Ring Ouzels

This morning, Jayne and I went out into the Peaks to have a look for Ring Ouzel (148). After a bit of a false start, due to heavy mist, we managed to spot a couple of birds (1 male and 1 female).

The birds were first seen flitting around rocks and feeding on the short turf, just by the path, at the top end of Burbage Valley. We had decent views. despite the mist (!) and headed back to the car. Just as we'd finished putting everything away, we looked up and spotted the (presumably) same two birds feeding on the ground in the car park!! Luckily, I was bale to get the camera, and, as we sat in the car, the male bird came to within 5m and began feeding. The female stayed a little further back, in the heather. All photos taken from the mobile hide!

Ring Ouzel

Whilst watching the Ouzels, a large bird of prey flew in and landed in the heather. This flushed to Ouzels, and I managed to grab a few photos (through the mist!), of what appears to be a female Sparrowhawk. 

Sparrowhawk

Several Meadow Pipits and Red Grouse were also heard. 

RSPB South Stack - 26th July 20221

 After yesterday's visit to Cemlyn Lagoon, I drove across to RSPB South Stack. The target species was Chough, and I was not disappointed!!

I parked in the first car park, and the first bid I saw and heard was.... Chough!! In total I saw a minimum of 16 birds, which flew over my head calling, before landing on the cliffs about 10m away. Wow!! Many of the birds were darvic-ringed, and I managed to get 6 numbers, so I'll update with details as soon as I get them back. Here are a few photos.

Choughs!!

Whilst walking along the cliffs in the sunshine and 20 degree heat, I also spotted a Hooded Crow, a pair of Ravens, Jackdaws, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, Linnet, Meadow Pipit and Stonechat, including this juvenile bird.

Stonechat

There were lots of insects buzzing about too(!), the highlights being a Wall Brown and several Grayling.

Grayling

Year List update:

159 - Chough

160 - Hooded Crow

Linacre Ringing - 22nd September 2018

This morning I was down at Linacre with 4 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We had 4 hours on site and caught 38 birds (new/retrap): Robin 2/0, Chiffchaff 7/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 8/0, Blue Tit 11/1, Great Tit 6/0 and Treecreeper 1/0.

Treecreeper

Whilst there, we set a net for Meadow Pipits, and, although they came down, none found their way into the nets.

Also seen during the ringing session were: House Martin (c.30 overhead), Green Woodpecker (1 heard), Kestrel (1), Sparrowhawk (1), Bullfinch (1) and Great-spotted Woodpecker (1).

Linacre Ringing - 23rd September 2017

I was out ringing at Linacre yesterday with Sorby Breck Ringing Group. This was our first session since the start of August, and we were on site from 06.30 to 10.30, catching a very nice 76 birds, including 2 warbler species and a species that we've only ringed twice at Linacre, once in 2012 and again in 2014. Can you guess what it was??
.
Totals for the morning were new/retrap: Blue Tit 12/4, Great Tit 10/5, Coal Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Dunnock 1/0, Robin 4/0, Blackbird 1/0, Blackcap 1/0, Chiffchaff 9/0, Goldcrest 15/1, Meadow Pipit 1/0, Nuthatch 1/0 and Goldfinch 8/0.

As you can see, the two warbler species were Chiffchaff and Blackcap. All birds were aged as 3s (born this year). The other highlight was the single Meadow Pipit, also a bird born this year. This species is heard most years passing over the site, and we have managed to entice a few birds down in 2012 and 2014, so to catch one this weekend was very nice.

Other species seen between net rounds included a very impressive flock of c.50 House Martins (the biggest count of the year by a very long way), that were feeding over the ringing site, 5 Swallows, 1 Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk.

Big Moor Year ticks

Jayne and I had a couple of hours on Big Moor this afternoon. It was pretty blustery, but we walked from the road up to the old reservoir and back again, adding 2 new species to the "year list".

The first species seen was Wheatear, with 2 male birds seen on the fence posts by the house by the reservoir.

Wheatear

The other "year tick" was Red Grouse, with 2 birds seen flying over the moor. Other species seen were: Kestrel (1 hunting by the house), Peregrine Falcon (1 flew over), Meadow Pipit (10+ flying around and singing), Skylark (6 flying and singing), Lapwing (5 displaying), Canada Goose (2 birds on the pools), Curlew (1 heard), Carrion Crow (3), Reed Bunting (1 male) and Linnet (2 birds flew over).

