Linacre Ringing - 8th October 2024

Last weekend, we had a ringing session down at Linacre. We arrived at 6.45am, and, by 11am, we had ringed 47 new birds of 8 species.

Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0 (1 juvenile), Song Thrush 2/0 (both juveniles), Blue Tit 12/2, Great Tit 22/1, Coal Tit 1/0 (juvenile), Wren 3/0 (all juveniles), Blackcap 1/0 (juvenile male - weighing in at just over 20g!!) and Chiffchaff 1/0 (adult).

This was, by far, our best session at Linacre this year, with the best birds obviously being our latest ever ringed  Blackcap and Chiffchaff. The two Song Thrushes were also great records, and presumably, relate to locally bred birds.

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Song Thrush

Linacre Ringing - 2nd October 2022

 Last Saturday I was down at Linacre with two other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group for our first ringing session there, since March!!!

The day started well, with a Goldcrest the first bird out of the nets. It continued right up to the end of the session, nearly 5 hours later, by which time we'd ringed 61 birds of 12 species!

Totals were (new/re trap): Goldcrest 4/0, Great Tit 10/0, Blue Tit 24/0, Long-tailed Tit 9/2, Coal Tit 1/0, Robin 2/0, Dunnock 2/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Chiffchaff 3/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

The two re trap Long-tailed Tits had been ringed together, at Linacre, on 14th November 2021.

Linacre Birds - 12th February 2022

 I managed to get down to Linacre for the first February visit. The weather was cool (5 degrees) and pretty windy, but there were decent numbers of most birds. 

Numbers were: Mallard (126 - highest count of the year), Coot (14), Moorhen (12- 11 adults and 1 of last year's juveniles), Tufted Duck (28-  the highest count of the year), Goosander (2 females), Mandarin (5 - 4 males and 1 female, still very low numbers), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1 breeding plumaged bird), Grey Wagtail (1), Grey Heron (1) and Cormorant (1). 

A Great-spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming, and I also recorded my first singing Song Thrush of the year.

Linacre WeBS - 12th December 2020

 I was down at Linacre yesterday morning to carry out this month's WeBS walk. It was one of the best walks I've done all year, with record counts for both Mallard and Mandarin Duck. 

Totals seen were: 181 Mallard, 179 Mandarin Duck, 69 Tufted Duck, 10 Moorhen, 5 Coot, 48 Black-headed Gull, 9 Goosander (5 males and 4 females, including birds displaying), 2 Grey Wagtail and 2 Little Grebes.

The woodlands were quite quiet, but I was quite surprised to hear a singing Song Thrush on arrival! The final bird of note was Fieldfare, which was heard flying over.

Linacre WeBS - February 2019

This month's WeBS count took place yesterday morning, and the following birds were counted; Mallard 64, Mandarin Duck 28, Tufted Duck 27, Coot 7, Moorhen 10, Cormorant 2, Goosander 4; 2 males and 2 females - my first Linacre record since January 2018!), Great-crested Grebe 6; including 1 pair displaying, Black-headed Gull 70 and Kingfisher 1. In amongst the Mallards was this single, all white duck, first seen last month.

The woods were full of birds enjoying the 8 degree warmth and sunshine with many species recorded singing including Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Song and Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Goldcrest and Coal Tit. There were also at least 3 Great-spotted Woodpeckers drumming, a large flock of Siskin in the Larches by the middle reservoir and my first Stock Dove record for Linacre in 2019.

Year List Update - 2nd February 2019

It's been a while since I updated the 2019 Year List, and, as you can see, there are a few new additions.

The Song Thrush was heard singing at Linacre on 26th whilst the Water Rail was heard down at Holmebrook Valley Park.

The Raven and Dipper were both seen today, whilst walking through Monsal Dale, and the last four species, 108 - 111, were all seen on the feeders at Shilito Woods.

