White-billed Diver!!!!

 A juvenile White-billed Diver (98),was found, at Cresswell Pond in Northumberland, earlier this week. It only stayed briefly, but then in turned up again, on Ladyburn Lake, at Druridge Bay CP, later that day. Today, Jayne and I had a drive up there, and managed amazing views, as it swam close in to the shore. Lifer number 1 of the year.

White-billed Diver

Whilst there, we also spotted a few other "Year Ticks": Pochard (97), Water Rail (99), Ring-necked Duck (100, a female, too distant for a photo, unfortunately), and Scaup (101 - an immature male, I think).

Rufford Gulls - 9th March 2024

 At this time of the year, I'm never sure when I'll see the last of the wintering Black-headed Gulls at Rufford. Last Saturday I popped across and found about 80 still present, including many looking very smart, with their breeding plumage brown (not black!) hoods.

The first bird I saw, was 215C, and this bird was certainly looking smart. Last year, my last sighting of this bird was on 12th March, so this may be my last sighting until after the breeding season. We've not had any sightings at a breeding site yet. This year perhaps?

215C

Other ringed gulls were: 258A (34th re-sighting), 289A (6th re-sighting, and my first since February 2022!), 202C (13th re-sighting), 207C (15th re-sighting), 258C (8th re-sighting), 270C (4th re-sighting), 273C (6th re-sighting) and 298C (ringed on 4th February 2024, as a 5, i.e. born in 2023, and the first re-sighting since).

298C

Other birds seen were: 21 Goosander (16 female and 5 male), 1 male Pochard, 2 Mute Swan (Broken Beak and a female), 13 Greylag Geese, 5 Canada Geese, 37 Lesser Black-backed Gull and 2 Common Gull.

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

Rother Valley Smew

On Thursday 3rd I popped across to Rother Valley CP to see if I could catch up with a female Smew that had been reported on the Nature Reserve Lake. I got lucky and managed to see it straight away. As you can see from the "year list" below, there were several other species present in the area.

The Pheasant and Treecreeper were recorded layer in the day on the Monsal Trail.

Year List update:
47 – Smew
48 – Pochard
49 – Gadwall
50 – Goldeneye
51 – Little Egret
52 – Mute Swan
53 – Canada Goose
54 – Wigeon
55 – Grey Heron
56 – Pheasant
57 - Treecreeper

Mute Swan 691

Hot on the heels of Tuesday's Mute Swan sighting, today's blog gives details of.... you've guessed it, another darviced Mute Swan!

Mute Swan 691

This bird was sighted by Jayne and me on the Upper Lake at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park this morning. Again, it was a bird that had been ringed by Sorby Breck Ringing Group, and I managed to get the details from David, our data manager. The bird had been ringed, as a 1st year bird, in August 2014 at Royds Hall, a stately home, just north of Bradford. It was seen twice in 2016 in Roundhay Park, Leeds, and Swillington Ings, before moving down to The YSP, where it was first reported on 15th January 2017, and then again today by me.

The bird was with another Mute Swan today, so hopefully, they'll settle down to breed here this year. I'm pretty sure 691 is a female bird, as she was smaller than the other bird, with a paler bill. The other bird also seemed to be "protecting/ defending" 691. Only time will tell if I'm correct.

691 (top bird) and partner

Other birds seen during the walk around the lakes were: Grey Heron (a minimum of 15 birds back on nests), Teal (8 birds), Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard (1 male), Goosander (1 male and  female), Black-headed Gulls (c.200), Kingfisher (3 sightings), Great-crested Grebe, Canada and Greylag Geese. Woodland birds seen included: Great-spotted Woodpecker (3 drumming), Nuthatch (calling), Robin, Blue and Great Tit.

Year List Update

After walking around Linacre yesterday, I had an hour up at Shillito Woods. I put out some seed, and within a few minutes there were 13 Bramblings, 5 Yellowhammers, dozens of Chaffinches, Robins, Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits.

Brambling

In the afternoon, Jayne and I went to Rufford Country Park. We walked around the lake, and added another four birds to the "year list"; Greylag Goose, Pochard (1 male), Common Gull (minimum of 5 birds, including at least 1 adult) and Goosander (10; 5 males and 5 redheads).

