Linacre Nestboxes - 27th April 2024

 Yesterday, I had my first visit of the year to check on the nestboxes at Linacre. The initial few boxes didn't bode well, but, by the end of the session, I had 20 boxes with eggs in them. As always, the boxes were checked under licence, and the results will be added to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. There are still a few boxes to check, so hopefully, there will be a few more to add to the list.

All of yesterday's boxes contained tit nests, including only my second Coal Tit nest. The highest count of eggs was 13 in one clutch! Unfortunately, there weren't any Pied Flycatchers around at all. I'll keep checking, and hopefully, there will be some nests this year.

After checking the boxes, I walked around the rest of the site, recording my first Common Sandpiper (162) of the year. 

Common Sandpiper

There were also approximately 15 Swallows, 1 House Martin and 1 Sand Martin, flying around the top reservoir. The ringed Grey Wagtail was still present, singing on the top reservoir, and was joined by a female bird. Other birds seen were: 1 Grey Heron, 21 Mallard, 7 Mandarin Ducks, 1 Canada Goose, 7 Coots (1 nest on the top reservoir), 4 Moorhens, 3 Great-crested Grebes,  24 Tufted Ducks, 3 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap, 2 Song Thrushes and a calling Great-spotted Woodpecker. Unfortunately, the female Mute Swan, 6Y24, appears to have left the site.

Swallow

In the afternoon, I was down at The Avenue Washlands, and spotted my first Swift (163) of the year.

Year List Update - 7th April 2024

 It's been a few weeks since I updated the "Year List", and, since then, I've added a few new species.

First was the Ring-necked Parakeet (132). This was first seen in Didsbury Park, Manchester, when 2 were spotted. The next species, Blackcap (133), was added last Sunday, when 1 was ringed at The Avenue in Chesterfield. Bird number 134, Willow Warbler, was heard at Linacre, while 135 was a Barnacle Goose, a feral bird seen in London on Thursday. The final three species seen at Linacre this week, were: Swallow (136 - first seen on 6th, and then c.10 seen today), House Martin (137 - c.20 feeding over the middle reservoir, in rain, today) and Sand Martin (138 - c.5/6 feeding with the Swallows and House Martins today).

Yorkshire Black-winged Stilts

 This year has seen a large influx of Black-winged Stilts, with at least 3 pairs so far known to be breeding (2 at RSPB Frampton Marsh) and 1 at Edderthorpe Flash, which is part of the RSPB Old Moor/Dearne Valley reserves.

This morning, Jayne and I drove across to Edderthorpe to see the birds. We found them straight away, but only aw the adult birds, not the four chicks. Whilst there, we also saw a Great White Egret, Avocets ( a minimum of 5 adults and 8 chicks, but probably a lot more), a Grey Heron , Cettis Warbler (singing) and 1 Little Ringed Plover.

Black-winged Stilt

Afterwards, we drove across to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where we had a walk around the grounds, spotting a Mullein Moth caterpillar, 13 Mute Swans (7 adults and 6 cygnets), c.200 Sand Martins, c.20 Swifts, c.20 House Martins, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, a juvenile Grey Heron, Mallard and Great-crested Grebes. There were very few insects around, as it was very windy, overcast with a few rain showers, but we did spot a couple of Ringlets and also managed to see our first Gatekeeper of the year.

Gatekeeper

Year List update - 171 Black-winged Stilt

Linacre - 14th April 2023

I was down at Linacre this morning from 7am - 11am taking a first check of the year nestboxes (thanks to Antony and Pete for your support!)

As always, I was a little early, with just one box showing any sign of nesting activity; Owl Box 2, which had 6 cold, uncovered eggs (most likely Mandarin Duck). It did, however, give me time to put back on lids that had fallen off and have a walk around the reservoirs.

Whilst walking around, there were frequent drizzly showers, and I was lucky enough to see a flock of c.30 Swallows, 3 Sand Martins and 1 House Martin, feeding over the top reservoir. These were my first Linacre records of 2023. Other species seen and/or heard were: 6 Chiffchaffs, 2 Willow Warblers, 3 Blackcaps, 1 Raven, 1 Tawny Owl, 4 Great-crested Grebes, 2 Little Grebes, my first Moorhen nest (bird sitting), 1 singing Mistle Thrush, 2 singing Song Thrushes, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, a pair of Greylag Geese that flew east along the valley, and 3 Canada Geese (1 pair and another individual).

