Linacre Ringing and a new Moth!

 This morning I was down at Linacre, with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, for our first mist netting session since 2nd May 2026. Although it was quite quiet, with just 10 birds of 5 species, ringed, it was great to be back, and also resulted in the first juveniles of the year, 3 retraps of birds ringed previously and a new moth species for the site!

First up, the ringed birds (new/retrap): Blackcap 2/1 - the two new birds were this year's juveniles, whilst the retrap was a male bird ringed, at Linacre, as a juvenile, on 23rd August 2025, and presumably back, as a nesting bird this year (!) I wonder where it spent its first winter - Spain, Northern Africa?, Chiffchaff 2/0 - both new birds were juvenile birds, Blue Tit 1/2 - a new adult bird and two retraps, both ringed at Linacre, on 26th April and 13th July 2025 respectively, Wren 1/0 - a juvenile bird and Robin 1/0 - a 1 year old bird (age 5). Other birds seen/heard on site were Swift (5 overhead), Willow Warbler (1 singing), Garden Warbler (1 singing), Woodpigeon (dozens in the fields), Nuthatch (heard) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (heard).

Away from the birds, we also spotted a few insects: Common Blue Damselfly (1 male), Latticed Heath (1), Red Admiral (1), Cinnabar Moth (1), Painted Lady (1), Ringlet (1), Meadow Brown (1), Small White (1) and, best of all, a new moth species; Clouded Border! Details of this moth can be found on Butterfly Conservation's website  here and its status in Derbyshire here.

Clouded Border

Linacre Nestboxes 2026 - The results are in!

Since the end of April, several members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group have been monitoring the nestboxes at Linacre, for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme We have been doing this since 2012, and this weekend was the last visit of the season.

The first birds of the season were ringed on 16th May, and the last were ringed on 30th May. This year's totals were: Blue Tit (161 birds from 20 broods), Great Tit (56 birds from 11 broods), Pied Flycatcher (8 chicks from1 brood), Robin (1 brood of 5 birds) and  Mandarin Duck (2 adult birds; 1 new female and a female first ringed in 2024). A female Garden Warbler, with a brood patch, was also caught at the start of May. Now that the nestboxes are all completed, our attention will turn to the breeding warblers on site. Hopefully, the season will be good and we'll get lots of youngest to monitor and ring.

Whilst walking around the site, we often see other birds, including this fabulous Great-crested Grebe that was seen, resting in amongst the Amphibious Bistort, yesterday morning.

Great Crested Grebe

Linacre Nestboxes - 4th and 6th May 2024

 Over the weekend, I was down at Linacre with other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, to carry out another check of the nestboxes. We had a couple of visits, and recorded some new species, and a very nice surprise....!

The first visit, on Saturday, saw the first check of the boxes around the Ranger's Base, and we found 13 new occupied nests. After that we checked on the owl boxes. The first contained Grey Squirrels (!), the second had a female Mandarin Duck on 11 eggs, and the third box contained..... a single Tawny Owl chick! This was a great find, as it was the first chick in the boxes since 2018.  

Tawny Owl

On the second visit, on Monday, we checked the remaining boxes, and found a grand total of 30 nests, including our first Pied Flycatcher (1 egg) and Wren (1 clutch of 6) of the year. There was 1 singing Pied Flycatcher (year tick 168) in another area of the woods and 1 other nest without eggs in it, so I'm hoping we may yet get more than 1 nest this year. The last piece of good news was that the eggs on the Coal Tit nest we found last week had hatched - the first time this has happened in a box.

Walking around the reservoirs, I managed to spot a couple of Mallard broods (2 and 1), my first of the year, 21 Tufted Ducks, 1 Canada Goose, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Great-crested Grebes, 1 Little Grebe, 6 Mandarin Ducks (5 males and 1 female), 6 Blackcaps, 4 Chiffchaffs and 1 singing Garden Warbler ( year tick 164).

A few insects were seen on Sunday: 1 male Orange Tip, 1 Peacock, my first Red and Black Froghopper and 2 Dark-edged Bee-flies.

Linacre Visit and Ringing - February 2024

 On 4th February, I had a walk around all three reservoirs at Linacre. It was 9 degrees, grey and overcast.

Birds seen/heard were: Song Thrush (4 singing), Raven (1 over, and 4, the highest ever count, were reported on 13/2), Bullfinch (1 female), Grey Wagtail (2, including 1 singing), Great-crested Grebe (1), Little Grebe (2), Goosander (6; 4 females and 2 males), Mallard (102), Tufted Duck (24), Mandarin Duck (7), Moorhen (12), Coot (9) and Black-headed Gull (18).