Pochard

Common Gull (2nd cy)

The final addition to this year's list is Pink-footed Goose, and relates to a skein of approximately 200 birds that were flying over the Avenue Washlands this morning during a ringing session.

Year List update:
74 – Brambling
75 – Greylag Goose
76 – Pochard
77 – Common Gull
78 – Goosander
79 – Pink-footed Goose

Common and Jack Snipe

I spent a few hours at RSPB Old Moor in Barnsley today. Whilst there I spent the majority of the time watching Common and Jack Snipe from the Family Hide.

There were at least 7 Common Snipe on show, including 1 that fed in the grass in front of the hide. I managed to get some nice shots and a little video (see here).

Snipe

The Jack Snipe was also present in front of the hide for a short while, before flying off to island number 7, where it spent the next few hours. I didn't get any photos whilst it was near the hide unfortunately, but I did manage to get a few "digiscoped" efforts thanks to Amanda from the Chesterfield RSPB Group, who was at Old Moor volunteering. Thanks Amanda! Here's a shot of both species side by side for comparison.

Jack Snipe (back bird) and Common Snipe

Jack Snipe (left hand bird) and Common Snipe

Other birds seen from the hide included Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Pochard, Coot, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Shelduck, Pied Wagtail , Kingfisher, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed  and Common Gulls.

Hybrid Duck in Bakewell

At the end of 2015 Darley Dale Wildlife Blogger wrote a post about a hybrid duck that he'd seen on the River Wye at Bakewell (see post here). The bird in question was identified as a hybrid between a male Tufted Duck and a female Pochard. I had some time on Sunday, so I drove across with Jayne to have a look for it. We found it almost immediately dozing with  a small group of Tufted Ducks on the river by the island.  The sun was out and I managed to get a  decent photo showing off its amazing colours.

Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid

When I saw this bird, it reminded me about a hybrid duck I'd reported at Linacre back in November 2013. At the time I didn't manage to get a photo, but I did get a bit of poor quality video  (see post here). The 2013 bird was also in the company of Tufted Ducks, and also had a large black area on the end of its beak, so could well be the same bird. I also reported a very similar bird at Linacre in April 2010. Again, no photos unfortunately! Interestingly, this same bird (presumably) was reported on the Darley Dale Blog visiting Chatsworth in February 2014 (see here).

Hopefully, if it returns to Linacre I'll get a photo and be able to compare it with this bird. 

6 Year Ticks

I was out and about again this morning, trying hard to "tick" a Black Redstart that has been present on an industrial site in Sheffield since 13th January. I was there for two hours, but unfortunately drew a blank. As you can guess, it was recorded later on, about 2 hours after I'd left! See the BirdGuides Website here for details and some great pictures. The good news, however, is that whilst there, I did manage to get a couple of "year ticks", with about half a dozen Skylarks present and singing over the site, and  a flock of about 15 Linnets also seen.

In the afternoon, Jayne and I decided to drive over to the National Trust's Clumber Park to enjoy the 15 degree temperatures! We walked all around the lake, and added another 4 species to the "year list". The first species, Marsh Tit, was very good to see, as I didn't manage to get it at all last year at all. I'm not sure why, as there were everywhere today, especially at feeding stations. It's not the easiest species to identify, so here's a link to the BTO's i.d. guide. Well worth a look. Here's a terrible, out of focus picture I took today. They really are fast!

Marsh Tit

The next species seen was Stock Dove, which was seen in the trees by the car park. The last two species, Shoveler and Pochard, were seen on the main lake. There was a pair of Shoveler, and 7 Pochard (4 males and 3 females).

Shoveler (male)

Other species seen on the lakes included Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Great-crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Black-headed and this single Lesser Black-backed Gull. 

Mute Swan

Year List update:

93 – Skylark

94 – Linnet

95 – Marsh Tit

96 – Stock Dove

97 – Shoveler

98 - Pochard

RSPB Old Moor

I had a day at RSPB Old Moor today in search of a Great White Egret, that has been present for a few weeks. After a few hours, and quite a few "near misses" I managed to connect with the bird when it flew out of the reeds on Wath Ings and disappeared onto nearby Bolton Ings. in total, I saw it for about 30 seconds, so no photo I'm afraid!!