Year List update:
132 - Wheatear
133 - Red Grouse

Great Grey Shrike

I spent a couple of hours at Greave's Piece, near Owler Bar on Sunday morning looking for a Great Grey Shrike. Unfortunately, I didn't see it, but Jayne and I popped back up this evening and got lucky. It was quite distant, but we managed a quick photo.

Great Grey Shrike

Also present were a couple of Meadow Pipits, a Snipe, a couple of Crows and a singing Song Thrush.

Year List update:
107 – Meadow Pipit
108 – Great Grey Shrike
109 - Snipe

Big Moor Year Tick

Last Thursday I spent a few hours up on Big Moor. Whilst there I added Whinchat to the "year list", with one adult and at least 3 juveniles present.

Whinchat (juvenile)

Whilst up there, I also saw juvenile Stonechat, Meadow Pipits, Skylark and 5 Red Deer.

Red Deer

Insect wise, I saw Black Darter, Small Heath, Common Darter, Common Hawker (2) and Emerald Damselfly.

Black Darter

Common Darter (female/immature)

Small Heath on Harebell

Emerald Damselfly (male)

Year List update:
166 - Whinchat

Cairn Gorm

Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a few days, and, as the title suggests, we visited Cairn Gorm today. We went in search of Ptarmigan, but were out of luck. We did, however, manage to hear Red Grouse and see Meadow Pipts (!), a male Pied Wagtail and a super flock of 15 Snow Buntings. Four of the buntings landed close enough to get a few photos.

Snow Buntings in snow

After the visit to Cairn Gorm we drove down to RSPB Loch Garten where we popped into the centre to see the pair of breeding Ospreys. Both birds were on the nest when we arrived. We didn't see the other specialities, but we're heading back there tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

In the evening we had a short visit to the River Spey where we saw 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 pairs of Goldeneye , several singing Willow Warblers and a single Dipper.

Year List update:
136 – Red Grouse
137 – Common Sandpiper
138 – Redstart
139 – Snow Bunting
140 – Osprey
141 - Dipper

Short-eared Owl

I was driving past Leash Fen at about 4pm this afternoon when I noticed a few cars parked up on Fox Lane. At this time of the year, it can only mean one thing- Short-eared Owl. I parked up, and sure enough, there it was hunting over the rough grassland. I was able to watch it for half an hour, as it hunted and perched up in one of the Silver Birch trees. Unfortunately, a pair of Carrion Crows then mobbed it and the bird flew onto the ground, where it could no longer be seen. Here's my best photo.

Short-eared Owl

This bird is a "year tick" as is the Meadow Pipit that was heard whilst watching the owl.

Year List update:

113 - Short-eared Owl

114 - Meadow Pipit

RSPB Bempton, Scarborough and Flamborough

I spent this weekend in Scarborough celebrating my up-coming birthday (thanks Jayne!!). We started off at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, then moved on to Scarborough, and then visited The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Flamborough Cliffs Reserve.  Over the 2 days we added 7 new species to the "year list", enjoyed some lovely weather, great food and company (thanks again Jayne) and stunning views of some of our amazing seabirds.

The weekend trip started at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, where the first birds we saw were the Gannets, followed closely by Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills and a couple of Puffins. Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were singing everywhere, and Tree Sparrows were feeding around the centre.

Gannets, Kittiwakes, Guillemots and a Razorbill

Razorbill and Kittiwake

After Bempton, we drove down into Scarborough. We had a walk around the town, went on the beach, had a spot of lunch at the excellent  C.A.L.F. vegetarian café, and added a couple more birds to the list, namely Purple Sandpiper (30 roosting on the breakwaters in the harbour at high tide), and a male Scaup, that was present on the lake in Peasholme Park (no photo, it was just too far away).

Purple Sandpiper

Also present in the harbour were about 6 pairs of Kittiwake that were on nests, several Herring Gulls, a pair of Rock Pipits, two Turnstones and a stunning breeding plumaged Redshank.

Pair of Kittiwakes nesting in Scarborough harbour.

Turnstone

Redshank

This morning we left Scarborough and headed down to North Landing at Flamborough Cliffs. We didn't see anything new, but we did spot a pair of Puffins, and I managed to get a reasonable photo.

