Derbyshire Hoopoe!!

News came out on Bird Guides yesterday that a Hoopoe (162) had been discovered near Bolsover, Derbyshire. I couldn't get over then, but I popped across after school today, and got great views, as it fed on the lawns. I managed a few photos. 1 Little Owl was also seen.

Hoopoe (and friend)

Another species that I added to this year's "Year List" was Swift (161), when 7 were seen over New Whittington, Chesterfield.

RSPB St Aidan's - 29th March 2025

 Jayne and I went up to RSPB St Aidan's today. We walked around the reedbeds and added 4 new ticks to the "Year List", as well as enjoying great views of not one, but two Little Owls.

Little Owl

The new birds for the year were; Cetti's Warbler (128), Sand Martins (129 - c.15 seen), a drake Green-winged Teal (130), Bittern (131 - at least two heard booming) and Black-necked Grebe (132).

Green-winged Teal (asleep!!)

Other species seen were: Black-headed Gull, Coot, Moorhen, Pochard, Teal, Mallard, Greylag and Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Reed Bunting (several singing), Chiffchaff and Blackbird.

Year List Update and a Lifer (nearly!)

 I last updated the Year List at the end of January, and, since then, I've added 6 new species, including a "near lifer"!

First up, the easy ones: Peregrine Falcon (119) and Little Owl (120), both familiar birds, seen in Chesterfield and Holmesfield respectively.

The next two, Great Northern (121) and Red-throated Diver (122), were seen at Carsington Water on Monday 17th (along with a female Ring-necked Duck, my second of the year!) Next up, was the Ring-necked Parakeet (123), 10s of which were seen in and around London (Hampstead Heath and St James' Park).

The latest new bird of the year, a 1st winter, female Lesser Scaup (124, and the first Derbyshire record) was also seen at Carsington Water on Saturday 22nd (after dipping on 17th!!). This bird is my "near lifer", as I did, allegedly, see a 1st winter male at Chasewater, Staffordshire, in 1987 (the first British record), whilst on a bird trip with Derbyshire Ornithological Society. I can't really remember this bird at all (!), so I'm happy to say this was a "lifer" for me. Views weren't great, but I did manage to get a few "record shots".

Lesser Scaup (left) and Tufted Duck

Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup (middle bird), with a pair of Tufties

Linacre - 16th March 2024

 This morning I had a quick walk around Linacre, to see if I could find my first spring migrants. I was in luck, with my first singing Chiffchaffs (4 birds in total) This was also my 131rd species of the year. Species 129, Lesser Redpoll, was seen in  the garden on 2nd March, and 130, Little Owl, was seen in Holmesfield.

Whilst at Linacre, I also spotted the Mute Swan, 6Y24, present now for  nearly a month, and enjoying some seed on the middle reservoir. 

6Y24

I didn't do a full circuit this morning, so I didn't get a full count of birds seen, but 1 Cormorant was noteworthy, as were 3 Great-spotted Woodpeckers chasing, calling and drumming and 1 Common Buzzard, along with several birds in good voice: Blue and Great Tit, Wren, Nuthatch, Robin, Song Thrush and Dunnock.

Linacre - 15th January 2022

 This morning the weather was zero degrees when I arrived at Linacre at 7.45am, and it didn't rise throughout the  two hour visit! Thankfully, the cold (but bright) weather seemed to have brought a few winter visitors in, with my first record of Pochard (2 males on the top reservoir), since 2013!!

Pochard

Also seen were: a pair of Wigeon on the middle reservoir, 109 Mallard, 24 Tufted Ducks, 11 Coots, 17 Moorhens (14 adults and 3 juveniles), 11 Mandarins,  3 Little Grebes, 1 Great-crested Grebe (in breeding plumage and calling on the middle reservoir), 1 Grey Heron, 3 Goosander (1 male and 3 females), 1 Cormorant, 63 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Grey Wagtails and 1 Pied Wagtail. Woodland birds were quite vocal with Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit seen and heard. A Treecreeper was also seen (year tick) as was a single Bullfinch, Blackbird, Robin, Jay and my first drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker of the year.

After my walk around Linacre, Jayne and I had a drive to Monsal Dale. On the way over, we spotted a Little Owl (year tick), on a tree in Holmesfield, and 3 Dippers (year tick) on the river in Monsal.