If all this birdlife wasn't enough, I also found 3 roosting Brown Long-eared Bats in one of the boxes and spotted 2 Brown Hares and a very impressive adult Grass Snake. (thanks Antony and Pete)!!!

Brown Long-eared Bats

Grass Snake

Sunshine and (Snow) Showers

Today was this month's WeBS walk at Linacre. I had a wander round and recorded the following birds: Mallard (45), Mandarin (24), Coot (5), Moorhen (8), Great-crested Grebe (2), Tufted Duck (69),  Canada Goose (1), Lesser Black-backed Gull (2 adults), Goosander (1 female), Pied Wagtail (1) and Grey Wagtail (5). The Grey Wagtails were singing and displaying, and I managed to get this interesting photo.

Grey Wagtails

In addition to these species there were also c.30 Swallows, 2 House Martins and 1 Sand Martin (feeding together over the top reservoir in a snow/hail shower!!) and 4 Buzzards. The best birds, however, were 3 Reed Buntings (2 males and 1 female) that I found feeding in and around the willows by the boardwalk on the top reservoir. This is only my third record of this species at Linacre (1 male ringed in 2013 and 1 male singing in the ringing site in 2019), so you can imagine how pleased I was to see them! Unfortunately, they didn't want their photos taking, and this awful picture, is the best I got!!

Reed Bunting (male)

The last bird of note was seen on Friday 9th, and was the first Common Sandpiper of the year. I usually only get 1 sighting of this species each year, as they pass through to their breeding grounds, so I was very pleased to catch up with this bird. It fed on the wall of the middle dam, and again, this is my best photo.

Common Sandpiper

Linacre Nestboxes - 7th April 2021

 Yesterday I went down to Linacre to meet up with some of the regular Severn Trent volunteers (thanks everyone, it was great to meet you all). One of the volunteers shared photos of  2 caterpillars that had been found on site. One was a Pale Tussock and the other was an Elephant Hawk-moth. Both species were new records for the site.

Pale Tussock

Elephant Hawkmoth

Whilst there, we had a first check in the "owl boxes", and found that 3 of the 5 were in use, albeit not by owls!! As usual, the 3 boxes all contained Mandarin Duck eggs, including 1 with at least 38(!) eggs in it - a classic example of "egg dumping" by several different females. The other 2 contained just 3 and 4 eggs. None of the broods were being incubated yet. Several pairs of Blue Tits were seen entering nestboxes, so it seems that the the breeding season is beginning in earnest. 

Mandarin nest with 38 eggs

After the nestboxes, I had a quick walk around the middle and top reservoirs, and spotted my first Swallows (6), House Martins (2) and Sand Martins (2) of 2021.

Other species seen were: Kestrel (1 male hunting below the top reservoir - my first Linacre record of 2021), Raven (2 over the bottom reservoir), Grey Heron (1, my first Linacre record of 2021) and Sparrowhawk (1 female). 

Scotland - The Last Few Days

My last post about my recent Scotland trip is one covering a few days, and several different places.

The first place is a forest called Allean, near Queen's View in the Tay Forest Park. Jayne and I had a walk around this site for a couple of hours and recorded the usual suspects (tits, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeons), and a "year tick", Crossbill. Unfortunately, the only bird we saw was very distant, and silhouetted against the sky, so I wasn't able to see if it was a Common Crossbill or another, more exciting, species!! Afterwards, we went to Dunkeld for some delicious vegan food at The Atholl Arms Hotel, where we also saw our first Sand Martins of the trip, and a fly-over Jay.

Next stop was St Andrews on 25th April. We had a walk around the town and the old cathedral, and spotted about half a dozen nesting Fulmars, and 100+ Eider Ducks.

Fulmar

Our last trips of the week were to Cairn Gorm and the RSPB Loch Garten reserve. We visited Cairn Gorm yesterday morning. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great (windy, raining on and off, and a low mist!), but we did get great views of at least 4 Ring Ouzels, including this male in the car park, a Mountain Hare and a male Wheatear in the small garden area.

Ring Ouzel

Wheatear

We then visited RSPB Loch Garten. There are no breeding Ospreys there this year, but we did see a pair of Goldeneye, a couple of Red Squirrels, many (!) Siskins, but no Crested Tits!!