Puffins

Year List update:

105 – Gannet

106 – Kittiwake
107 – Guillemot
108 – Razorbill
109 – Puffin
110 – Purple Sandpiper
111 - Scaup

Ring Ouzels and Wheatear

Living just 20 minutes from the Peak District National Park you'd think that "year ticking" Ring Ouzel and Wheatear would be quite easy, but for some reason (mainly a lack of effort on my part, if I'm honest!), I don't get them every year. With this in mind, I set out to Stanage Edge this morning to try my luck. I arrived at 6.30am, and in the next 2 hours, I managed to notch up 7 new species for the "year list", including my two target species.

When I arrived, I parked in the car park, and walked up to the Edge. At first, it was quite quiet except for several Meadow Pipits, Red Grouse, Wrens, Dunnocks and a single singing Willow Warbler. I walked right up onto the top of the Edge and heard a calling Ring Ouzel! I managed to get my bins of the bird, which turned out to be a female, but she then jumped off the Edge and disappeared! Whilst waiting to see if she'd reappear, a Raven flew over being mobbed by a Carrion Crow. I then decided to walk back down to the area below the Edge. Whilst walking back a male Wheatear appeared, and  I managed a rather distant record shot. Here's a heavily cropped photo.

Wheatear

 

I walked along the bottom of the Edge for another half an hour or so before spotting any more Ouzels, but this time, I didn't see 1, 2 or 3 , but an amazing 5 birds!! There were 4 males that were flying around, chasing each other trying to attract the attention of the single female bird. Luckily they flew right over my head and landed on some boulders about 40m away from me. They were so busy squabbling with each other, that they completely ignored me, and I managed to get some half decent photos, including this one of all 4 males together (click to enlarge and see if you can spot all 4 birds).

 

Male Ring Ouzels



 

Female Ring Ouzel

Male Ring Ouzel

 

The whole episode only lasted for about 5 minutes, but I don't think I'll forget this experience for quite a while! Walking back to the car I had my last "year tick" when a Snipe flew across the moor. Quite a morning!

Year List update:
95 – Meadow Pipit
96 – Red Grouse
97 – Willow Warbler
98 - Raven
99 – Wheatear
100 – Ring Ouzel
101 - Snipe

More Mipits and a (near) record Goose Count

After last week's success ringing my first Meadow Pipit of 2014  I was very pleased to hear that we were heading back up to a moorland site at Ringinglow, Sheffield, for our annual Meadow Pipit ringing session (see here for details of last year's visit).

As in previous years, we arrived on site nice and early (5.30am), and got the nets up as quickly as possible. The MP3 players were set to Meadow Pipit, and after a bit of low cloud had cleared, we started to catch birds. Four hours later we'd managed a very respectable 107 new birds, all Meadow Pipits. The vast majority were juvenile birds, with just 4 adult birds ringed.

Other birds seen during today's session included Raven, Red Grouse (Year Tick), Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, and a Sparrowhawk, that kept buzzing the nets, thankfully, without success!

Thanks to Sean and Kevin for another brilliant session!

In the afternoon, I went for a walk around Linacre with Jayne. There wasn't too much going on, except a couple of "wheeting" Chiffchaff and an amazing 58 Canada Geese on the top reservoir. The group appeared to be one made up of adults and juvenile birds, and is the second highest count I've had there after 80 in October 2011 (see here). We'll see if they hang around, or move on. Here's a poor camera phone photo of some of today's geese.

Canada Geese

Year List update:
173 - Red Grouse

Linacre WeBS and Ringing

This weekend saw two visits to Linacre Reservoirs. The first visit, on Saturday morning, to carry out the September WeBS walk, followed by a second visit on Sunday with The Sorby Breck Ringing Group, to ring birds.

I arrived for the WeBS walk at 8.30am, and the first quarter of an hour went okay with a Grey Heron fishing on the bottom reservoir, and my first Little Grebe here since 6th April!! Unfortunately, the rain started at about 8.45am, and really hammered down for the rest of the walk. Despite this I still managed to record a few birds: Mallard (47), Coot (5), Moorhen (2; 1 adult and 1 juvenile), Grey Wagtail (1),  Great-crested Grebe (1), Tufted Duck (16) and Mandarin Duck (18). The only other bird of note was a Chiffchaff, that for some inexplicable reason, was singing in the heavy rain.