Little Owl

Year List update:

97 - Pochard

98 - Treecreeper

99 - Little Owl

100 - Dipper

Year List Update

It's been quite a while since I last updated the blog, so here's a post about the bird species I've seen since then.

The first new species for the year are Red-legged and Grey Partridges, which were seen near Rufford and at Apperknowle.

The next bird, a Black-throated Thrush, was a 1st winter bird that has been present in Grimsby for several weeks, and is the second time I've seen since this species in Britain, the first being way back in 1997! Here's a heavily cropped record shot.

Black-throated Thrush

The two owl species, Little and Tawny, were both added within 24 hours of each other! The Little Owl was seen perched in a tree in Apperknowle, whilst the Tawny Owl was heard calling (male and female) from the bedroom.

The last three species were added today in Keithley, West Yorkshire. The Waxwings (15 in total) were seen feeding on a Rowan tree, whilst the Iceland Gull, a juvenile/1st winter bird, and the Oystercatchers (2), were on Redcar Tarn, on the outskirts of Keighley.

Waxwings

Iceland Gull

Year List update:
84 – Red-legged Partridge
85 – Grey Partridge
86 – Black-throated Thrush
87 – Little Owl
88 – Tawny Owl
89 – Waxwing
90 – Iceland Gull
91 – Oystercatcher

Year List Update - 28th May 2019

I last blogged about my Year List a few weeks ago, and since then, I've added 5 new species. The first three: Garden Warbler, Tree Pipit and Little Owl, were seen in Derbyshire, whilst the last two: Little Tern and Little Stint, were seen in Northumberland.

The Garden Warbler (2), were seen and heard in Deep Dale, the Tree Pipit was seen at Padley Gorge and the Little Owl was a nice surprise, seen in Apperknowle, on the way to work last week.

I've seen 2 Little Terns in Northumberland. The first was fishing just off the beach at Seahouses, and the second was seen flying from Lindisfarne Castle.

The Little Stint, a breeding plumaged bird was seen yesterday, and again today at Low Newton Pools.

Year List Update:
173 – Garden Warbler
174 - Tree Pipit
175 - Little Owl
176 – Little Tern

177 – Little Stint

Year List Update - 21st January 2018

It's been a while since I updated the Year List, and it's moved on quite a bit, so here goes. Numbers 47 to 50 were seen at Derbyshire Wildlife's Avenue Washlands reserve during a ringing session. Numbers 52 to 55 were seen during a walk around The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Numbers 56 and 57 were recorded in my garden, whilst numbers 58 to 67 were seen last weekend at Carsington Water. The Goldcrest was seen yesterday during the ringing session at Linacre, and the Tawny Owl was heard in the early hours of this morning from my bed!!

47 – Little Owl

48 – Reed Bunting
49 – Yellowhammer
50 – Mistle Thrush
51 – Kingfisher
52 – Pochard
53 – Shoveler
54 – Canada Goose
55 – Teal
56 – Sparrowhawk
57 – Siskin
58 – Gadwall
59 – Wigeon
60 – Common Gull
61 – Great Northern Diver
62 - Pheasant
63 - Willow Tit
64 – Lapwing
65 – Snipe
66 – Fieldfare
67 – Treecreeper
68 - Goldcrest
69 – Tawny Owl

Red-footed Falcon!!

News of a 1st summer male Red-footed Falcon on Dunwich Heath on Tuesday evening had me up early (again!) this morning, to see if I could catch up with this species. I've seen a female Red-footed Falcon in Britain before, but this was my first male, so I was really keen to see it. Luckily, as the blog title suggests, I got lucky, and had super, 'scope views of the bird as it perched up in a dead tree in the reedbeds at the bottom of the National Trust's Dunwich Heath. It was also seen flying around briefly, catching dragonflies! An excellent addition to the "year list". No photos unfortunately, but here's a link to see photos of this species.

In addition to the falcon, I also added Little Gull to the "year list", with a first summer bird that flew overhead, along with several Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls. Other birds seen on the heath were: Linnet, Goldfinch, Dartford Warbler, Green Woodpecker, Stonechat and several Whitethroats, including 1 carrying food to a nest.

