Welcome Back EXP662

EXP662 is the ring number of a Chiffchaff that was ringed as a juvenile bird at Linacre on 16th July 2016 (see blog post here). This morning I was out ringing at Linacre with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, when we re trapped said bird. Where it's been in between we don't know, but most recoveries of British-ringed birds show this species moving south into southern Europe and North west Africa, so this the was likely destination for "our" bird. Hopefully, it'll hang around and breed here. Along with this bird, we also ringed another 4 Chiffchaffs (all new).

Chiffchaff

Also caught this morning were (new/retrap): Blackcap (1/0), Dunnock (1/0), Coal Tit (1/1), Blue Tit (1/2), Magpie (1/0), Nuthatch (1/0).

In between net rounds we also saw: Brown Hare (2), 1 Peacock and 1 Small Tortoiseshell (first Linacre records of 2017 for all 3 species), a Dronefly (Eristalsis sp), a Harlequin Ladybird, Mandarin Duck (2 flew over), Sparrowhawk ( 1 female over), Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow,  dozens of Cowslips and a single Red Campion flower.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

Harlequin Ladybird on Gorse

Garden Lesser Redpoll

The number of birds coming to the feeders in my garden has started to increase again in the last few weeks. When I got home from work this afternoon I filled the sunflower hearts and five minutes later spotted this- a Lesser Redpoll!

Lesser Redpoll

This is my first garden record since February, so it'll be a good record for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. Other birds seen recently in the garden are: Blackbird, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Magpie, Dunnock, Starling, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon and Collared Dove.

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

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.

Magpies Galore

This morning saw me out for a short ringing session with 2 other members of the Sorby Breck Group at the private site in Sheffield. We arrived to quite a stiff breeze, but decided to put just two nets up in the most sheltered spots, and were rewarded with 25 birds of 9 different species.

My personal totals were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 4/1, Dunnock 2/0, House Sparrow 1/0, Blackbird 1/0,Chiffchaff 1/0, Magpie 2/0 and Goldfinch 1/0.

As before, most of today's catch consisted of young birds, including this Goldfinch, which is just beginning to moult into its adult plumage.

Goldfinch

 

I also managed to ring not one, but two new Magpies this morning. Unlike my first, one of today's managed to draw blood!

Linacre Ringing

I spent a few hours down at Linacre yesterday morning with 3 members of the Ringing Group. We put a couple of nets up and managed to catch 37 birds of 9 species, including a new species for Linacre, which was also a ringing tick for me, a Magpie!

Young Magpie

One feature of this session was the number of young birds (3Js), which is very good news. This time last year we were mainly ringing adult birds with very few young birds having survived to fledging. Luckily this year seems much better.

Also interesting were the adult birds under going their post breeding moult, including this male Blackcap that was very tatty...

Blackcap

and this Great Tit.

Great Tit with new tail feathers

 

Birds ringed by me today were (new/retrap):

Magpie 1/0, Robin 1/0, Chiffchaff 1/0, Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 4/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

 

As well as the ringing I also took the opportunity to pick Brian's brain and identify the plant species on site. We managed to record a very impressive 36 species.

Red Squirrels and 3 Year Ticks

Jayne was off work today, so we drove across the Pennines to visit the National Trust site, Formby Point, in the hope of seeing some Red Squirrels.

On arrival we had a walk around the "Squirrel Walk", where, after about 10 minutes, we spotted our first squirrel. Since out last visit in 2007 several feeding stations have been set up, and the 3 squirrels we saw were all feeding in and around them.

Squirrel Walk and the aerial feeder

 

Unfortunately, the squirrels didn't come close enough for photos today, so here's one from our last visit.

 

Red Squirrel

 

A few birds seen in the woodlands were: Jay, Siskin, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Sparrowhawk, Great and Coal Tit.

 

After seeing the squirrels we headed up the coast to the RSPB's Marshside Reserve where we added 3 species to the Year List, namely

 

101: Avocet (30+ birds, including many pairs calling and displaying)

102: Black-tailed Godwit (1 winter-plumaged bird)

103: Little Egret

Avocets from Sandgrounder's Hide

Return of the Waxwings

Some years Britain sees a big influx of  Waxwings from Northern Europe, usually when the berry crop has been poor. This winter seems to be a "Waxwing winter", with many hundreds, if not thousands, being reported across the country. See here for the many sightings on the Birdguides website.