Last weekend (10th), I was back at Linacre, with Sorby Breck Ringing Group, where we ringed 33 birds of  species. Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 7/4, Great Tit 1/3, Coal Tit 1/1, Long-tailed Tit 8/2, Goldcrest 2/0, Robin 2/1 and Treecreeper 1/0.

Most of the retraps were from last year, but we did retrap a Robin first ringed in April 2021 (born in 2020), and two Long-tailed Tits that had been ringed, on site, in October 2022. 

Whilst on site I recorded a few new birds for the Year List. The first was a Woodcock (116) that was flushed from the ringing site, followed by Great-spotted Woodpecker (117) and Goldcrest (118).

Dutch-ringed Redwing at Linacre

 Every year, we try to catch some of the Redwings, that spend the winter months in Britain. This morning, we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), were at Linacre before light to set up the nets and see if we could get lucky. By the end of the morning, we had ringed 8 birds (of about 30 in the area), including our first ever foreign-ringed bird, a juvenile ringed in Holland. Further details of exactly where and when, to follow when I hear back. UPDATE: the Redwing had been ringed 510km away, in The Netherlands, 8 days before it was caught at Linacre. Fantastic!! 

Dutch-ringed Redwing

Birds ringed were (new/retraps) : Redwing 7/1, Blackbird 1/0, Great Tit 8/0, Blue Tit 7/1, Coal Tit 2/1, Long-tailed Tit 2/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Wren 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Bullfinch 1/0 and Goldcrest 5/0.

Whilst there we also spotted a few other birds: Cormorant (1 over), Raven (1 heard), Tawny Owl (heard first thing), Jay ( 2 seen), Skylark (1 heard), Buzzard (1 over) and Sparrowhawk (2; a male and female hunting the Redwing!!).

Clumber Swans - 3rd September 2023

 Yesterday we went to Clumber Park to enjoy the 23 degree sunshine. Whilst there, we had a quick look at the 50+ Mute Swans that were on the lake. The vast majority stayed on the water, but we did manage to read four rings: Y204, Y857, 0Y22 and W47173.

All the birds had been ringed by members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. W47173 was ringed 1836 days ago, on 24th August 2018 at Harold Park, West Yorkshire, as a 3 (born that year), and had moved 73km. 

W47173

Y204 had been ringed, 1476 days ago, on 19th August 2019, also as a 3, in Pontefract Park, West Yorkshire, 50km away.

I'll update the details of the other birds, when I receive them.

Linacre Ringing - 2nd September 2023

 Yesterday morning I was down at Linacre, from 05.45 - 10.00, for a ringing session, with 2 other members of  Sorby Breck Ringing Group. It was our first session there since February, and we were treated to a great session, with 26 birds, of 6 species, including our first ever adult Tawny Owl and 2 of this year's pulli, that had been ringed in the boxes in May and June.

Tawny Owl

Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Tawny Owl 1/0, Blackcap 3/0 (all juveniles), Chiffchaff 1/0 ( 1 juvenile), Robin 1/0,  Blue Tit 10/1, Great Tit 5/3, Coal Tit 1/0.

All the retraps had originally been ringed at Linacre. 2 as juveniles in October and November 2022. The other 2, one Blue Tit and one Great Tit, had been ringed in the boxes in May and June this year.

Linacre Weekend

 I had two visits to Linacre over the weekend, one for ringing and one to check the nestboxes.

The ringing trip, on Saturday, with two other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, was a short affair, with just 3 birds caught! Thankfully, the three birds were all warblers; one Blackcap, one Chiffchaff and best of all, a Garden Warbler - our first here since 2021, and the first ringed since 2017!!

The nestbox checking visit, on Sunday, was very successful, with 47 active nests found. The most exciting were 3 Pied Flycatcher nests (the highest ever total!) and a Blackbird nest, that had been built on the base of an old, broken tit box. Another 2 male Pied Flycatchers were also singing, so, I'm hoping there may be a couple more nests before the season is over. As always, the results of the visit will be added to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Out on the reservoirs, there were 2 active Great-crested Grebe nests (and last week's chick), 1 Moorhen nest and 3 broods of Mallards. 12 Swallows and half a dozen House Martins were also flying around the middle reservoir. All in all, a great couple of visits!

Linacre Ringing - 5th November 2022

 Just two of us managed to get to Linacre for this week's ringing session with Sorby Breck Ringing Group, but we had a fantastic few hours with 46 birds, of 8 species, ringed.

