Year List Update

I've just been going through my Year List notes, and I noticed that there were a few species missing. As a result, my Year List has just increased by 8 species!! Here they are:

187 – Great Black-backed Gull

188 – Grey Heron
189 – Knot
190 – Curlew
191 – Jay
192 – Jackdaw
193 - Canada Goose
194 - Raven

The 200 mark looks achievable!!!!

Baslow Sewage Farm

A return visit to Baslow Sewage Farm this morning was a big improvement on my last visit, with 22 birds of 6 species ringed, including two new species for me; House Martin and Jackdaw.

The House Martin was the second bird of the day and turned out to be a bird born last year. I'd read that they have feathered legs, but today's bird was my first chance to see it in the flesh- lovely!

House Martin

The other new bird, a Jackdaw, was one of four rung today. Mine was one of this year's birds, a 3J which had begun it's post juvenile moult and therefore became a 3JP! The picture below is one of the adults we rung. Note the silver hood and blueish iris.

Jackdaw

Other birds rung today were: Swallow (all adults, no juveniles!), one juvenile Chaffinch, juvenile Grey Wagtails and several adult and juvenile Pied Wagtails. 

I'm off to Linacre tomorrow (at last), so hopefully I should be able to bring you some updatres from there.

Linacre WeBS Walk 10th and 11th March 2012

2 visits to Linacre this weekend; the first by members of the Chesterfield RSPB Group (thank you everyone) and then by me this morning, to carry out the monthly WeBS walk.

As is usual at this time of the year numbers of wildfowl begin to fall as birds disperse to other areas to breed. This is especially the case with the Mandarin Ducks and today's count of just 4 birds was down from a much more impressive 38 just a week ago! Where these birds go to breed we just don't know, but at least one pair used one of the nestboxes on site last year (see here for details). 6 Canada Geese were present today, including the hybrid bird. They were split into 3 pairs over all three reservoirs. 60 Black-headed Gulls were still present as were 33 Mallards, 5 Moorhens, 15 Coots, a singing Grey Wagtail, 9 Tufted Duck, 3 Great-crested Grebes (a pair on the middle reservoir and another summer plumaged adult on the top reservoir), a trilling Little Grebe, the immature Goldeneye and 7 Goosander. Last record from the water was 3 Lapwings that were seen flying over - our first record this year.

Signs of the forthcoming breeding season were everywhere with lots of the woodland birds singing and a piar of Jackdaws prospecting around the chimney pot of the house again.
The Year List moved on by 1 species today when a Red-legged Partridge was found running up the main drive at Linacre. As wella s being a Year Tick, it's also a first ever record for Linacre!

102 - Red-legged Partridge

Linacre - 29th May 2011 - Breeding success!!!

Thankfully I didn't bother to take too much notice of the weather forecast for this morning and got up bright and early and headed down to Linace for a few hours birding. I'm so glad I did, because I managed to some see some good birds, including 2 new species to add to the list of breeding birds, namely Coal Tit and Willow Tit! As well as the birds, the wild flowers on the dam walls haven't been mowed down yet and looked really nice, especially the Ox-eyed Daisies and Birds Foot Trefoil.

Both Coal and Willow Tit are recorded around the reservoirs throughout the year, but up until now, we've never had evidence of actual breeding. This morning, however, I was lucky enough to see 2 family parties of Coal Tit and an adult Willow Tit feeding 2 recently fledged young. Brilliant!!

The Little Grebes on the bottom reservoir are alive and well with a family group of 2 adults and 2 stripey headed juveniles present today. 2 Grey Herons were also seen, including 1 juvenile bird. The traditional site on the middle reservoir hasn't been used this year, so presumably this bird has fledged elsewhere and come to Linacre for the summer. 3 juvenile Magpies were sitting on the edge of their nest and an adult Jackdaw was seen going into the chimney on the house. There were 29 adult Mallards around and 4 different broods of 7, 3, 6 and 5 ducklings. The final piece of news on the breeding front was a juvenile Robin by the middle reservoir, the first of the year.