Year List update:
104 – Song Thrush
105 - Water Rail
106 – Raven
107 – Dipper
108 – Lesser Redpoll
109 – Brambling
110 – Reed Bunting
111 – Yellowhammer

Linacre Ringing - 26th January 2018

Saturday saw 6 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group back down at Linacre for the second ringing session of the year. We had a relatively quiet session with just 18 birds ringed, as follows (new/retrap): Coal Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 7/7 and Great Tit 3/0.

Whilst on site we also had the first records of 2019 for Song Thrush (1 bird singing) and Common Buzzard (1 over). Also seen were, Sparrowhawk (2 birds together over the ringing site),  Bullfinch, Siskin and Mistle Thrush (2 seen, and heard singing).

Linacre Ringing - 25th August 2018

Saturday was dry, so I was down at Linacre with 4 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group for our first mist netting session since the start of July (see here). Despite the sunshine, we had a good session catching 49 birds of 13 species, including another 2 fledgling Blue Tits that were ringed in the nestboxes this year, and our first juvenile Willow Warblers of the year.

Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/0, Robin 2/0, Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackcap 6/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Willow Warbler 6/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 14/5, Great Tit 5/1, Chaffinch 2/0 and Goldfinch 1/0. As last time, the majority of the birds were juveniles.

Other birds seen or heard during the session were: Tawny Owl (heard), House Martin (c.6 overhead) and the hybrid Canada Goose (flew over).

Linacre WeBS and Nestboxes - 20th February 2018

I was down at Linacre this morning, with 2 jobs to do. The first job was to replace a few of the nestboxes that had been damaged by Grey Squirrels last year, just in time for the BTO's National Nestbox Week. In total 6 boxes were replaced, and a few others were picked up off the floor!! Thanks to Chesterfield RSPB Group for providing the boxes. It'll be another couple of months before the first nests will be built, and I can begin to new Nest Record Cards for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, so I'll report back then.

New nestbox

The second job was this months WeBS count. Numbers were average for the time of year: Mallard 51, Tufted Duck 27, Coot 5, Moorhen 6, Great-crested Grebe 4; 2 pairs, 1 on the top reservoir and 1 on the middle reservoir, Little Grebe 1 breeding plumaged bird, Mandarin Duck 2, Black-headed Gull 18 and Cormorant 6.

Cormorant

The temperature today was 10 degrees and it was quite sunny, so several of the woodland birds were singing, including 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush, Nuthatch, Coal and Great Tit, Robin and Dunnock. A drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker was heard, as was a "yaffling" Green Woodpecker.

The Snowdrops were looking very nice in the woods by the top car park too.

Snowdrops

Linacre - 3rd February 2018

Luke and I had a couple of hours out at Holmebrook Valley CP and Linacre this morning. Despite persistent drizzle, and a little bit of sleety snow, we had a good walk.

First up Holmebrook Valley. We arrived at just after 7:30am and saw: Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Grey Heron, Mute Swan and Kingfisher.

Linacre records were: Mallard (60), Mandarin Duck (17), Tufted Duck (15), Coot (8), Moorhen (10), Great-crested Grebe (2), Little Grebe (1) and Black-headed Gull (29). Great-spotted Woodpecker was heard, as were Song Thrush (singing), Bullfinch and Green Woodpecker (calling).

Black-headed Gulls 

In the afternoon Jayne and I drove across to Sheffield to see 3 Waxwings. we got brief views through the rain!!

Waxwings

Year List update:
72 – Marsh Tit
73 – Goldeneye
74 – Song Thrush
75 – Green Woodpecker
76 – Waxwing

Ringing Success

After a couple of months break, we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) were back down at Linacre this morning for a ringing session. As the title suggests, we had a very successful morning, with 72 birds of 10 species caught and ringed. All the birds, bar two, were juvenile birds.