The last bird, and the latest "year tick", a Cuckoo,  was heard, by Jayne, at 5am this morning, from our accommodation in Killikrankie. Thankfully, she woke me up so I could hear it too!

Year List update:
157 - Crossbill
158 - Cuckoo

Year List Update- 14th April 2019

It's been over a month since I last updated the year list, and, since then, I've added quite a few new species, including a "lifer", the Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (blythi) that I caught and ringed in February (see here). As you can see, most of the new species are summer visitors, except for the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker (heard at Linacre on 30th March - my first record there since 2014), and the Red Grouse, seen yesterday at Stanage Edge.

Ring Ouzel

Year List update:
126 – Lesser-spotted Woodpecker

127- Lesser Whitethroat (blythi) 

128 – Blackcap
129 – Willow Warbler
130 – Swallow
131 – Sand Martin
132 – House Martin
133 – Red Grouse

134 – Ring Ouzel

Linacre Nestboxes and Summer Migrants - 14th April 2019

Luke and I were down at Linacre this morning to have the first check of the nestboxes for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. We went around all of the "tit" boxes and found 12 with eggs in them already, including one with a Great Tit sitting, and a further 20 with the beginnings of nests in them. All the eggs were tit eggs, and all but one of the nests were tit nests. One nest looked a little different with grass in it, so fingers crossed for this one. Unfortunately, there weren't any signs of Nuthatches using the boxes... yet. The owl boxes will be checked later in the week.

Tit nest with 12 eggs

Along with these nests, we also inadvertently flushed a female Mallard off a nest that was built on top of a 1m high wall (the first one I've ever found at Linacre), and also had a pair of very annoyed Chiffchaffs alarm calling and wing flicking at us as we walked past them. The Moorhen's nest that we found last weekend was still active, with a bird sitting on it, whilst a tiny, newly-fledged Moorhen chick was by the boardwalk on the top reservoir. Last, but by no means least, was a Blackbird carrying nesting material.

Mallard nest

Other birds noted this morning were: 4 Bramblings still around the top reservoir, Greylag Geese (birds heard honking, but not seen, 1st record of 2019), Teal (a pair on the top reservoir), Siskin and Lesser Redpoll (heard by the top reservoir), Blackcap (4+ singing), Willow Warbler (2 singing) and a very nice mixed flock of Swallow (c.40), Sand Martins (c.20) and House Martins (4+) feeding on the top reservoir, and coming in to roost on the dam wall (1st Linacre records of 2019).

Rutland Water - 5th April 2018

Luke and I went to Rutland Water Nature Reserve on Thursday to catch up with the Ospreys that had returned to breed on the reserve. We spent the day there, and got great views of the Manton Bay pair, along with another 4 "year ticks", including a Wheatear, that was quite unexpected. We also a breeding plumaged Mediterranean Gull that had originally been ringed in Poland.

The weather was great, 12 degrees, bright blue skies and sunshine, so we also managed to get our first butterflies of the year; 1 Comma, 1 Small Tortoiseshell and 3 male Brimstones.

The other "year ticks" (numbers 103 - 107) on the list below, were seen at Scarborough on Tuesday (3rd), where I also had a stunning breeding plumaged Mediterranean Gull. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo as I'd left my camera at home!!!!!

The Chiffchaff, 4 in total, were seen at Linacre on Wednesday 4th.

Year List update:
103 – Red Kite
104 – Kittiwake
105 – Turnstone
106 - Fulmar
107 – Rock Pipit
108 – Chiffchaff
109 – Willow Warbler
110 – Black-necked Grebe
111 – Sand Martin
112 – Wheatear
113 - Osprey

Linacre Nestboxes - a first visit

Over the weekend, and yesterday, I paid my first visit of 2017 to monitor the nestboxes at Linacre. I had a feeling they'd be further on than last year, as I'd seen 1 Blue Tit entering a box last weekend. As it turned out, I found a total of 29 boxes with nests in them ranging from N1 to NL, and even 1 with an egg!! The egg is particularly early, with the first one in 2016 not recorded until 5th May!

