Black-headed Gull EA32375 in Bakewell

Yesterday, Luke and I went across to Bakewell to see if we could find any ringed Black-headed Gulls. There were only about 20 gulls there, but we soon spotted one wearing a metal ring. We began to feed it with some bread, and within 20 minutes or so we'd managed to photograph and read the ring number, EA32375. We also spotted London on the ring, showing it was a British-ringed bird. Details were sent off to the BTO, and I'll update the blog when I hear back.

EA32375

Whilst there, we also spotted the colour-ringed Canada Goose AAAH, a female bird, first seen here on 10th February 2018, and again on 15th July 2019, after being ringed in Bowness on Windermere in 2nd July 2013.

AAH

UPDATE: Details from the BTO show that EA32375 was ringed, as a chick, by Merseyside Ringing Group at Shotton, Flintshire on 26th June 2019, a distance of 91km away. Our sighting was the first since ringing.

Black-headed Gulls - Winter begins!!

I went to Bakewell on Saturday to see if there were any Black-headed Gulls back from their breeding grounds. There were about 20 birds present including 3 juvenile birds (born this year) in amongst the returning adults.

Black-headed Gull (juvenile)

One of the adult birds present was wearing a metal BTO ring, and I managed to get a few photos. Unfortunately, I only got 5 of the 7 letters and digits, EW97 _ _ 5 but, on checking my records, I noticed that on 1st September 2018, an adult gull with ring number EW97345 was seen by my nephew, Luke. This bird had been ringed in Boston, Lincolnshire on 9th January 2010. When I checked the photos of this bird I noticed that the ring was on "upside down", as was the bird I saw on Saturday, so I'd say, in all probability, it's the same bird. Of course, the only way to prove this is to get across and see it again. This time with the full number!

EW79 _ _ 5

Whilst there, I also spotted a Canada Goose wearing the darvic ring AAAH. This is also a known bird, having been first seen here on 10th February 2018 (see here). She had been ringed in Bowness on Windermere 2nd July 2013 and has been in Derbyshire since at least  September 2014. When I saw her on Saturday, she was with a partner and several goslings.

Canada Goose AAAH

Black-headed Gull EY13347

On Saturday I was walking around along the cliff tops in Seahouses, Northumberland when I spotted a Black-headed Gull wearing a metal ring. I got some bread, and, after about 20 minutes, managed to get enough photos to read the number; EY13347.

EY13347

I sent the record off to the BTO, and heard back that the bird had been ringed by The Natural History Society of Northumbria, as a pullus, on Inner Farne (2km away) on 3rd July 2014 (1787 days ago). Not the furthest ever recovery, but still very interesting to see,

Starlings Ringed

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged about the Starling nest on my house (see here). Since then, the 5 chicks have done really well, and today I ringed them for the BTO Ringing Scheme. Details of the nest will also be entered onto the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website.

5 chicks in the nestbox

Starling chick

Linacre Nestboxes - 4th May 2019

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre checking the nestboxes for the BTO Nest Record Scheme yesterday. Things had moved on very nicely since last week with 26 active nests (up from 25 last week), including 5 with chicks, one of which (8 Great Tit chicks), I was able to ring for the BTO Ringing Scheme.

Chicks!

The new nest was a very nice find, as it contained a bright blue egg in a grass cup, indicating a Pied Flycatcher nest. There were 3 singing Pied Flycatchers present as well, so hopefully, we'll end up with a few more nests as well.

Pied Flycatcher nest

Whilst walking around we also spotted 3 broods of Mallards (8, 9 and 1), 1 brood of Moorhens (3), 20 House Martins, 10 Swallows, and..... a Common Sandpiper (the first Linacre record of 2019).

I popped back down to  Linacre again this morning for an hour, and managed to find a singing Reed Bunting (first ever record of a singing bird, and my first Linacre record since 2013, when 1 was trapped and ringed (see here), and a singing Whitethroat. I managed to get an awful record shot of the latter bird, showing a ring. We haven't ringed that many Whitethroats at Linacre, so it would be great to retrap it this year to see if it is a returning bird or not.