I decided to pop across to Cemetery Avenue in Sheffield to catch up with these superb birds and I'm so glad I did as there were at least 100 and possibly up to 200 there this afternoon. Amazing!!!!! I managed to get some decent pictures too.

Waxwing

 

 

Also present in the area were half a dozen Fieldfares, Blackbirds and Magpies.

Waxwing and Fieldfare

 

The Year List moves on one more bird:

 

162 : Waxwing

Garden News - 31st May 2011

It's now over 10 years since I started recording the wildlife in my garden for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. At the beginning birds such as the Starling were a regular feature in my weekly lists, but over the next years this gradually changed, until they became a real rarity!

Imagine my surprise then this morning when I woke up to the sound of a family party feeding in the garden. Looking out of the window I was really pleased to  see a group of approximately 15 birds, a mixture of adults and juveniles, squabbling over the meal worms that I'd put out. I grabbed the camera and managed to get this shot before they disappeared again.

Starlings

These are the first juvenile Starlings that I've seen this year, but as mentioned previously, the garden has been full of young birds from other species for a couple of weeks. New in this week were Woodpigeon, Magpie (2 from the nest at the bottom of the garden), Dunnock, Goldfinch and Chaffinch (a first for the garden).

Juvenile Dunnock (very streaky)

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.

Garden News - 21st May 2011

It's been quite a while since I blogged about the birds in my garden, so I thought I'd better update you, especially as there have been some interesting developments this week.

First up is the increase in finch numbers in the garden over the last few weeks. We're very lucky to have good numbers of Goldfinch regularly visiting the feeders to  feast on the sunflower hearts, but this week they've been joined by at least three Chaffinches, a pair of Bullfinches and some absolutely stunning male Greenfinches.These birds all look really bright at the moment and will hopefully be bringing their young in the near future.

Goldfinch and male Greenfinch

Male Bullfinch

Talking of youngsters, this week has also brought the first juvenile birds of the year into the garden. The first was a young Blackbird which appeared today, followed this afternoon by a young Dunnock.

Juvenile Blackbird

The Magpie nest which was featured earlier this year appears to have young in it. I haven't actually seen them as the nest is now completely covered by the leaves, but whilst out in the garden this afternoon one of the adults flew in and chicks could be heard calling.

Finally, "Mr White" a leusistic (partially white) Blackbird that has been living in the garden since September 2010 is still alive and well. I've recently been putting meal worms out to help adult birds feed their young and Mr White has been a regular visitor as the awful photo below shows! Sorry about the photo quality but I had to take it  through  the window!

Mr White

Hopefully it won't be long before the first Goldfinch chicks appear. I'll let you know as soon as it happens.

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?

Garden News - 13th February 2011

Just a quick update with a new "year tick" from the garden in the shape of a Siskin. The bird, a male, was spotted with approximately 15 Goldfinch in the trees this morning and fed  for a bout 3 minutes before flying away. Managed to get just 1 half-decent shot through the branches and the rain!!

Siskin

Other birds present today were: the white Blackbird, 2 Dunnock, 3 House Sparrows, the nest-building Magpies,  2 Greenfinch and a Woodpigeon. All records were sent in to the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Garden news - 23rd January 2011

One of the best things about birdwatching is that you can do it "anytime, anyplace, anywhere". The garden therefore, is always a great spot  for a bit of "birding therapy".

As I've mentioned before, I've been actively recording the birds in my garden as part of the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme since 1999. As such it was that this morning I was watching the antics of the local Woodpigeons, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Dunnocks, Robin (back down to single figures, now the cold weather has gone), Chaffinches, Collared Doves etc when I spotted an old friend, the white Blackbird first seen back in September and written about in this blog on 27th December. After a period of about 2 weeks with no sign of him, he's suddenly reappeared in the garden, as bossy and argumentative as ever!

This sighting, however, was totally overshadowed, when I looked up into the trees to see a gorgeous male BRAMBLING. This species is usually recorded once or twice a year in the garden, but more often than not in late March/early April when birds are presumably on the move back north. As such, this record is very early, but nevertheless, very pleasing and will find its way into both the Garden Birdwatch archives as well as the Bird Atlas. Note the white rump which can just be seen between the wings and the orange "shoulder", which help seperate it from the much more common Chaffinch. Just managed to grab a quick, pretty awful, photo before it disappeared.

                                               Male Brambling, just before he flew away!


As evidence that Spring is just around the corner, a pair of Magpies, are busy rebuilding last year's nest in the tree at the bottom of the garden. I know they're not everyone's favourite, but I say "live and let live".