While waiting for the egret, I got another "year tick" in the shape of 2 Common Sandpipers that were feeding close to the hides. Other waders present were: Green Sandpiper (2), Dunlin (4), Ruff (4), Snipe (1), Lapwing (c.300), Golden Plover (3 breeding plumaged birds) and Black-tailed Godwit (3).

Common and Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

As well as the waders there were a good number of ducks, geese and swans present including: Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard, Wigeon, Teal, Mute Swan, Canada and Greylag Geese.  

Shoveler

Last but not least were the small birds. I didn't see or hear many, but the highlights for me were dozens of Goldfinch, a single Marsh Harrier, 8 Swallows and 2 Swifts, which are my latest ever record.

Year List update:
167 - Great White Egret
168 - Common Sandpiper

Montagu's Harriers!

Yesterday I went to the RSPB's Blacktoft Sands reserve following news on the Bird Guides website that a pair of Montagu's Harriers were present, and viewable from the hides. Normally I wouldn't mention this rare breeder, but, as I said, the news has been put out in the public domain by the RSPB, and the site is now being guarded around the clock. The birds are best viewed from the Singleton Hide, and whilst there we (Jayne and I), saw the female bird on 3 occassions, as she flew up out of the reeds to see off the local Marsh Harriers that were also flying about. See here for more details about this species.

Whilst on site, we also visited the other hides, and heard or saw several good birds including 8 species for the Year List. The first new bird was Cetti's Warbler, that was heard, but not seen, singing loudly from the reedbed - a first for me at this site. Along with the Montagu's, there were also several Marsh Harriers flying around the site (year tick), along with Pochard, Shoveler, Avocets, 1 Swift and Shelduck (all new for the year). Moving to Xerox Hide, we also spotted a Greenshank, and a pair of Garganey, that were fast asleep on one of the islands.

                                                             Greylags and a pair of Garganey

Year List update:

116 – Cetti’s Warbler

117 – Marsh Harrier

118 – Montagu's Harrier

119 – Shelduck

120 – Shoveler

121 – Pochard

122 – Swift

123 – Avocet

S'Albufera es Grau and Algendar Gorge

Two sites that we visited whilst on holiday in Menorca were the large marsh called S'Albufera es Grau near the village of Es Grau in the north east of the island and the Algendar Gorge in the south west of the island.

Harbour at Es Grau

 

S'Albufera es Grau is the only official nature reserve on the island. It is nearly 2000 hectares in size, 67 hectares of which are a large, freshwater lake. We visited one afternoon, when it was very, very hot! It wasn't the best time to visit, but we did still manage to find a few birds; Little Grebe (several pairs nesting), Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gulls (2 juveniles- quite a rarity here), a single male Pochard, Red Kite, Kestrel and several juvenile Red-crested Pochard.

View from the hide at S'Albufera es Grau

Another good spot for any visiting birder is the Algendar Gorge.

Algendar Gorge

 

The main reason for visiting this site was to catch up with Egyptian Vultures. We arrived at about 11am and managed to see 2 birds; an adult and a juvenile bird, already high up in the sky. As well as the vultures we also saw and heard the following; Blackcap (singing male), Kestrel, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Rock Dove, Red Kite and Raven. Woodchat Shrike and Hoopoe were seen on the drive over.

A typical Menorcan gate

Linacre WeBS Walk - 11th February 2012

Brrrrrrrrrr, what a cold morning, again. The temperature at the start of this month' s WeBS walk was minus 7 degrees! Despite the cold weather, however, the sky was clear with beautiful blue skies and the 3 members had a lovely 2 hour walk around all three reservoirs.

Despite the fact that there was 98% ice cover with only the top reservoir having any open water, we still managed some decent counts: Mallard (78), Coot (14, the highest count of the year so far), Black-headed Gull (31), Goldeneye (1 male), Mandarin (20), Tufted Duck (19) Pochard (3 males) and Moorhen (3).

As well as these waterbirds we also saw a couple of Redwing, several Siskin and heard a pair of calling Tawny Owls.

Driving back through Cutthorpe I stopped off to look at a berry bush that was covered in a large flock of 50+ Fieldfare and half a dozen Redwings.

Redwing and Fieldfare

Redwing

The Year List moved on today with the following species:

82 - Tawny Owl

Snowy Linacre, a Year tick and a Patch tick!