Whitethroat

Whilst looking for the falcon, I also heard a booming Bittern, pinging Bearded Tits and a calling Cuckoo. A Little Owl was seen on the drive.

Year List update:
165 - Red-footed Falcon
166 - Little Gull

Year List update

I was looking through the blog yesterday, when I realised I'd not updated the Year List since the start of May. Since then, I've added another 8 species to the list, including one (Lesser Whitethroat) that I've not had a for a few years. This species was seen (briefly), and heard singing at Holmebrook Valley Country Park in Chesterfield on 7th May. After seeing this bird I picked Luke up, and travelled to Barlow where we had great views of a Little Owl.

Little Owl

We then drove up to Padley Gorge where we recorded Pied Flycatcher (2 singing males), Redstart (1 singing male), Cuckoo (1 calling male) and Tree Pipit (2 singing males at nearby Barbrook Plantation).

The final "tick" came at the weekend, when a male Whitethroat was recorded singing in the ringing area of Linacre. Hopefully, we'll be able to confirm breeding of this species here again this year.

Year List update:

146 – Swift (first seen in Chesterfield on 5th May)

147 – Lesser Whitethroat

148 – Little Owl

149 – Pied Flycatcher

150 – Redstart

151 – Cuckoo

152 – Tree Pipit

153 - Whitethroat

Year List Update

I've managed to add a few new species to this year's Year List over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd better write a short post to keep the blog up to date.

The Pied Flycatcher was added at Linacre last weekend and the Swift was first recorded on Friday 6th May, flying over Tesco in Chesterfield. The Wood Warbler was seen at Padley Gorge last Sunday (8th) following a tip off of a singing male from Chesterfield RSPB Group. The Little Owl was seen in a tree by the side of the road in Barlow, again, from a tip off from a colleague at school. I managed to get a photo.

Little Owl

The final two species, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler, were seen this morning. The Whitethroat was a singing male seen in a hedgerow in Apperknowle, and the Reed Warbler was 1 of several seen and heard singing at Poolsbrook Marsh as I was carrying out some maintenance work with Ray and David from Sorby Breck Ringing Group, on the net rides for some ringing next week.

Year List update:

144 – Pied Flycatcher

145 – Swift

146 – Wood Warbler

147 - Little Owl

148 – Whitethroat

149 – Reed Warbler

Linacre Ringing and Nestboxes- 17th April 2016

The temperature yesterday morning was minus 1 when I arrived at Linacre for a ringing session with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. Thankfully, the sun was already of its way up, and the skies were clear, so the frost soon cleared and the temperature rose to 8 degrees.

We put 3 nets up, 2 around the feeders and 1in amongst the Willows, and soon had the first birds of the day, including a male Chiffchaff, and a male Blackcap. The Blackcap was the first record for Linacre in 2016, and both species were the first to be ringed at Linacre in 2016. The Chiffchaff was a retrap, having been ringed last May at Linacre. It wasn't recorded again last year, so who knows whether it stayed around or whether it moved on. Hopefully, we, or someone else, will re trap it again this summer, so that we've an idea where it goes. We caught another 3 Chiffchaffs (all un ringed), later in the session.

Chiffchaff

Blackcap

We carried on ringing a few birds at a time over the next 3 hours, and ended with 24 of the following species (new/retrap): Bullfinch (0/2), Chaffinch (1/1), Blue Tit (2/2), Great Tit (1/4), Coal Tit (0/1), Chiffchaff (1/3), Blackcap (1/0), Blackbird 0/1, Song Thrush (1/0), Nuthatch (1/0), Dunnock (0/1) and Robin (1/0).

Stewart and I also went and checked the 6 "owl" nestboxes that we have around the site. No owl nests were found this year, although a Tawny Owl flew out from a nearby tree as we walked to one box. One of the boxes contained a clutch of 13 Mandarin Duck eggs, the Little Owl box was unused, and the 4 other boxes were either empty or contained Grey Squirrels! We'll check the boxes again in a few weeks time, just in case any more get used by the Mandarins, and also to try to catch the bird whose eggs we found. It'll be interesting to see if she's one of the 2 bird that we ringed last year (see here), or whether she'd a new bird.