Nest with an egg (possibly Blue Tit)

On Sunday I checked 4 of the 5 "owl" boxes that I have up around the site. The Little Owl box was empty, as were 3 of the other boxes. The remaining box contained.... a Grey Squirrel nest complete with 2 young squirrels. Last year, two of the owl boxes were used by Mandarin Ducks, but eggs weren't laid until later in the month, so I'll pop back in a couple of weeks to see if anything's happened. All the results will be sent in to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

After checking the boxes I walked around the site to carry out this month's WeBS walk. Numbers were quite low, but the following were spotted: Mallard (27), Tufted Duck (27), Coot (7 - including the first nest of 2017 on the top reservoir), Moorhen (3), Mandarin (11), Cormorant (3; 2 adults, including one with a ring, and an immature bird), Great-crested Grebe (3), Mandarin Duck (11) and Grey Wagtail (1).

Mandarin Duck

Other birds seen included a Mistle Thrush carrying food to an unseen nest, 3 Sand Martins, 1 Swallow (first Linacre records of 2017), a minimum of 3 singing Willow Warblers, 5 singing Blackcaps and 4 singing Chiffchaffs. Siskins and Lesser Redpoll were also heard.

It was quite sunny yesterday morning, so there were a few insects flying around, including a single Peacock, several Droneflies (Eristalsis sp), and, best of all, a potential new species; Early Mining Bee.

Early Mining Bee??

Year List update:

122 - Swallow

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

Isle of Wight Birds - Part 2

Since my last post about the bird life of the Isle of Wight (see here), Jayne and I have managed to see a few more species, and get a few more nice views of species previously reported.

New species seen were; Dartford Warbler (1 on Tennyson Down), Gannet ( 1 adult that flew past Ventnor Beach), Kingfisher (1 from the hide at Newtown NNR), Curlew (2 flying over the saltmarsh at Newtown NNR), Wheatear (3 juveniles on Tennyson Down) and House and Sand Martin (both seen in Bembridge, the first over the pub, and the second species over the beach).

Along with these new species, we also enjoyed good views of some other species. Highlights were a fishing Little Egret  seen on two occasions in Bembridge Harbour. 2 Greenshanks were also seen here on Friday 12th, up from the single bird seen earlier in the holiday.

Little Egret

After the sight of 2 Ravens flying high over Afton Down on 31st July, we enjoyed excellent views of 2 (possibly a pair?)  at The Needles. Both birds were flying around the New Battery for most of our visit, and eventually came down to grab some picnic left overs from the floor, before landing on a metal mast. Great views!

Ravens (look at those beaks!)

Also seen on Tennyson Down were Stonechats, including at least 3 juveniles.

The last bird of note has to be the juvenile Mediterranean Gull that was kind enough to land on the beach at Bembridge just in front of me, and stayed long enough for a photo.

Mediterranean Gull

Happier news- Summer Migrants return

Following on from yesterday's sad post about the demise of one of the juvenile/2nd calendar year Shags, I am very pleased to be able to report some good news from Linacre.

At the same time that the Shag was found, Jim Clarke, also found the first summer migrants of the year; 1 Swallow and 2 Sand Martins. When I went down later in the afternoon, I too, dropped lucky and spotted both these species, but I saw 2 Swallows and 1 Sand Martin! 2 Chiffchaffs were also singing.

The Swallow and Sand Martin were new for the year, as was a Red Kite that Lydia found whilst we were driving back from Leeds.

Year List update:
122 - Red Kite
123 - Swallow
124 - Sand Martin

Linacre WeBS - May 2015

This weekend was the allocated time for May's WeBS walk, so a big thank you to Mandy and Carmella from the Chesterfield RSPB Group for carrying out the count in my absence.

As is usual, May can be quite quiet still, but there were the first records of Mandarin Duck chicks (5, with  1 female), along with 4 young Mallards (and 21 adults), 6 adult Coots (no chicks yet), 14 Tufted Ducks and just 1 Great-crested Grebe.

All the usual woodland birds were recorded, along with Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Swallows. 3 Swifts (the first Linacre 2015 record), 2 Sand Martins and 3 House Martins were also reported over the top reservoir on the 17th.

Summer Migrants...at last!

The weather this spring has been, to put it nicely, poor! Cold, northerly winds and rain have meant that few summer migrants have managed to push north so far. I did, however, manage to add a few ticks to the "year list" with a visit to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve on Monday, where I managed to pick up a couple of male Garganey, and 2 fly-through Sand Martins. Another addition to the list was a  remaining winter visitor, the Wigeon.

