Linacre WeBS - 13th September 2026

 Today was this month's scheduled WeBS count, so I had a couple of hours (7am - 9am) down at Linacre. Unfortunately, all of last week's "goodies" had gone, but this did mean I could concentrate on the count, and not get distracted!

Numbers were: Mallard (54), Tufted Duck (21), Mandarin (13), Grey Wagtail (3), Pied Wagtail (1), Grey Heron (1), Moorhen (8; 6 adults and 2 juveniles), Coot (2), Cormorant (7) and Great-crested Grebe (1). 

Mandarin Duck

Cormorant

As you can see, numbers were quite low, due mainly to the very low water levels on the top and bottom reservoir (approximately one third full).

Bottom Reservoir

Other birds seen were: House Martin (5 overhead), Chiffchaff (at least 5 singing and 2 seen, in the willows, by the top reservoir), Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Buzzard, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Skylark (heard) and Woodpigeon.

Woodpigeon

Grey Squirrels were everywhere, as always, but this one, a tail-less individual, caught my eye.

Grey Squirrel 

Linacre First - Green Sandpiper!

 Before I write this blog, I need to clarify something about the title. I was at Linacre this morning, and saw MY first ever Green Sandpiper. It may not be the first ever record, as I was contacted last week by someone, who said they'd seen two there last week. Also, one of the volunteers (Pete) said he, and another volunteer (Antony) had, also seen a "sandpiper" on the top reservoir last week. Despite this, I was very pleased to get my first record.

Green Sandpiper

Other species seen were: Lapwing (8 flew in, and landed briefly - the first record since 2023, and the first to land since 2011!!!), Mallard (103), Tufted Duck (30), Mandarin Duck (20), Black-headed Gull (4 juvenile/1st winter birds), Lesser Black-backed Gull (2 adults), Moorhen (6; 5 adults and 1 juvenile), Coot (2 adults) and Cormorant (8).

Lapwings

7 of the 8 Cormorants

Butterfly Update

 Over the last week or two I've been out and about looking for a few new summer butterflies.

The first were seen at Barbrook Pools (formerly Barbrook Reservoir) last Sunday, when the 2 Small Coppers, Large Skippers and Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet moths were present. Whilst there, I was also able to confirm breeding for Tufted Duck (female and 8 ducklings) and Lapwing (1 adult and 3 chicks).

Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet

Tufted Duck 

The next butterflies seen were at Lindrick Dale, yesterday. Overall, numbers were well down on previous years (possibly due to the very warm spring?), with just 4 Dark Green Fritillaries, 6 Marbled Whites, 4 Gatekeepers, 1 Ringlet and about half a dozen Small Skippers seen. 1 other species, Silver-washed Fritillary, was also seen flying around the woods, on the walk through.

Linacre WeBS - August 2024

 I carried out this month's WeBS count at Linacre yesterday. As always at this time of the year, it was pretty quiet. Unfortunately, the top reservoir is still closed off, for repairs to the boardwalk, and the water levels are much lower than normal there. Despite searching, I couldn't locate any passage waders!

Counts for this month's survey were: Mallard (100; 99 adults and 1 duckling), Mandarin (22 birds), Coot (2 adults), Moorhen (14; 11 adults and 3 juveniles), Tufted Duck (18 adults, no sign of breeding this year), Grey Wagtail (2 juveniles), Grey Heron (1), Great-crested Grebe (2 adults) and Kingfisher (a minimum of 2 birds - 1 on the middle reservoir and 1 on the bottom reservoir, but there appeared to be a few flying around - possibly juvenile birds?).

There were still c50 Linnets in the field by the car park, along with 5 Stock Doves, a feral Pigeon, 10 Chaffinch and Goldfinch. A small flock of c15 House Martins were over the middle reservoir, and a single Common Buzzard was seen.

Just 1 butterfly was seen, a single Speckled Wood, in the farmer's field, by the car park.

Speckled Wood

Linacre - 2nd December 2023

 Last Saturday, I had a few hours down at Linacre. It was a relatively quiet walk, until the end, when I spotted 80 Teal on the middle reservoir! This is the highest count since January 2023, when 49 were seen.

