Year List Update - 15th August 2017

I haven't updated the "year list" for the last 2 weeks, despite seeing a few new species.

The first one to add to the list is a great species that I don't see every year; Chough. Jayne and I had a walk along the clifftop at the National Trust's Kynance Cove on the last day of our holiday, where we managed to spot a family party of 4 birds. Views were brief , and I didn't manage to get a photo, so instead, here's one that my nephew, Luke, got on a recent trip the RSPB South Stack on Anglesey.

Chough

The next bird; Water Rail, was added when I heard one whilst ringing at Poolsbrook Marsh. The next 3 species; Wood and Green Sandpiper and Greenshank, were all seen yesterday at RSPB Old Moor. The final species; Whinchat, was a juvenile bird seen today on Big Moor.

Year List update:
179 – Chough
180 – Water Rail (heard)
181 – Wood Sandpiper
182 – Green Sandpiper
183 – Greenshank
184 – Whinchat

French-ringed Reed Warbler

Yesterday I was out for my first ringing session in a while at Poolsbrook Marsh, with 5 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

We arrived on site at 5.00am, got the nets out and started to catch some birds. By the end of the morning's session we had caught 73 birds of 15 species. Totals were (new/retrap): Wren 2/0, Dunnock 2/0, Robin 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Reed Warbler 33/2, Lesser Whitethroat 2/0, Whitethroat 3/0, Blackcap 6/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Willow Warbler 5/1, Willow Tit 4/0, Blue Tit 0/1, Bullfinch 4/0 and Reed Bunting 3/0.

As you can see, we had a good range of resident and migrant species, including 7 species of warbler. The vast majority of birds were new (and juveniles), but we did have a few previously ringed birds, including a very special Reed Warbler bearing a "Museum Paris" ring!! As the name implies, this bird, which we aged as an adult, had been ringed in France. It'd be great to think that it is a bird that was born at Poolsbrook, and was then ringed on migration through France, before returning the breed here in Derbyshire. I'll update the blog when we get the details back from the BTO.

Other birds seen today included Kingfisher, Common Buzzard and Water Rail (heard only).

Derbyshire Cattle Egret!!

According to The Birds of Derbyshire, Cattle Egret is a "very rare vagrant" in the county, with just 7 previous records in 1966, 1968, 1986, 1996, 2009 (2 records of possibly the same bird), and 2014. Scrolling through Birdguides this afternoon, I noted that one had been reported at Poolsbrook Marsh, Staveley, so, as soon as possible Jayne and I had a drive over to see the bird.

We dropped lucky, with the bird still being present on the edge of the reedbed, and managed some good, if somewhat distant, views.

Cattle Egret

The bird stayed on the edge of the reeds for about 15 minutes before flying up into a dead tree, where I got this shot.

Cattle Egret

It looked as if it would roost there, but a report came through that it had flown off "high to the north". Hopefully, it'll turn up again somewhere in the county. An excellent Year, British and County tick!

Year List update:

120 - Sand Martin (1 on 2nd at Avenue Washlands)

121 - CATTLE EGRET

Year List update- 6 new species

I haven't blogged about this year's "year list" for a few weeks, and, as you can see from the title of this post, I've managed to add 6 new species to this year's list.

The first two species, Grasshopper Warbler and Sabine's Gull, were added at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve a few weeks back.

The next two species, Sedge and Garden Warbler, were added last weekend, whilst ringing at Poolsbrook Marsh last weekend.

The final two species, Yellow-legged Gull and Little Egret were added this week. The Yellow-legged Gull, a nice adult bird, was reported on the Sheffield Bird Study Group website, as being on playing fields in Low Edges, a five minute drive from home, so I popped along and "ticked" it. The Little Egret was seen today fishing in the Boating Lake on the Esplanade in Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Whilst in Ryde, Jayne and I also spotted 5 moulting adult Mediterranean Gulls. Although not a year tick, there are always nice to see and photograph. Here are a couple of photos.