The most numerous species caught was Blue Tit, comprising 42 birds (38 new and 4 retraps). All birds were born this year, and the retraps were birds that had been ringed this year in the boxes throughout Linacre, which is always good to see. We also caught 4 juvenile Great Tits (3 new birds and 1 retrap that had also been ringed in a Linacre box this year), 2 Coal Tits (1 adult and 1 juvenile), 2 Long-tailed Tits (both juveniles), 1 Wren (juvenile), 1 Song Thrush (juvenile) and 1 Goldfinch (juvenile).

To supplement the resident birds, we also caught 3 species of summer migrant; Blackcap (3 juveniles), Chiffchaff (6 juveniles) and Willow Warbler (9 juveniles and 1 adult). All in all, an excellent morning's ringing.

Willow Warbler (juvenile)

Other bird species seen during the morning included 12 House Martins, 1 Swallow and 2 Kestrels, which could have been an adult and a juvenile. A Painted Lady butterfly was also seen, the first site record since 2013 (see here), along with 1 Peacock,  1 Red Admiral and dozens of Cinnabar Moth caterpillars.

Spotted Flycatcher

I was up in Ripley, North Yorkshire at the weekend enjoying my son's wedding(!). In a quiet moment, I had a walk around the village where I spotted a pair of Spotted Flycatchers, who were busy "flycatching" in the church yard, and returning to an unseen nest. Both birds were very confiding, and posed beautifully on the various gravestones. A very nice "year tick".

Spotted Flycatcher

Whilst there, I also had a walk down to the nearby Ripley Castle and River Nidd, where I had another pair of Flycatchers collecting food, as well as Grey Wagtails feeding at least 2 juveniles, a fly over Grey Heron and several pairs of Jackdaws visiting nest holes. Other species recorded in the village including Pied Wagtail, House Sparrow, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Red Kite, Swallow, nest building House Martin and Swift.

House Martin

Year List update:
174 - Spotted Flycatcher

Linacre - 25th March 2017

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre this morning. We arrived at 7am and it was bright and sunny, but only minus 1 degrees. When we left at 9am it was still bright and sunny, but the temperature had risen to 7 degrees.

One of the first birds we heard today was a calling Tawny Owl, surprisingly our first Linacre record of 2017. We walked around all 3 reservoirs, and recorded 10 singing Chiffchaffs, 2 Song Thrushes, 2 Mistle Thrushes, Siskin (heard and 2 seen), 4 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 9 Mandarin Ducks, 36 Mallards, 31 Tufted Ducks, 10 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 6 Great-crested Grebes (3 pairs), 1 Canada Goose, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Grey Wagtails, 3 Black-headed Gulls, 1 "redhead" Goosander, 1 Common Buzzard and 3 Cormorants, including this ringed individual.

Cormorant

As we were heading back to the car we decided to have one last look for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. No luck unfortunately, but we did stumble on 5 Stock Doves, including a pair that were inspecting a potential nest hole. This not only our highest ever count at Linacre, but also the first time we've seen them near a nest site. Hopefully, I'll be able to report a successful nesting report later in the season.

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

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

Linacre WeBS - 18th February 2017

Luke and I were down at Linacre this morning to carry out this month's WeBS count. It was a grey, overcast morning, but it was also quite mild at 5 degrees. As we drove onto the site, we were met by an amazing flock of c.400 Starling flying over. What a start!

We were on site for just over two hours, and recorded the following birds: Mallard (63), Tufted Duck (24), Mandarin (5), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (4), Moorhen (16), Coot (15), Black-headed Gull (17), Grey Wagtail (1), Cormorant (2) and Goosander (2 redheads).

For Luke and me, the highlight was the 2 Goosander. These were our first of the year at Linacre, and are always nice to see. Other birds seen in the surrounding woodland included 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Treecreepers, a male Sparrowhawk, a male Bullfinch, 1 Buzzard, Siskin (heard), 5 singing Song Thrushes and 4 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers.

How old??

How long do birds live? is a question we are often asked by members of the public at ringing demonstrations. I was asked this exact question whilst out ringing yesterday with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands reserve. The bird in question was a Blue Tit that we'd just extracted from one of the nets and was found to be wearing a ring already.