Other birds seen were: 137 Mallard, 39 Mandarin Duck,  5 Tufted Duck, 18 Moorhen, 9 Coot, 1 Great-crested Grebe, 33 Black-headed Gull, 1 Little Grebe and 2 Grey Wagtail.

Woodland birds seen were: Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Crow, Chaffinch, Nuthatch and Treecreeper. 

Linacre WeBS - September 2023

 I was down at Linacre yesterday morning for this month's WeBS count. I had a good walk around all three reservoirs, and recorded some good numbers of returning waterbirds.

Birds seen were: Mallard (124 - my highest September count), Mandarin Duck (157 - also my highest ever September count), Tufted Duck (13 - still quite low numbers), Moorhen (23; 17 adults and 6 juveniles), Coot (9; 6 adults and 3 juveniles), Little Grebe (1 adult on the bottom reservoir), Great-crested Grebe (3; 2 adults and 1 juvenile on the middle reservoir), Kingfisher (2 on the bottom reservoir), Grey Heron (10) and Grey Wagtail (2).

Walking around, I also had 5 species of corvid (Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Jay, Magpie and Raven), along with 2 singing Chiffchaffs, 1 Mistle Thrush, Blue/Great and Long-tailed Tits, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Woodpigeon.

Linacre WeBS December 18th 2022

 After a week of ice and snowy conditions (maximum temperature of  3 degrees) I went down to Linacre yesterday morning (17th) to carry out this month's WeBS count. I had expected the reservoirs to be frozen, but, apart from a little ice ( c.10 %) on the bottom reservoir, the other two reservoirs were completely ice-free.

I walked around all three reservoirs and recorded the following numbers: 231 Mallard (highest count of the year), 114 Mandarin Duck, 72 Tufted Duck, 16 Moorhen, 8 Coot, c.50 Black-headed Gull, 5 Cormorant, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Little Grebe.

Black-headed Gulls

Other birds seen around the site included: 1 Tawny Owl, Siskin (3, the first of the winter), Magpie, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Wren, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Fieldfare (heard) and Redwing (10 over).

UPDATE: A report on Derbyshire Facebook Page from 18th recorded 119 Teal (!!!), 2 Gadwall, 1 male Shoveler, 104 Tufted Duck, 8 Goosander, 3 Cormorants and  19 Lapwing!!!

White-letter and Purple Hairstreaks!!

It was 22 degrees again today, so Jayne ad I had a walk around Linacre this afternoon. The top reservoir was closed off as the boardwalk is being repaired, so we just walked around the bottom and the middle reservoirs.

At first it was overcast, but then the sun came out, and we managed to record some insects, including the butterflies in the title! Both these species were seen at about 3pm on the pathway leading down from the toilet block to the bottom reservoir. There were at least two White-letter Hairstreaks - a lifer for me, and one Purple Hairstreak. 

White-letter Hairstreak

Purple Hairstreak

Other insects seen were: Meadow Brown (6), Gatekeeper (6), Comma (5), Speckled Wood (3), Ringlet (3), Large White (1), Green-veined White (1), Common Blue Butterfly (1), Brown Hawker (3), Common Blue Damselfly (20+, including several pairs in tandem, Blue-tailed Damselfly (2 males), Cinnabar Moth (caterpillar), Mayfly sp (1), Great Pied Hoverfly - Volucella pellucens (2) and Yellow and Black Longhorn Beetle (3). 

It was quite quiet birdwise, but the highlight was the first Tufted Duck ducklings of the year. There were three broods of 2, 2 and 7. 

Tufted Duck

There were also 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the middle reservoir (13 adults, 1 juvenile - this year's bird, and 1 immature bird) and a juvenile Black-headed Gull.

The last sighting of note was a rodent - a Bank Vole I think, that was seen coming out of a hole under an oak tree by the main path - my first sighting here.

Bank Vole?

Linacre Gull Fest and WeBS - 15th February 2021

 This month's WeBS walk at Linacre Reservoirs took place yesterday. Following a week of very cold temperatures (+2 maximum) and snow there was a lot of ice covering all three reservoirs (c.40%), which made counting easier, and also lead to some excellent records.