Mediterranean Gull (back bird) and Black-headed Gull

Year List update:
157 – Grasshopper Warbler
158 – Sabine's Gull
159 – Sedge Warbler
160 – Garden Warbler
161 – Yellow-legged Gull
162 – Little Egret

Poolsbrook Marsh - 24th July 2016

Every summer I go out ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at Poolsbrook Marsh. We were out there again at the weekend, and managed to ring 56 birds of 15 species. Birds caught were (new/retrap) : Blackcap 4/0, Garden Warbler 6/0, Reed Warbler 16/2, Sedge Warbler 4/1, Willow Warbler 4/1, Chiffchaff 5/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Robin 3/0, Wren 1/0, Great Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 2/0, Bullfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0 and Reed Bunting 1/0.

As you can see, we managed to catch 7 species of warbler, including 4 birds that we'd ringed at this site before. 2 of the birds, a Sedge Warbler and a Reed Warbler had both been ringed just over 3 years ago (3 years and 4 days to be exact!). The Sedge Warbler was a juvenile bird when ringed, which shows how birds born here return to breed. The Reed Warbler was aged as an adult in 2013. Another Reed Warbler and one of Willow Warblers (both adults), were first caught on 5th July 2015, and re trapped here on Saturday, 1 year and 19 days later). Great records!

The other notable record of the morning was the excellent number of Reed Warblers and Garden Warblers caught. Out of the 56 birds caught, 34 were juveniles, which is also great news from this wonderful site.

In between net rounds and ringing, we managed to record a few birds, including Grey Heron, Swallow, House Martin, Swift (10) and a Kingfisher that was fishing nearby.

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

Warblers, Warblers, Warblers!!!

Last weekend's ringing session at Linacre was quite quiet, with just 7 birds ringed, so yesterday, with the weather conditions perfect, we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), were out at Poolsbrook Marsh, a large area of reed bed and scrub near Staveley, to see if we could improve on that total.... and we did!

Poolsbrook Marsh

We arrived on site at 4.30 am, and, after a little net lane management, we had the nets up ready to start catching birds. The first net round was accompanied by the sound of a reeling Grasshopper Warbler. The first bird out of the first net was also this species and turned out to be the first of 3 caught and ringed- a new species for both Stewart and me! One of the birds caught was a juvenile. which is also a great breeding record for the site. Here's a shot of that first bird.

Grasshopper Warbler

We stayed on site until 9.30 am, and during that time, we managed to catch adults and juveniles of another 6 species of warbler (Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Reed and Sedge Warbler), along with a couple of Blackbirds, juvenile Robins, Reed Buntings and  Blue Tit), bringing the morning's total to 44 birds- nice! Two of the Reed Warblers were re traps, with very similar ring numbers, so were most likely ringed here, by our group in previous years. I'll update when I get the information back from our data manager.

One of the young Willow Warblers I ringed sat quietly on my hand for about 10 seconds before it flew off, so I was able to get this super photo. What a privilege!

Willow Warbler

Linacre WeBS and Nest box News

Yesterday morning is was cool (just 3 degrees) but dry, still and sunny, so I took the opportunity to pop down to Linacre for a few hours to count the ducks, check the nestboxes and see if there were any new summer migrants on the patch.

Last week when I checked the boxes there was just the beginnings of few nests, but the birds had obviously been busy this week as there were now 15 nests with eggs ranging from 2 to 10! None were being incubated yet, so no full clutches yet. Still, all good data for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

There weren't many birds about on the water, but a pair of Greylag Geese prospecting for possible nest sites was interesting, as was my first sighting of Kingfisher, flying down the top reservoir. Other birds present were: Mallard (30), Tufted Duck (21), Mandarin Duck (5 males), Coot (8), Moorhen (1), Grey Wagtail (1 on the middle reservoir) and Great Crested Grebe (3; 2 on the middle reservoir and 1 on the top reservoir).

No new summer migrants were seen today, but there were 6 Chiffchaffs, 2 Willow Warblers and several Blackcaps singing, along with Swallows that were heard, but not seen.

This year's Year List has moved on this week with 3 Little Ringed Plovers at Carsington Water on Wednesday,
Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler singing yesterday at Poolsbrook Marsh and today's Kingfisher.

Year list update:
112- Little Ringed Plover
113- Whitethroat
114- Sedge Warbler
115 - Kingfisher