As always, the majority of the birds were Blue and Great Tits, with 18 (15 new and 3 re-traps) of the former and 9 (8 new birds and 1 re-trap) of the latter caught. 2 Coal Tits (both new) were also caught, along with 11 Long-tailed Tits (all new), 1 Blackbird (new), 1 Chaffinch (new), 3 Goldcrests (2 new and 1 re-trap) and, best of all, a young Sparrowhawk - the first to be ringed at Linacre!!

Sparrowhawk!!

As well as the ringing, we also managed to see a flock of c.30 Redwings, c.20 Fieldfares and we also heard Tawny Owls calling.

Gull Ringing 22nd October 2022

Yesterday, I managed to get out gull ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group for the first time since late 2020. We spent the day at Center Parcs, just 2km away from Rufford CP, and ringed 7 new Black-headed Gulls, a mixture of 1st year and adult birds. We also added green darvic rings (251B - 257B).

251B (1st winter bird)

Fingers crossed now to get some re-sightings over the winter.

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 Ringing - 23rd January 2022

 I was back at Linacre on Sunday morning for the first ringing session with other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

This first session was quite quiet, with just 20 birds of 3 species ringed (new/retrap): Blue Tit 11/2, Great Tit 5/1 and Coal Tit 1/0. 

One of the retrap Blue Tits had been ringed, as a pullus, in box 23a on 3rd June 2020 (by me). The other one was had first been ringed, at Linacre, as a juvenile (3) on 21st September 2021. The retrap Great Tit had been ringed, on 18th July 2021, as a juvenile (3J), at Linacre.

Linacre WeBS and Ringing- 11th and 12th September 2021

 On the weekend of 11th and 12th I was down at Linacre to carry out the month's WeBS walk and have a ringing session with Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

The WeBS count recorded the following results: Mallard (88), Mandarin Duck (91), Tufted Duck (17), Moorhen (18; 12 adults and 6 juveniles), Coot (7), Grey Wagtail (5), Grey Heron (2), Great-crested Grebe (5; 2 adults and 3 juveniles - two broods), Cormorant (1) and Black-headed Gull (1). Chiffchaff was also heard (wheeting), and c.20 House Martins were over the top reservoir.

The ringing session, on the 12th, resulted in 26 birds of 8 species, and included our first Jay and Treecreeper of the year (both juveniles), along with 4 juvenile Chiffchaffs, 11 Blue Tits (10 new and 1 retrap - the retrap having been ringed in box 23a on 3/6/21 by me), 5 Great Tits (3 new and 2 retraps- both trapped earlier in the year at Linacre), 1 juvenile Goldcrest, 2 juvenile Robins, and 1 juvenile Blackbird.

Linacre Ringing and Nest Recording

 This weekend I've had two visits to Linacre, once for the first ringing session there since September 2020, and once for the first nest box check of the year (not including the owl boxes - see here).

The ringing session, with 4 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, and one of the Linacre volunteer rangers, took place yesterday, from 06.15 - 09.30. In total we ringed 21 birds of 9 species. Totals were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 3/2, Great Tit 4/1, Coal Tit 2/0, Robin 3/0, Chiffchaff 1/0, Blackcap 0/1, Dunnock 1/1, Chaffinch 1/0 and Goldcrest 1/0. All the retraps were Linacre-ringed birds. The 2 Blue Tits had been ringed in June 2019 and March 2020 (just before lockdown). The Great Tit was ringed in July 2018, the Dunnock in December 2018, but, best of all, was the male Blackcap, originally ringed as an adult, in July 2016! I also found out yesterday, that a Blue Tit we originally ringed at Linacre on 16th July 2016 had been found dead (killed by a cat), 7km away, on 28th April 2020. This is the longest recovery (distance) we've had, so far.

This morning's visit was to check the nest boxes. In total there were 30 boxes in use, ranging from N1 (a nest just being started) through to sitting birds. All the boxes appeared to be tit nests, except for one Wren nest. The highlight, however, of the morning was the discovery of the year's first singing Pied Flycatcher. It was in the vicinity of a nest box, so I'm keeping everything crossed for another successful breeding season (1 successful box last year, fledged 7 young). It's still quite early in the season too, so hopefully, there could be some more birds to arrive. A female Mallard was also disturbed from a nest, 1m away from a nest box, revealing a nest with 6 eggs. As always, the results of the nests will be recorded for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. 