After the ringing session  I went to try and re find a Common Sandpiper that my nephew had found earlier in the day. We dropped lucky, finding the bird on the bottom reservoir. I was particularly pleased as this was the first Linacre record since 2013. The Shag was also still present.

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 Ringing - 2015 Overview

Ringing took place at Linacre Reservoirs throughout 2015, for the fourth year in a row. Throughout the year, the site was visited on 15 occasions, 9 times to catch birds around the feeding station and 6 times to ring pulli from the nest boxes. A total of 648 birds were ringed, which is slightly down on the 728 in 2014. This could be put down to the fact that we were unable to ring there at all in February, March, July and December, due to bad weather, other site commitments, and the fact that we lost several broods of pulli in the early part of the season due to wet and windy conditions.

The mist netting around the feeding station produced 23 species, including 3 new species, namely Redwing, Whitethroat and Siskin. The Redwing came courtesy of the “Latvian love song” that we used for the first time this year. The commonest species, as always, were Blue and Great Tit, whilst the summer migrants, Blackcap and Chiffchaff also had a good year. Birds ringed in previous years, but not ringed in 2015 included Woodpigeon, Little Owl, Meadow Pipit, Garden Warbler, Willow Tit, Jay, Magpie, Crossbill, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting. The autumn produced our best ever number of Goldcrest, with 30 ringed, including a control bird that had been ringed 24 days previously at Spurn on the east coast, a distance of 116km away.

As in previous years, the nest boxes around the site were used primarily by Blue and Great Tits, with 136 and 72 pulli ringed respectively. This year, however, saw our first successful use of a next box by Wren, which managed to raise 3 pulli, all of which were ringed. Mandarin Ducks were found using 2 of the “owl boxes” in the woods, and 2 sitting females were ringed.

Linacre Ringing - Redwings,Woodcock and more Shag photos.

After all the excitement of yesterday's new bird at Linacre I was back down there again this morning, this time with the Sorby Breck Ring Group.

We got on site at 6.30am to set up in the dark and set the "Latvian Love Song" lure playing. This tape lure is designed especially to attract Redwing, and we were very lucky to catch and ring 5 new birds this morning (all this year's birds), our first for Linacre and only my second ever. Here's one.

Redwing

Whilst setting up the nets, we flushed a Woodcock (thanks David for spotting it), which is the first record for Linacre in 2015, and heard a couple of Tawny Owls.  As well as the Redwings, we also managed to catch a process 48 other birds, namely (new/retraps): Robin (1/6), Dunnock (0/4), Goldcrest (2/1), Goldfinch (2/0), Wren (1/0), Bullfinch (0/1), Blue (7/6), Great (2/6), Coal (0/4) and Long-tailed Tits (4/1).

In between net rounds we also recorded the following birds: Kestrel, 1 hunting over the ringing site, Starling (c.30 flew over), Stock Dove (2 sat in the Birch tree by the nest box we put up recently) and Grey Heron (1 flew over). A Little Owl was also seen on the main drive when we arrived (thanks again David).

After ringing, I met up with my nephew, and we went to look for yesterday's Shags. Luke had already spotted 5, including 4 on the dam wall of the middle reservoir. Here's one of his photos.

Shag

We walked around the middle reservoir, and spotted a total of 6 birds, including 5 perched together on the overflow at the top end of the middle reservoir. Here's a photo. 

5 Shags

Darley Dale Wildlife blogger was on site today- great to meet you by the way. See here for his blog post with 3 great photos of the Shags. Whilst looking at them, we also spotted a couple of Kingfishers, 3 male Teal (very unusual here), 11 Mandarin Ducks and Luke also spotted the Wigeon again.

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!

First Chiffchaff

I managed to grab an hour at Linacre this morning (6am to 7am) and was rewarded with my first Chiffchaff of the year. When I arrived, it was quite grey, overcast and the wind was blowing, but by the end of the walk I had recorded one bird singing by the Rangers' Base. Last year, the first bird was reported on the 19th (see here), so today's bird was pretty much spot on.

As well as the Chiffchaff, I was also lucky enough to see a pair of the Little  Owls in the "breeding tree", and a great count of 5 Brown Hares that were "boxing" in the field by the main entrance. Lots of the resident woodland birds were singing and Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.