Year List update:
159 - Whitethroat

Black-headed Gull 2N78

I wasn't expecting to find anymore ringed Black-headed Gulls this winter, so I was very surprised (and excited!) to find this beautiful adult breeding-plumaged bird on the river side at Bakewell on 6th April 2019.

2N78

The darvic ring looked familiar, and sure enough, it was ringed in Bowness at Windermere, on 2nd December 2018 It was last seen there on 4th February 2019, and my sighting was the next record. 

Who knows, perhaps it's a wintering bird heading back East? Hopefully, it'll get spotted somewhere in Europe during the breeding season.

Coal Aston Nests - 13th April 2019

I was out ringing this morning with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ring Group at a local farm in Coal Aston. We had a steady morning, with 12 birds of 6 species, including our first ever Chiffchaff record from this site. Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Nuthatch 0/2, Dunnock 1/2, Blue Tit 1/1, Great Tit 3/0, Robin 1/0 and Chiffchaff 1/0. All the retraps were birds that we had ringed at this site previously.

Whilst there, we had our first check of the nestboxes for 2019, and were very pleasantly surprised to find 6 out of the 7 boxes were occupied (up from 2 last year). 1 box contained a Nuthatch nest, whilst the other 5 nests were all tit nests (1 with a 1/2 built nest, 1 with 5 eggs, 1 with 10 eggs, 1 with 8 eggs and 1 with 2 eggs). All eggs were cold, so incubation hasn't yet started.

Nuthatch nest

Tit nest, with 10 eggs and lots of horse hair

Details of all the nests recorded, will be sent to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Black-headed Gull EY19562

Back in November 2018 I saw a metal ringed Black-headed Gull on the River Wye, Bakewell. I managed to get its ring number (EY19562), and found out that it had been ringed, as a first year bird, at Westport Lake, Staffordshire, on 10th December 2014, 40km away.

EY19562 - 4th November 2018

Since then, it has been re sighted in the same spot another 3 times; on 10th January 2019, 17th January 2019 (both by my nephew, Luke), and today, by me again. As far as I am aware, it hasn't been seen anywhere else since ringing.

EY19562 - today

Linacre WeBS Count - December 2018

Luke and I were down at Linacre on Monday morning to carry out this month's (belated) WeBS walk.
We arrived on site just as it was getting light (8am), and counted the following birds: Mallard (84), Tufted Duck (23), Mandarin (9), Coot (2), Moorhen (14), Grey Wagtail (2), Black-headed Gull (c.40).

Whilst there, we decided to see if there were any ringed gulls, and, as luck would have it, we managed to see and photograph 1 metal-ringed Black-headed Gull.

Finnish-ringed Black-headed Gull?

I fed the birds, whilst Luke got some photos, and, he managed to see the entire number. It looks very likely that the bird was ringed in Finland, so, as soon as we hear back, I'll update the blog.

Walking back to the car park, Luke spotted a Chiffchaff flitting about in trees by the middle reservoir. It isn't our first December record, but it's always good to see one at this time of the year. I wonder where it's from????????

UPDATE: The Finnish Black-headed Gull was ringed on 5th July 2006, as a chick, 1848km away in Lohtaja, Finland, 12 years, 5 months and 19 days since ringing. Fantastic result!!!

Danish Black-headed Gull

Yesterday, Luke and I were at Poolsbrook CP for a few hours. Whilst there, we managed to spot a metal ringed Black-headed Gull from Denmark (3rd of the winter!).

Danish BH Gull

I heard back today, and the bird had been ringed on the small island of Sprogø, 830km away, as a chick on 2nd June 2017. Nice!!

Whilst there, we also had 2 ringed Greylag Geese. The 2 ring numbers were sequential, and the birds looked like an adult and a juvenile birds, so they were most likely ringed together. I'll update the blog as soon as we hear back from the BTO. A very tame Pink-footed Goose was also present, and associating with the Greylags.

Greylags and Pink-footed Goose

UPDATE: Both Greylag Geese were ringed at Poolsbrook on 5th September 2016, so they haven't gone very far. 98 was born in 2018 and 99 was ringed as "at least 1 year old".