Year List update:

88 – Garganey

89 – Sand Martin
90 - Wigeon

Avenue Ringing x 2

As the title of today's post suggests, I've had two ringing sessions at The Avenue this week. The first, on Sunday, was an early morning session, whilst the second, on Tuesday, was an evening visit for a last attempt at the Swallow roost.

Sunday's session was a slow, but steady, with a total of 46 birds of 10 different species ringed (Willow, Great and Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Dunnock, Blackcap and Chiffchaff). My personal total were (new/retrap): Willow Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 0/1, Great Tit 2/4, Chaffinch 1/0, Bullfinch 1/2 and Dunnock 1/1.

Tuesday's session was out second attempt of the year to catch Swallows that roost at The Avenue before migrating to Africa for the winter months (see here for details of our first outing). . There were only about 50/60 birds roosting, so we were very lucky to catch 23, as well as a single juvenile Sand Martin. Again, my personal total was 8 Swallows, all new birds. A change from the first visit was the fact that we caught 4 adult birds this time.

Unfortunately, this will most likely be our last attempt to catch the Swallows this year. We can now begin to look forward to the Meadow Pipit migration up on the moors, and the first winter visitors... a Redwing or Fieldfare would be nice!!!

Yellow Wagtails at Carsington

This time last year I went up to Carsington Water to see some passage Yellow Wagtails. I've been checking Birdguides all week, and spotted a few reports coming through, so I drove across tonight and managed to locate 3 very bright individuals on the Water Sports Island. Here's a couple of photos.

Yellow Wagtail

 

Also seen on this island were a Common Sandpiper,  a Redshank and an Oystercatcher, whilst flying around were dozens of Swallows, and a couple each of Sand and House Martins.

 

Year List update:

140 – Yellow Wagtail

141 – Common Sandpiper

St Mary's Island Year Ticks

Regular readers may well remember that my son lives up in Newcastle and that Jayne, Lydia and I head up there periodically to see him and his girlfriend. Whilst up there I always find a few hours to head up to one of my favourite birding spots; St Mary's Island. Although quite quiet this weekend, I did manage  a couple of year ticks: Gannet and Fulmar.

Gannet

 

Fulmar

 

Also seen around the island were: Golden Plover (3 breeding plumaged birds), Turnstones (6), Sand Martins, Swallows, Swifts, Cormorants, Eider Ducks (5), Sandwich Terns (20), Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Starlings and a very unusual sighting of a Nuthatch that flew in off the sea!!

Year List:
146 - Gannet
147 - Fulmar

Linacre update- ringing tick and nesting success.

Two visits to Linacre this weekend, one for ringing and nest recording, and one to catch up with the summer migrants. A mixed set of results.

First up the ringing and nest recording. A four hour session with the nets resulted in just 17 birds ringed, but this total did include our first ringed Linacre Chiffchaff of the year and a ringing tick for me; a Woodpigeon! A very interesting bird and my first "F" ring.

Woodpigeon

 

Between net rounds we managed a bit of birdwatching and recorded the first records of Mute Swan (1 flew over) and Pied Wagtail (flew over), for Linacre this year.Other birds of note included a Sparrowhawk overhead, 3 Jays, 2 Canada Geese, yaffling Green Woodpecker and drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker. We also recorded our first butterflies of the year, Small Tortoiseshell, 3 feeding on the Coltsfoot, which was out in profusion today, along with super Cowslip and Wood Anenome.

 

Cowslip

 

The last job of the morning was to check on the owl boxes and the Little Owls. We checked the two owl boxes above Spire View and found both contained Mandarin Duck eggs!! The first box contained 5 eggs and no bird, while the second box contained 9 or possibly10 eggs and a female Mandarin Duck.

 

Mandarin eggs

 

The second box, shown above, was full of down as well, whereas the eggs in the first box were laid simply on the sticks and leaves that were already in the box. Anyway, we'll fill in BTO nest record cards for both boxes and watch what happens. I'll let you know. We also checked the tree where we'd seen a couple of Little Owls and were very pleased to find one bird sitting tight. The hole is pretty small, so we couldn't see what the bird was sitting on, but we'll keep monitoring over the next few weeks and hopefully record a successful brreding attempt here as well.

 

I popped back to Linacre again this morning and walked around all three reservoirs recording the first Willow Warblers (4 singing), Sand Martins (6 over the top reservoir) and Blackcaps (4 singing) of the year. Nice!!! Just need the flycatchers, Swifts and House Martins to come back now.