Today's visit to Linacre was slightly later than usual thanks to last night's snow and, after some help from a very kind 4x4 driver and a length of rope, Jayne and I arrived in the top car park at 12 noon. The bottom reservoir was 100% frozen over, the middle was approximately 90% frozen over and the top reservoir was just 5% frozen over. We spent a lovely 2 hours walking around all three reservoirs in the sun and managed to add a new species to the Linacre list, Gadwall,(1 pair on the top reservoir), as well as our first Mute Swan since December 2010. I didn't manage to get any photos of the Gadwall, but the swan was very confiding and swam over to me for some tasty sunflower hearts. I presume it's one of the birds from nearby Holmebrook Valley Park.

Mute Swan

As well as the above two species there were three male Pochard on the top reservoir, my highest count ever, 2 Goldeneyes, 65 Mallard, 14 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Great-crested Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 12 Coot, 3 Moorhen,  and 13 Mandarin Ducks. The usual woodland birds were around with Coal, Blue and Great Tit all singing in the sunshine.

Here are a few snowy shots:

Bottom reservoir

Middle Reservoir

Top reservoir

The Year List moved on one more species today:

81 - Pochard

Rutland Water - 24th September 2011

Rutland Water, an amazing nature reserve run by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, was the site for this month's field trip of the Chesterfield RSPB group. 18 people took part and between us we saw a total of 67 species, including 6 species of wader, 5 species of gull, 3 different types of bird of prey, thousands of waterfowl and 5 species of butterfly (Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Brimstone and Speckled Wood)!

First stop on today's trip was the main Egleton Visitors' Centre in Oakham. Looking out from the upstairs hide, we logged our first birds including 2 Little Egrets, dozens of Gadwall, Shoveler,  Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard and a juvenile Shelduck.

Little Egret

Next stop was the Sandpiper Hide overlooking the Lagoon 4 where 3 Swallows were spotted, along with 2 Egyptian Geese, 1 Ruff, a male Pintail and a flock of 30+ Golden Plover. Lapwing Hide provided the group with a few more summer migrants with a Blackcap, a Willow Warbler/Chiffchaff and 10+ House Martins amongst the birds spotted. Also from this hide were an amazing total of 16 Little Egrets!

Egyptian Goose

Walking back to the main centre we stopped off at Redshank Hide, where we saw a hunting Kestrel and had sustained views of a fishing Kingfisher.

The afternoon saw us travel across to the Lyndon Reserve. We managed to visit three of the hides on this part of the reserve and saw 2 Red Kites, several more waders (2 Redshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 2 summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Curlew), 2 juvenile "commic" terns, which were most likely Common Terns and 2 Common Gulls.

Common Gull

RSPB Dungeness - 27th July 2011

Hello and welcome back! Just been away to Kent for a family holiday, hence the lack of updates.

Whilst down in Kent we visited the RSPB site at Dungeness.

As is to be expected at this time of year it was pretty quiet, but we did manage to see  a few nice birds and got a chance to explore this part of the world.

The highlight was the ARC hide where a good number of waders were spotted including summer plumaged Golden Plover, a couple of hundred Lapwing, 3 Little Ringed Plover,including a juvenile bird, 1 Common Sandpiper and a couple of summer plumaged Dunlin.  Also here were 3 Little Egret and my first Teal and Wigeon of the "winter".

Golden Plover and Lapwing

Over on the main site we visited 5 hides and saw many commoner species such as Mallard, Mute Swan, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Oystercatcher, Great-crested Grebe, Moorhen and Coot. The main highlight on this site however, was the pair of nesting Common Tern, with 1 chick seen from Denge Marsh Hide.

Common Tern with chick

Linacre - 2nd July 2011 Work begins and a male Pochard!!

The first visit of July provided a nice surprise when a male Pochard was found feeding on the middle reservoir with 23 Tufted Ducks.

Pochard (male)

This is my first ever summer record  at Linacre and in fact the first site record since  March 2009!! Not sure where it's come from, but its always great to add new birds to the list. The 2 juvenile  Little Grebes were still on the bottom reservoir, 2 Grey Herons were seen, including 1 on the nest(?), an amazing total of 7 Grey Wagtails were on the middle reservoir (my highest ever count), and Mallard numbers were quite high with 45 adults and 18 ducklings scattered around the site. There were also 2 broods of Mandarin Duck (6 and 3) and 2 female birds, but unfortunately, no sign of last week's baby Moorhens.