Long Distance Blue Tit

This year I ringed 69 Blue Tit pulli (birds still in the nest) at Linacre Reservoirs and another private site in Coal Aston. In an average  year I'd expect to get a few retraps, usually within a few kilometres of the nestboxes the birds were ringed in. Imagine, then, my joy when I received an email from our data manager, with details about one of this year's birds that had been caught 19km away from its nestbox in Coal Aston.

The bird in question was the last bird ringed from a brood of 10 on 26th May. As you can see in the picture below, the nest is made up of approximately 90% horse hair, and was very warm indeed!

Blue Tits

The bird was re caught by another ringer of our group (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) on 17th November (175 days after ringing) on Bradfield Moor, which is 19km NW of the ringing site. Great record.

Swedish Black-headed Gull in Bakewell

Back on 13th August I was in Bakewell when I spotted a Black-headed Gull with a metal ring. After a good half an hour I managed to get some photos of the number (6198688) and also noticed that the ring had the word Stockholm on it, indicating that the bird had been ringed in Sweden.

I sent the number off, and heard back today, that the bird had indeed been ringed in Sweden, as a nestling, on a large lake called Hornborgasjon on 20th June 2001, 1106km away from Bakewell. This means the bird is now 17 years old, and, my report is the first record since it was ringed!!

At the time I only took photos of its legs, so here are a couple showing the ring number.

Canada Goose AAAH

At the start of February (10th to be exact) I spotted a colour ringed Canada Goose swimming on the River Wye in Bakewell. The colour ring was AAAH (white writing on a red ring), and, after a quick internet search, I found out that it had been ringed in NW England. I sent off an email and heard back today that the bird in question had been ringed, as an adult female, in Bowness-on-Windermere on 2nd July 2013 (see link here).  The next sighting of this bird was in Bakewell on 29th September 2014, and it was then reported in Rowsley on 26th December 2015 and in Bakewell on 8th August 2017, 14th January 2018, 10th February (my sighting), and again by me, yesterday (17th February). The bird seemed settled in a small group of approximately 10 birds, so it might well hang around.

AAAH on 10th Feb 2018

AAAH on 17th Feb 2018

Mute Swan Ringing

Last year I became aware that one of Sorby Breck Ringing Group's members was the founder of the Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital. I also found out that he rings Mute Swan in and around Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Unfortunately I couldn't get out with him this year, so, when I saw the dates for swan ringing this year, I decided to meet up, and have a very different ringing experience.

I met up on Friday (11th) with 7 other members of the group and spent the whole day travelling around Yorkshire. We visited several sites where there were either pairs with cygnets, or, as in the case of Lakeside, Doncaster, where there was a large herd of mainly non-breeding birds. By the end of the day we'd ringed an amazing total of 58 Mute Swans, and re-sighted approximately 25 other birds that had been previously ringed by the group.

Birds were aged, sexed and a moult score was taken. A BTO metal ring, and a coloured darvic ring were also fitted by the licensed ringers, and the birds were then given a general health check by members of the Swan Rescue Group before being released back onto the water as a family group. Footage of the release of a family in Goole Docks can be seen here on the Group's Facebook page.  

BTO ring being fitted

Darvic ring being fitted

Should you re-sight any bird wearing  either a BTO ring or a coloured darvic ring please log your sighting with the BTO here.

Linacre Ringing and a 2 new Species

I was out ringing with 3 members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group at Linacre yesterday. We had 3 and a half hours on site, but only caught 9 birds, most of which were retrap Tits (Blue, Great and a single new Long-tailed). We also had singles of Dunnock and Bullfinch (a 5 male). Unfortunately, no warblers were caught, although Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap were all heard singing.

Whilst there, the sun came out for a while, and a Peacock butterfly was seen, along with a moth. I grabbed a quick photo, and was very pleased to identify it later as a Water Carpet - a new species for me and for Linacre (as far as I'm aware).

Water Carpet

Apparently, this species is quite common in Derbyshire, so is presumably quite common here, but has, so far, been overlooked. A nice addition.

The other "new" species was , I think, a Short-tailed or Field Vole. The individual was found underneath an old manhole cover that was on the grass by the ringing site. I lifted it up, and spotted this.