Sunday's visit was a little earlier, starting at 6.30am, and this time the weather was much better, being dry, sunny and warmish. We set the usual two nets around the feeders, and then, thanks to David's foresight, we decided to set a third net away from the usual area with a Meadow Pipit tape playing. We got lucky on the first net round, and caught a total of 5 "Mipits", all juveniles, our first at Linacre since 2012 (see here) and a ringing tick for Stewart.

Meadow Pipit

 

We carried on ringing until about 10.30am, by which time we'd caught and ringed a total of  47 birds of 12 species (Chiffchaff (3), Blackcap (1), Meadow Pipit, Blackbird, Bullfinch, Wren, Nuthatch, Robin, Dunnock, Blue, Great and Coal Tit).

 

Nuthatch

 

In between net rounds, we spotted a few birds around the ringing site including 4 Swallows, 6 House Martins, a fly-by Cormorant, a couple of Sparrowhawks and a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Avenue Ringing - 16th February 2014

Yesterday morning the weather was dry and still, so I managed to get out ringing with the Sorby Breck Group. We went back down to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's  Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield. We had a very productive few hours with 42 birds of 12 species ringed (Jay, Song Thrush, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Blue, Great, Willow and Long-tailed Tit).

My totals were (new/retraps):
Song Thrush 1/0, Great Tit 0/3, Blue Tit 2/0, Dunnock 0/2, Reed Bunting 0/1, Yellowhammer 1/0.

In between net rounds we did some birding and the highlight for me was a "year tick"; Meadow Pipit. A flock of 12 appeared and perched on the fence. Grey Partridge were heard again.

Year List:
94- Meadow Pipit

Winter visitors arrive and patch tick

No ringing today because of the wet and windy weather early on, so instead I went off to Linacre for 3 hours walking around all 3 reservoirs.

Most notable of all was the number of  Redwings that were flying over. They were heard all morning and several were feeding on the Rowan berries around the reservoirs. Also present today were Fieldfare (18 flying over were the first of the winter), the single Wigeon on the middle reservoir (here for the winter?), 6 Lapwing that flew over the top reservoir, 1 Pied Wagtail, at least 10 Crossbills (over the Rangers' Base and then over the top and middle reservoirs) 1 Sparrowhawk over the top reservoir and fly-over Meadow Pipits and Skylark.

Out on the water itself were Mallard (92), Tufted Duck (39), Mandarin Duck (27), Grey Wagtail (1), Kingfisher (flew from the willows by the boardwalk on the top reservoir), Great-crested Grebes (2), Little Grebe (6 on the bottom reservoir), Cormorant (1) and Black-headed Gull (15).

The patch tick mentioned in the title was a record of a Shelduck from the Sheffield Bird Study Group, that was seen on Friday (17th). I've never seen one at Linacre, but, according to David, who keeps the records for the group, there have been records back in 1998 and 2004. As these dates are before I started recording I've included it here as a patch tick. Hope that's make sense!!

No bird photos today, instead I've got a slug and some fungi for you.

slug sp

fungi

Pied Wagtails and Peregrine Falcon

Pied Wagtails are not a common bird at Linacre, and apart from one breeding record back in 2011 when the reservoirs were partially drained, they have only really been reported on a few occasions. Most of these sightings were during the winter months and included single birds. When I got to Linacre on Sunday morning, however, I was amazed to see a flock of 24 birds feeding in the ploughed field by the main entrance. I managed a few photos, which showed a mixture of adult and juvenile birds.

juvenile Pied Wagtails

Adult male Pied Wagtail

Whilst scanning through the flock I also picked up 3 Meadow Pipits ( first record this year) along the fence, which made me think this was a migrating flock of birds. Seconds later a Peregrine Falcon came flying across the field right through the flock and disappeared down the valley- a Linacre lifer!!

After all that excitement I popped down to the reservoirs and walked around all three. The Wigeon and a Kingfisher were still present on the middle reservoirs, Skylark were heard passing overhead, the Little Grebe family was very vocal on the bottom reservoir and 5 Crossbills were seen and heard by the top reservoir. Best of all, however, were 5 low-flying Pink-footed Geese. We'd heard them on Saturday, but couldn't see them through the clouds, so this sighting was my first at Linacre this year.