A quick walk around all 3 reservoirs produced the following birds; Mallard (34), Tufted Duck (20), Moorhen (10), Coot (11), Mandarin (5; 3 males and 2 females), Grey Wagtail (heard) and Great-crested Grebe (4; 2 pairs, 1 on middle reservoir and 1 on the top reservoir). Frogspawn was noted in the top reservoir for the first time this year.

Year List update:
86- Chiffchaff

Linacre WeBS - 7th February 2015

This month's WeBS walk took place on Saturday, and was carried out by Mandy from the Chesterfield RSPB Group (many thanks). Waterfowl numbers were average for the time of year, although there weren't any grebes present at all. See here for last February's count to compare the counts.

Birds counted this month were: Mallard (63), Coot (6), Moorhen (4), Mandarin Duck (6), Tufted Duck (21), Black-headed Gull (c.60) and Goosander (3 females/redheads).

The woodlands contained the usual suspects, but also included a good record of 12 Lesser Redpolls, which was the first Linacre record of 2015.

I managed to get round Linacre this morning to check on the nestboxes in time for the coming breeding season. I'm glad that I did as well, because there were half a dozen that had fallen off the trees during the winter. These were put back up, and several lids were also put back on and secured! The highlights of the walk, however were a Brown Long-eared Bat that was sleeping/hibernating in one of the boxes, a pair of Canada Geese (the first 2015 record), 4 male Goosanders on the bottom reservoir, a Common Buzzard flying over the top reservoir and the ringed Little Owl  in her favourite tree.

Linacre birding and ringing

I managed a couple of visits to Linacre this weekend, one for birding and one for ringing.

Saturday's visit was just a quick walk around the reservoirs with the following waterbirds counted: Mallard (121, the highest count of 2015 so far), Moorhen (7), Coot (6), Mandarin Duck (13, also the highest count of 2015), Tufted Duck (24, the highest count of the year), Black-headed Gull (42), Cormorant (1) and Goosander (1 male). The weather was quite sunny too, and Great and Blue Tits were singing. Here's a picture of the field above the top reservoir with just a little bit of this week's snow remaining.

The second visit of the weekend, on Sunday, was the first ringing  session of 2015. There were just 3 of us there, but we still managed to ring 57 birds of 7 species: Dunnock, Nuthatch; 2 new birds, a male and a female, Robin, Goldcrest (2 males), and Blue, Great and Coal Tits.

My personal totals were new/retrap: Blue Tit 8/7, Great Tit 5/5, Coal Tit 0/1, Robin 2/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Nuthatch 1/0.

As always, we managed a bit of bird watching in between net rounds. Today the Mistle Thrushes were very vocal around the ringing site, with 4 different birds seen, including at least one bird singing (first record of the year). A small flock of 5 Redwings flew over, a Kestrel was also seen hunting over the ringing site too and David heard the first "drumming" of the year from a Great-spotted Woodpecker. On the way in at 7.30am I saw a Little Owl in its favourite tree, a  nice "year tick"

Year List update:

62: Little Owl

Linacre WeBS - December 2014

This morning saw me down at Linacre for this month's WeBS walk. The temperature when I arrived was minus 3, only the second time we've had a frost so far this winter, but the sun was out and it was gorgeous!!

Waterbird numbers were pretty good too for the last WeBS walk of 2014. Mallard topped 100 for the first time this winter (101 to be precise), 26 Mandarin Ducks were on the middle reservoir, 29 Tufted Ducks were also present, along with 71 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Moorhens, 3 Coots, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Pied Wagtail and 1 Kingfisher.

Away from the water, there were good numbers of Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, as well as a couple of Jays, a female Sparrowhawk (that flew the entire length of the top reservoir carrying a prey item), Robins, Dunnocks, Blackbirds and Crows. The highlight for me, however, was this Fieldfare that was feeding in a Holly bush by the top reservoir. Not only is it only my second sighting at Linacre this winter, but it also posed very nicely for a picture.

Fieldfare

 

As the sun was shining this morning I decided to take the camera with me, and, on the way out, I found the ringed Little Owl again, and managed to get a photo with a bit of blue sky behind her!

 

Little Owl