Field Vole

As you can (hopefully) see, its the back end of a Vole, and appears to have a very short tail. According to The Wildlife Trust's website (see here),  a Field Vole's tail is approximately 30% of its body length, so I quite happy that the id is correct. We did, also, see its face, but I didn't manage a photo of that end!! Now I know what the Kestrel that we saw, was after.

Starlings Ringed

The Starling chicks in the box on the side of my house have continued to grow very nicely over the last week and a half since they hatched on 19th April. I got some "C" rings from Ray, my trainer, today and ringed the chicks.

Starling chick (just before ringing)

As you can see, this chick, 1 of 5 ringed, has begun to grow its flight feathers, and, all being well, should fledge, along with its 4 siblings, in about a week. The ring numbers will be forwarded to the BTO, so that, if the chicks are re sighted, the details of their lives can be recorded, and will add to our knowledge of this "Red listed" species. Details of the nest will also be added to the BTO's Nestbox Challenge.

Whooper Swans at Holmebrook Valley CP

After walking around Linacre yesterday morning I decided to pop down the road to Holmebrook Valley CP in Chesterfield to check on the ringed Mute Swan and his partner that Luke and I recorded a few weeks ago (see blog post here). The Mute Swans were still there, but what was more of a surprise was the 2 Whooper Swans that were also present!

089, the ringed male Mute Swan, was acting very aggressively towards both birds, driving both of them out of the water, as can seen in this photo. He was particularly aggressive towards one bird, grabbing it by the neck on many occasions.

Whooper Swan and 089

I left at about 9:30am and the birds were reported on another 2 occasions, but they had gone this morning, allowing 089 and his partner time to calm down. Hopefully, the 2 Whoopers  are now well on their way to Iceland.

Whooper Swan

Siskins and a Redpoll

I haven't been out ringing for a couple of weeks, so this morning's session at our private site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield was a nice chance to get back out again. We met up at 6.30am and ringed 44 birds of 12 species over the next 4 hours. As the title suggests, the highlights were the Siskins and a single Lesser Redpoll. We don't ring lots of these species, so when they're around, it's nice to catch a few. We've also had some good recoveries of Redpolls ringed at this site when they return to Scotland to breed. Hopefully, some of today's birds will turn up there later in the year.

Siskin

Today's totals were (new/retrap): Siskin 4/0, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Goldfinch 14/0, Chaffinch 4/0, Bullfinch 3/0, Robin 0/1, Blue Tit 3/4, Great Tit 2/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/1, Robin 0/1, Wren 1/0 and Goldcrest 1/0.

Other birds seen and heard this morning were: Song Thrush (singing), Blackbird, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Stock Dove (year tick). There were also at least half a dozen Common Frogs spawning in the pond.

Year List update:
110 - Stock Dove

Darviced Herring Gull

Whilst in Llandudno on Wednesday, I noticed that one of the Herring Gulls on the promenade was wearing a darvic ring.

Herring Gull (EPM)

I managed to get a few photos, and noticed that the combination of 3 orange letters over blue looked familiar. After a bit of searching I realised that this combination was the same as the Lesser Black-backed Gull I'd seen in Worcester in May this year (see here). I contacted the ringer who confirmed that it had indeed been ringed by The Severn Estuary Gull Group at a landfill site in Gloucestershire on 12th December 2009 as an adult bird. It was re sighted a couple of times on the landfill site again in November and December 2010 before moving 187km north to Liverpool, where it was seen in March 2011.  The next sighting was a year later (April 2012)when the bird had moved across to Llandudno, where it seems to have settled. It has been reported another 7 times in Llandudno in the winter months, my sighting being the most recent. It is now 7 years and 16 days since it was ringed. A summer time sighting would now be very useful.

Garden Ringing

Sunday morning was perfect for ringing, with grey, overcast skies and no wind. I was out with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at the private garden site in Wingerworth, where we had a steady number of birds, resulting in 46 birds of 8 species caught.

Numbers were (new/retrap): Blue Tit (12/5), Great Tit (6/4), Coal Tit (3/3), Robin (1/3), Great-spotted Woodpecker (1/0), Chaffinch (4/0), Goldfinch (2/0) and Wren (2/0).