Wigeon

 

There were also quite a few fungi on show at the weekend. Here are a couple of photos of Fly Agaric and a Shaggy Inkcap.

 

Fly Agaric

Shaggy Inkcap

Non-stop Ringing

That was the order of the day today as we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), made our annual trip to the moorlands above Sheffield (Ringinglow), to catch and ring Meadow Pipits as they migrate south over the area. We arrived at 5.45am and over the next five hours we had a constant stream of birds, resulting in a super catch of 139 Meadow Pipits and 1 Tree Pipit.

Today's ringing site

 

As many birdwatchers know, Tree and Meadow Pipits can be quite difficult to tell apart, but when "in the hand" there are several features that make the job a little easier. When the Tree Pipit turned up this morning, the first thing we noticed was the much shorter, well curved, hind claw, followed closely by the number of primary feathers in a line (2-4 in a line, 2-5 in a Meadow Pipit ), "pinkish" legs and a much "stronger", more powerful beak!

Tree Pipit's wing showing primaries 2-4 (the top 3 feathers in this picture)

in a line

As I mentioned at the start of the post, we were very busy this morning, ringing and recording the bio metrics (weight, wing length, fat and muscle scores) for all those birds, but we also recorded the other birds seen around the site. A Kestrel flew over the area a few times, a few Red Grouse were heard and a couple of Carrion Crows were also about.

Finally, thanks alot to Kevin and Sean for your support and hospitality this morning. Look forward to ringing with you both again.

M'ipit and unidentified caterpillar

I had a walk up Burbage Moor this afternoon to try and see a Ring Ouzel or two. Unfortunately, when we (Jayne and I) arrived, it started to rain and the wind, which was already quite strong when we left home, got even stronger and nearly blew us over!

We drew a blank with the Ouzels, but we did manage to see and hear lots of Meadow Pipits (year tick), which weren't put off by the awful weather, and were singing and displaying beautifully. We also had a fly-by Raven, singing Wrens and this caterpillar that was moving around in the undergrowth. Any ideas anyone?

??????

 

Year List update:

110 - Meadow Pipit

Meadow pipt extravaganza

Following on from my first ever Meadow Pipits at Linacre last week I spent 5 hours out ringing this morning with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group high up on the moors above Sheffield.

We arrived on site for a 5.30am start and after setting up several nets around a disused quarry we settled back for a morning of ringing. Despite a stiff breeze, the birds began arriving soon after the nets had been set and there was a steady stream throughout the morning, ending with a total of 69 birds (all Meadow Pipits).

Happy ringers

The identification of Meadow Pipits was relatively straight forward after the first few (thanks for all the pointers Michael!) but I must admit it took me quite a while to get my head around aging them. Hopefully I'll get some more practice before the end of the passage season!

There were only a few other birds around today; Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and Red Grouse, but, amazingly, the Red Grouse was a Year Tick, so the Year List has increased by 1.

153 - Red Grouse

New species for Linacre.

Four hours of ringing at Linacre this morning resulted in a total of 61 birds of 11 species. On any day this would have been more than satisfactory. However, with one of those species being Meadow Pipit ( a new species for Linacre and ringing tick for me), I was a very happy person indeed.

The morning started well when one of the first birds out of the net was a juvenile Chiffchaff. This was quickly followed by several Blue and Great Tits, a Robin, a Nuthatch and a Wren. Other birds including a Blackbird, a couple of juvenile Goldfinch, a Chaffinch and a Coal Tit soon followed. The highlight of the morning, however, was the arrival of not one ...not two.... but SIX Meadow Pipits. All the birds were identified as juveniles and, as mentioned before, were a new species for Linacre and a ringing tick for me! Unfortunately, no photos, as guess what, I'd left my camera at home! Thanks a lot to Dave, for putting the nets in the correct place.

Other birds noted during the morning were: Sparrowhawk x 1, Kestrel x 1 (very near the nest box, that they've never used), Common Buzzard x 2, House Martin x 2, Swallow x 2 and Great-spotted Woodpecker.

As the weather was really warm and sunny there were several insects about including a 7 spot Ladybird, 2 Red Admirals, 2 Small Tortoiseshells, 1 Small Copper, 1 Meadow Brown and a Comma, my first of the year.

Comma

All in all an excellent start to the weekend.