First up, the waterfowl counts: 148 Mallard, 105 Tufted Duck (my highest ever count, possibly cold weather movement?), 102 Mandarin Duck, 12 Moorhen, 9 Coot, 1 Cormorant (in full breeding plumage), 4 Little Grebe, 10 Goosander (4 males and 6 females), 168 (minimum, most likely 200+) Black-headed Gull (including 2 metal-ringed birds and a darvic-ringed bird),  2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (both adult-type, returning breeders from Chesterfield?), 1 Herring Gull (flew over the top reservoir for 5 minutes - only my sixth record since 2006!), 1 adult Common Gull, only my third ever Linacre record, previous records being in 2014 and 2016 and 2 Grey Wagtail. 

Common Gull (and Black-headed Gull)

As you can see, the number of Black-headed Gulls was fantastic, probably due to me being on site until 2.00pm, and because of the icy conditions elsewhere, as were the Herring and Common Gull records. Lesser Black-backed Gull sightings have increased in  the last few years, as they have established themselves as a breeding species in Chesterfield (first confirmed breeding in 2018 I think) and will continue to grow as the breeding population increases. The same may happen for Herring Gull, as they too, have become a breeding species in Chesterfield too.

Whilst scanning through the Black-headed Gulls, I spotted 2 metal-ringed birds and 1 darvic-ringed bird. Unfortunately, I couldn't read the metal rings (too far away), but I did manage to get a distant photo of the darvic-ringed bird, and saw that it was 2T46. This was a bird that my nephew, Luke, saw at nearby Holmebrook Valley CP, on 6th November 2020, and had been ringed in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, on 19th September 2020. The first photo is this bird in November, whilst the second is from yesterday. Luke's photo was taken much nearer (!), whilst my photo shows how the bird's breeding plumage brown hood is developing.

2T46, Holmebrook Valley CP, November 2020

2T46, Linacre Reservoir, February 2021

Other birds seen/heard around the reservoirs were: Tawny Owl (heard), Raven (2 displaying), Green Woodpecker (heard), Skylark (1 seen and heard over the top reservoir), Common Buzzard (3 together), Sparrowhawk (1 displaying), Stock Dove (4, and singing heard).

NOTE: a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker was noted (not by me!) on 14th February, feeding with a mixed tit flock - the first 2021 record.

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 - 15th November 2020

 This month's WeBS walk was my first visit to Linacre in November. As is usual at this tine of the year, there were good numbers of waterfowl present, along with a singing Wren, Blackbirds, Jay, Crows, Woodpigeons, Goldcrest, Long-tailed, Blue, Coal and Great Tit, 2 Magpies, 1 Sparrowhawk and a fly over Raven.  

Waterfowl counts were: 115 Mallard, 80 Mandarin Duck, 48 Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 29 Black-headed Gulls, 2 "redhead" Goosander, 11 Moorhens, 4 Coots, 1 Kingfisher and 1 Grey Wagtail.

Linacre WeBS - 17th October 2020

Yesterday I had a couple of hours at Linacre to carry out this month's WeBS walk. There had been a notable increase in duck numbers, and I recorded the highest count for Mandarin Duck for the year.

Numbers were: 140 Mallard, 105 Mandarin Duck, 43 Tufted Duck, 12 Moorhen, 4 Coot, 4 Grey Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 16 Black-headed Gull and 5 Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Grey Heron

Other birds reported around the reservoirs were: Blackbird, Wren, Starling (c.25 over), Treecreeper (2), Jay, Crow, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Great-spotted and Green Woodpecker and  Tawny Owl (heard).

Later in the day, I saw a report of c140 Pink-footed Geese that had been reported flying over Linacre later in the morning. This was the first report of the year.

Linacre WeBS - 28th June 2020

After a week of temperatures in the high 20s, this month's WeBS walk was a pretty chilly affair, with 12 degrees and a strong, cold wind! All in all it was pretty quiet, with very little to get excited about.