Several summer migrants were seen and heard around the reservoirs including 8 Swifts, 2 Swallows, 1 House Martin, 4 Chiffchaffs, 3 Blackcaps and 1 Willow Warbler.

Linacre 15th May 2011 - First Coots' nest of the year, another Year Tick and two new breeding records!

Yesterday's visit to Linacre was so busy that when I came to blog about it I completely forgot to mention that, as well as checking all the nest boxes, we also found our first Coot's nest of the year. Normally the birds build a nest in amongst the waterside vegetation, but obviously with the water levels so low this year, this has not been possible. Instead this pair have decided to build their nest on the stones by the edge of the water on the dam wall of the middle reservoir.

Coots

I popped back this afternoon and during my visit, the birds swopped places on the nest with the right hand bird swimming off to collect more sticks, which the left hand bird then added to the nest.

Whilst there I also walked around the bottom reservoir, which is in the process of being drained, and took a few photos of the water levels.

As you can see, small spits of land are appearing and the water is already about 5m below it's normal level. Luckily the Little Grebe's nest is attached to the bales of hay in the water and they've gone down with the water so the nest is still safe. An adult was sitting on the nest and the other adult was again nearby. Hopefully by next week the eggs should have hatched.

Also flying about today were 6 Swifts and another first for the year, 6 House Martins. The male Pied Flycatcher was also singing around the picnic area by the middle reservoir and 2 Grey Wagtails were feeding on the water's edge. Both Magpie and Jackdaw were seen carrying food to their respective nests, which adds these 2 species to the ever-increasing list of Linacre's breeding birds.

Linacre Reservoir 10th April 2011 - 3 new Year ticks and a drained middle resevoir

Last weekend I posted a few pictures of the top reservoir, which is being drained to allow some engineering work to be carried out and mentioned that the middle reservoir was being drained as well. This morning's visit, as well as giving me 3 patch year ticks (Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Greylag Goose), also allowed me  a chance to get some pictures of the middle reservoir.

As mentioned above, more summer migrants had arrived this week and there were at least 4 Willow Warbler singing in trees by the top reservoir, 4 Blackcap in the woods and Chiffchaff numbers had increased to at least 7 birds. As well as these new birds there were 3 Greylag Geese on the middle reservoir with 2 Canada Geese. Interestingly, when I checked the records there were 4 Greylags present on the reservoirs on exactly the same date last year. Perhaps they were 3 of the same ones returning?

3 Greylags and 1 of the Canada Geese

A pair of Great-crested Grebe were on the middle reservoir today, but, looking at the lack of water, I 'd be surprised if they are successful this year. Perhaps more likely to breed successfully are the pair of Little Grebes that were on the bottom reservoir. This reservoir is still full and I think, likely to stay so. Mallard numbers at 32, were about average for this time of the year and Tufted Ducks were still very much in evidence, with 16 around the valley. 2 summer plumaged Cormorants were still present, the Magpies were still attending their nest and a pair of Jackdaw were seen inspecting the chimney on the house by the bottom reservoir. Fingers crossed for breeding as this would be a new record for the site. A Grey Wagtail was seen sitting on the wall by the bottom reservoir as well. A great morning in lovely sunshine.

Next Saturday is the next WeBS walk . We'll also start to check the nestboxes and hopefully record our first Swallows and perhaps Whiethroat as well?

Leash Fen and Burbage Moor - 26th March 2011

Just returned from a couple of hours up on the moors looking for early returning migrants - without any luck!!! I did, however, get a few "year ticks" and some new information for the BTO's Bird Atlas.

I started off at Leash Fen where I found my first singing Yellowhammer of the year. This was joined by several Meadow Pipits, also singing and displaying. Shilitoe Wood held the usual Chaffinches and a Song Thrush.

Next stop was Burbage Moor, which was also very quiet, but I did hear Red Grouse, Wren, Stonechat (year tick) and several Siskin, which were flying over.