Mallard nest

Whilst on site this morning, I also recorded Green Woodpecker (heard), a Mallard with 13 ducklings (the first 2021 record), Willow Warbler (1 heard by the top reservoir), Reed Bunting (one male heard singing in willows by the boardwalk), Skylark (1 singing over fields by the top reservoir), Curlew (1 heard, but not seen, from the top reservoir - my first record here since 2018) and Canada Goose (6 - my highest count of the year). The Moorhen nest on the top reservoir was empty, but no young were seen.

Last Gulls of 2020?

Today I was out with 3 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group for a gull ringing session at The Carrs in Warsop again. With news that our areas are going into Tier 4 COVID restrictions from midnight tonight this will be our last ringing outing and my last chance to check gulls in 2020.

We were on site from 08:30 until 15:45 and managed to catch 1 new Black-headed Gull. The bird in question was an adult and was given the darvic ring 271A.

271A

Whilst there we also manged to re-sight 2 gulls that the group had previously ringed, namely 265A and 270A. Both birds had been ringed in December this year.

265A

270A

Gull Ringing - 22nd December 2020

Last Tuesday I managed to get out gull ringing for the first time this winter. I spent five hours at The Carrs in Warsop with members from Sorby Breck Ringing group and Birklands Ringing Group (all socially distanced of course). In total we caught five new Black-headed Gulls, to add to the darvic-ringing scheme, and I was lucky enough to ring four of them! The site is just short of 9km from Rufford, so hopefully, I'll pick some of these birds up, during the winter months. The new rings added were 266A - 270A.

266A (adult female)

267A

Linacre Ringing - 11th October 2020

 Last Sunday, 4 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group were down at Linacre for a ringing session. It was quite quiet, with just 19 birds of  8 species ringed, but 2 Lesser Redpolls were very nice.

Bird numbers were (new/retrap): Blue Tit 3/0, Robin 1/0, Dunnock 4/0, Goldcrest 2/1, Blackbird 2/0, Treecreeper 2/0, Chaffinch 2/0 and Lesser Redpoll 2/0. 

The retrap Goldcrest, was one that we had ringed in September 2020.

Rufford Gulls - 11th August 2020

 I spent a couple of hours at Rufford CP yesterday. There were about 100 Black-headed Gulls present, and, surprising, approximately 80 Lesser Black-backed Gulls! 

The temperature was a very warm 27 degrees, so most of the birds were sitting around on the water, and weren't particularly interested in coming into bread. Eventually, after about 2 hours I spotted 2 darviced gulls: 230A and 247A.

I've seen both of these birds before at Rufford. 230A is a regular bird (see labels 230A), whilst 247A was one that I've only seen on one occasion before (see here). I'm sure I'll see them both around over the following winter period.

230A

247A

As well as the gulls, I also saw a male Banded Demoiselle, which was my first record there.

Return of the Gulls!

After my visit to Frampton Marsh yesterday, I decided to stop off at Rufford CP on my way home. I was hoping to see if any of last winter's ringed gulls were back, and ...... I was very pleased to see 2 returning birds!

There were about 70 Black-headed Gulls present and the first ringed bird I saw was EUM3, a 3 year old, Dutch-ringed gull that I first saw here on 3rd February 2019 (see here), and on pretty much every visit last winter - a very site faithful bird!! As you can see, it still has a near full brown hood.

EUM3

The second ringed bird was 230A, a bird ringed, as an adult, at Center Parcs, approximately 2km away, in February 2019 by Birklands RG and Sorby Breck RG. My first sighting of this bird was in September 2019 (see here), and, again, Rufford appears to be a regular wintering site, with sightings through to March 2020. Unfortunately, there haven't been any records from its breeding grounds....yet.

230A

Out of the c.70 Black-headed Gulls present there were 10 juveniles, in varying degrees of moult. This bird was the least advanced, showing just a few adult feathers.

Black-headed Gull (juvenile)

As well as the Black-headed Gulls, there was also one Lesser Black-backed Gull present, which  I think is a 3rd winter bird (born in 2017?) - please let me know if it's not!

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Blue Tit Recovery

Obviously, because of the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown, I haven't been able to go to Linacre ringing since the start of the year. I was very pleased, therefore, to receive an email from David at Sorby Breck Ringing Group, with details of a Blue Tit that we'd ringed at Linacre on 16th July 2016 (see here).

The bird was aged as a 3J i.e. it was born in 2016, and was found dead (taken by a cat) on 28th April 2020, 1382 days after ringing, a whopping 8km away in Wingerworth, Chesterfield. This is quite a decent age for a Blue Tit , and also a pretty good movement.