Away from the water 1 Meadow Brown was flying around and a Small Tortoiseshell was found warming up on the boardwalk.

Small Tortoiseshell

Smaller birds were present in good numbers with 8 Swallows, 2 juvenile Robins, Jay, singing Song Thrush and Wren, and a female Blackcap all being seen around the reservoirs.

As regular readers will know, the water levels in all three reservoirs have been dropped over the last few months to allow for essential maintenance work to be carried out. Well, it appears the work has now  begun with a new access road being built by the bottom reservoir. Here's the first pictures- lovely!!

Black-necked Grebes - beautiful birds!!!

Spent a few hours over at RSPB Old Moor in Barnsley as my Father's Day treat on Sunday. Unfortunately the weather wasn't playing, with grey clouds and a strongish wind. Despite this however, I managed to get some good birds (as always) and a new tick for me in the shape of a Tree Bumblebee!!

First up, birdwise, were the hundreds of Black-headed Gull chicks. They were everywhere!! Most were pretty well developed and spent most of the time sat around preening.

Juvenile Black-headed Gull

The next birds I saw were two stunning adult summer plumaged Black-necked Grebes swimming on The Mere from the Family Hide.These birds have been present for over a week now and can, at times, show really well. No photos of these birds, but here's one I took a few years ago in West Yorkshire.

Black-necked Grebe

As well as the young Black-headed Gulls, lots of other species were also in full breeding mode with juveniles of the following species seen: Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Little Grebe, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Gadwall and Pochard (my first ever!!). Other species still on eggs or feeding young included Lapwing and Sedge Warbler. Three species of wader were seen: Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover and Redshank, but no young were spotted. Avocets have bred successfully for the first time this year, but we didn't see them today! Don't know where they were! Swifts, Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins were all feeding over the water. The latter species was using the high tech Sand Martin nesting bank, bought with donations from many groups including our very own Chesterfield RSPB Group.

Sand Martin bank

On the way back to the car the sun had come out so I stopped off to look at some bees. I spotted one that I thought might be a Tree Bumblebee, so took a few shots, before it flew off. I uploaded the pictures to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's website and they very kindly emailed me back to confirm the identification.

Tree Bumblebee

This bee is a relative newcomer to the UK having only arrived here for the first time in 2001, but has been spreading north ever since. It's quite easy to identify, so if you want to find one for yourself this summer have a look on the above link.

Lincolnshire - 24th February 2011

I always like to get at least one day's proper birdwatching in during the holidays, so I decided to go and explore a part of the world I rarely visit, namely North Lincolnshire, along the south side of the River Humber.

First stop of the day was Barton upon Humber Gravel Pits. A pair of Long-tailed Ducks had been reported here, but despite a good hour's searching I couldn't locate either bird! Instead I managed to get a few "year ticks" with half a dozen Gadwall, a couple of Shoveler, approximately 40 Pochard and a fly-by Kingfisher. Also present on the banks of the river were Oystercatcher, 30+ Curlew and Shelduck.

Kingfisher

Next stop was the cement works at South Ferriby, about 5 miles to the west and again on the banks of the River Humber. A juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard has spent the winter in this area and, for some reason, likes this particular patch of land. Presumably a good supply of voles is more important to it than beautiful scenery! Anyway, as is normal with this species, the bird spends alot of time sitting on the floor and today was no exception. It was eventually located about 800m away from the road, sat on the floor preening. Despite my best efforts I couldn't get a decent photo, but here is a link so you can see other people's efforts. My first "lifer" of 2011!!! As well as this great bird, I also managed to pick up 3 Marsh Harrier, including a pair displaying, 100+ Canada Geese and about 50 Pink-footed Geese feeding on Read's Island.

My final destination today was another spot, again, only about 5 miles away, called Worlaby Carr. It has become quite well  known in the birding world recently as an excellent spot to see and photograph Short-eared Owl, during the winter months. I arrived at 3pm and 4 birds were already flying around hunting. I dropped lucky and managed to photograph one sat on a post. Although some distance away, it is possible to make out its near horizontal stance and whiteish plumage. A great bird and wonderful "year tick"!

                                                                      Short-eared Owl