David checked the ring number when he got home, and emailed the following details. The bird had originally been ringed at The Avenue on 28th March 2010 and aged as a 5M i.e. it had been born in 2009. It had only been re trapped once before today, on 27th February 2011, also at The Avenue. This means that this bird is now 7 years old (in its 8th calendar year), which is a pretty impressive age for such a small bird. A quick check of the BTO's Longevity Records , shows that the oldest Blue Tit on record was 10 years, 3 months and 10 days old when it was last recorded, so "our" bird still has a few years to go!

Other birds caught during yesterday's session were (new/retrap): Wren 0/1, Dunnock 2/1, Robin 3/0, Blackbird 5/0, Song Thrush 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 0/4, Great Tit 3/1, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Bullfinch 4/3, Yellowhammer 1/0, Reed Bunting 11/1.

Linacre - 4th February 2017

Luke and I made our first visit to Linacre for February  this morning. It was cold (0 degrees on arrival), dry, bright and sunny, and we walked around all 3 reservoirs.

Water birds seen were: Mallard (66), Tufted Duck (27), Mandarin Duck (5), Moorhen (14), Coot (8), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (2; 1 very vocal bird on the middle reservoir, and another, quieter bird on the top reservoir, both birds in full breeding plumage), Cormorant (3, including 1 in full breeding plumage), Black-headed Gull (10) and Grey Heron (1 in trees on the middle reservoir).

The woods were quite quiet, but we did hear a couple of singing Song Thrushes, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker and Siskin. Robins were also in good voice, and the/a usual bird was still present by the top reservoir enjoying some free food!

Robin

Linacre Sightings and Chesterfield Waxwings

It was a cold (2 degrees), grey and miserable morning when I arrived at Linacre this morning with Luke. We had an hour and a half walking around the middle and top reservoirs before heading off to Chesterfield to look at a flock of Waxwings that had been reported earlier in the week.

Waterbirds seen at Linacre today were: Mallard (63), Tufted Duck (13), Mandarin Duck (18), Coot (6), Moorhen (11), Black-headed Gull (40), Cormorant (1), Little Grebe (2; 1 on the top and 1 on the middle reservoir) and Great-crested Grebe (1, showing partial breeding plumage).

Great-crested Grebe (courtesy of Luke)

The woods were quite quiet, but we did hear 1 Song Thrush singing, and recorded a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Mistle Thrush (by the top reservoir), 2 Treecreepers (1st Linacre record of 2017), 1 Magpie, 2 Common Buzzard, a couple of Goldcrests and several Robins coming to seed again.

Robin (courtesy of Luke again)

After looking around Linacre, we drove down to St Helen's Street in Newbold to look for some Waxwings. We saw them as soon as we arrived, and got a couple of shots before the entire group (c.100 birds), were spooked by a Sparrowhawk and disappeared.

Waxwings

Linacre WeBS - January 2016

We had the first snow of the winter here in Derbyshire yesterday, so I was looking forward to see a white Linacre this morning when I popped down for this month's WeBS walk. Unfortunately, most of the snow had gone, but there were a few patches left here and there.

Snow by the top reservoir

Birds were present in reasonable numbers for the time of year with the following recorded: Mallard (108), Mandarin Duck (26), Tufted Duck (26), Moorhen (15), Coot (4), Little Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (1), Black-headed Gull (17) and Teal (3; 1 male and 2 females).

Mallard enjoying some sunflower hearts!

The woods were quite lively this morning too with Song Thrush, Wren, Robin, Woodpigeon, Blue and Great Tit all singing. Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming, and Mistle Thrush, Siskin and Fieldfare were also seen.

Year List update:
53 – Tawny Owl (heard calling in Chesterfield on 13th January)
54 – Song Thrush
55 – Fieldfare
56 – Mistle Thrush
57 - Treecreeper (seen at Fairholmes, Ladybower this afternoon)