've got a total of  88 nestboxes in the woodlands surrounding the three reservoirs. The majority are bog standard "tit boxes"(70 in total) with a few open fronted ones (15) thrown in with the hope of attracting Spotted Flycatcher, Robins or Wrens to nest. Unfortunately, in the 6 years that they've been in place we haven't had any luck whatsoever in attracting these species! In addition we've also got 1 Treecreeper box (again totally ignored by the resident Treecreepers), 1 Owl box and 1 Kestrel box in place as well.

First port of call this morning was the Kestrel box. Last time it was checked back in January (see here), there was evidence of some use by what we believed were Grey Squirrels. Today's check was a lot more promising as the picture below shows.

Kestrel box

Something, possibly Stock Dove, has been very busy! As you can hopefully see, there is a nest right at the back with an obvious depression in it. No eggs were present today, but I will definitely be keeping an eye on it and will hopefully have something to report later on in the season.

Next up was the Owl box. As soon as we approached it, it was obvious that something had been using it, as a small, white, downy feather was stuck to the hole. We approached very carefully and gently tapped on the bottom of the box to alert the occupants of our arrival. A large, brown bird flew out of the box and into the nearby trees. Straight away we recognised it as a female Mandarin Duck! As this box is quite high, and because we didn't want to cause too much discturbance, we took a picture of the contents and moved away.

9 Mandarin eggs!!

The photo shows 9 perfect Mandarin eggs sat on top of a nest of down. This is an amazing record because, although we've record broods of youngsters on the water in previous years, this is the first concrete proof that the Mandarins actually breed in the woodlands at Linacre.

Following on from all this excitement we carried on through the woods to check the other boxes. Out of the 70 tit and open fronted boxes we found a total of 9 nests with eggs, a further 25 with just a nest built, 1 with what we believe is a Hornet's nest and the remaining boxes were empty. If my maths is right that's a total of 10 nests with eggs and 26 with nests but no eggs, i.e. 36 out of 88 an occupancy rate of 40%!! 

Walking around the rest of the reservoirs we also managed to hear and see our first male Pied Flycatcher of the year, singing heartily around the picnic area. Fingers crossed for a successful breeding season with this species too! Also present were singing Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. 

Other breeding success was in evidence when a pair of Mallard  with a brood of 20+ tiny ducklings was found on the top reservoir.  This is an excellent early record with the first confirmed breeding in 2010 being 6th June!!  

A few butterflies were on the wing this morning, thanks to the warm sunshine. 3 species were identified as Peacock, Green-veined White and Speckled Wood.

I'm going back again in the morning, so hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of the Pied Fly to post on the blog as well. See you then.