Stonechat (male)

Driving home I decided to go via Barlow. Just as I was heading up towards Dronfield I noticed a pair of Mandarin Duck flying around and landing in a tree. I pulled over and whilst watching them, 3 Stock Dove also flew in and landed in a nearby tree. All the birds seemed very interested in a potential nest site - great records for the Atlas. I stayed and watched for about 10 minutes, during which time a pair of Nuthatch also flew in and looked at the same hole, as did a male Great-spotted Woodpecker and a pair of Jackdaw!!!

It's interesting to speculate where the Mandarins came from, but with Linacre just a few miles away as the Mandarin flies, it seems very likely that they came from here, doesn't it?

Bird Atlas Walk- 26th February 2011

As promised back in December, see here, I carried out the second winter visit for my Bird Atlas square this morning. Despite a few rain showers and a fall in the mud(!) I managed to see 27 species of birds including a great count of 23 Chaffinch, including many singing males. Other good news was the number of singing Song Thrushes, 20 in total, and a lovely flock of over 30 Redwing.

Chaffinch

New species seen this time were Stock Dove and Goldcrest. House Sparrows, Starlings, Collared Dove and Jackdaws were all singing and exploring potential nest holes.

House Sparrow

The most worrying record of this walk, however, was just 1 singing Wren. Possibly a result of the bad weather? Hopefully this will have changed  in time for the summer walk in April. I'll let you know.

Apperknowle 8th January 2011

The fields around Apperknowle in North East Derbyshire are a good spot to visit during the winter months as you can often locate a few hard-to-find species such as Grey Partridge.

So it was this afternoon when I headed up there for  half an hour. Straight away I spotted 11 Grey Partridge huddled in the middle of one of the field just by Snowdon Lane. Although they were quite distant, I managed to get good views through the 'scope and I even managed to get a shot or two. Whilst up there I also flushed 4 Red-legged Partridge and a male Pheasant that were feeding in the same field. A small flock of 12 Fieldfare flew over, along with a couple of Redwing and 20 Lapwings were also feeding in the nearby fields.

Driving back home I managed to spot a Brown Hare crouching low in a field as well as an enormous mixed flock of at least 1000 Jackdaw, Rook and Carrion Crow feeding on a field just behind Unstone.

Bird Atlas Walk- 29th December 2010

Another day, another entry!! Don't worry it won't last. As soon as I get back to work the birding will stop, or at least become alot less frequent, and the blogging will go the same way. So let's make the most of it while it lasts.

This morning was grey and misty, not exactly the greatest incentive to get out of bed, but as I'd volunteered to carry out 4 walks for the BTO's Bird Atlas, and the first had top be completed by the end of December, I thought I'd better get out and get it done. I'm so glad I did, because, as it came light the mist started to clear and although I wouldn't go as far as to say it was sunny, it was definately a very pleasant walk and a good way to pass 2 hours of the holiday.

This year's walk took place in a1km square located around Old Brampton, Chesterfield. I started off walking past Ashgate Hospice and got my first birds of the day, a small flock of 6 Redwing. These were soon joined on the list by 4 Fieldfare and the first singing bird, a Robin. As I left the main road bird numbers increased and I soon recorded my first Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Dunnock. Rooks and Jackdaws were numerous, both species prospecting for nest sites, the former in the tops of the mature trees by the bridle path and the latter around the many chimney pots on the houses. The walk continued over countryside, through several fields, including some that had only recently been spread with slurry- very smelly!! The smelly field were good for birds though with a group of 20 Black-headed Gulls and 3 Lapwings busy feeding on them. After a short time on Chatsworth Road which provided me with my first Collared Doves of the day, I walked back down Storrs Road and Old Road to rejoin the car. The last new bird of the walk was a gorgeous Jay, which flew out of the woodlands just in front of me. Lovely!!

As mentioned above, this walk was the first of 4 for this particular square. I will be doing another in February 2011 and then 2 during the breeding season to see which other species use this part of the countryside. The results will be added to the BTO website and will feed into the new Breeding and Wintering Atlas that covers the whole of Great Britain. If you fancy having a go at this type of bird survey work give the website a look. I can really recommend it.