Totals were: Mallard (109, including just 1 obvious duckling), Tufted Duck (16 - all adults), Moorhen (6 adults, including 1 bird sitting on a nest, but no young), Coot (10; 7 adults and 3 well grown young), Mandarin (9 adults and 1 brood of 10 ducklings), Grey Wagtail (4; including 2 juveniles). As I said, nothing too exciting, and no grebes, cormorants or gulls!

Moorhen on nest

After walking around the reservoirs, I had an hour in the ringing site, looking for any insects. As you can imagine, given the cool weather, it was quite quiet again, but I did manage to spot my first Linacre Ringlet of the year, along with one male Common Blue Damselfly and 3 species of hoverfly (yet to be identified).

Ringlet

Linacre WeBS - 25th January 2020

I carried out the first Linacre WeBS count of the year this morning. The weather was very still and grey, with a temperature of 7 degrees.

Birds seen were: Mallard (86), Tufted Duck (18), Mandarin Duck (30), Moorhen (11), Coot (6), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1 in full breeding plumage!), Goosander (2 redheads), Cormorant (1), Kingfisher (1) and Black-headed Gull (26 , but no rings!).

Many birds were singing in woods including Song Thrush, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker (yaffling), Great-spotted Woodpecker (drumming), Wren, Goldcrest, Robin and Woodpigeon.

Year List update:
80 – Barn Owl (1 at Apperknowle on 17th)
81 – Song Thrush 
82 – Kingfisher
83 – Goldcrest

Linacre WeBS - 15th December 2019

Linacre's December WeBS walk was quite a quiet affair with the following birds seen: Mallard (80), Tufted Duck (just 4!), Mandarin Duck (21), Moorhen (16), Coot (2), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (1) and Black-headed Gull (58).

Linacre WeBS - 23rd November 2019

For the first time this month here's a blog that actually involves Linacre Reservoirs, and not too many Black-headed Gulls!!

I spent an hour and a half down at Linacre this morning (in the rain), carrying out this month's WeBS walk. It was very quiet with the following birds recorded: Mallard (65), Mandarin Duck (5), Tufted Duck ( just 4!), Coot (2), Moorhen (10), Great-crested Grebe (1), Cormorant (2) and Black-headed Gull (40).

The woods were pretty quiet too, with a few Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits about. The highlight, however, was a single "wheeting" Chiffchaff seen in the willows by the middle reservoir.

Linacre WeBS - 27th October 2019

Ringing at Linacre was cancelled this morning dur to strong winds, so instead, Sarah, Robin and I walked around all three reservoirs and carried out this month's WeBS count.

No real surprises this month, but the Mandarin Ducks (48) looked very smart in their newly moulted breeding finery. Also, it was nice to see my first Linacre Black-headed Gulls of the winter, with 24 seen (no rings though).

Other birds seen were: Mallard (87), Tufted Duck (22), Coot (5), Moorhen (13), Grey Heron (1), Grey Wagtail (1), Cormorant (1), Great-crested Grebe (1) and Little Grebe (1).

Linacre WeBS - 28th September 2019

I was down at Linacre birdwatching for the first time this month (!) and carried out the monthly WeBS count. It was quite quiet, but, as always, at this time of the year, the Mandarins were in good form, looking very smart, and giving me my highest count of the year... so far.

Birds seen were: Mallard (104), Mandarin Duck (72), Tufted Duck (21), Coot (5), Moorhen (17), Grey Heron (1), Grey Wagtail (1), Cormorant (1) Great-crested Grebe (2) and Little Grebe (1). At least 2 Chiffchaffs were also heard singing around the top and middle reservoirs.

Tufted Duck

Linacre WeBS - July 2019

Luke and I were down at Linacre this weekend to carry out July's WeBS count. As usual for this time of the year there were lots of young birds about, including our first Tufted Duck ducklings of 2019 (one brood of 3 birds).

Tufted Duck

Totals for the day were: Grey Wagtail (8; 2 adults and 6 juveniles), Moorhen (24; 8 adults and 16 juveniles), Coot (11; 4 adults and 7 juveniles), Mandarin Duck (32; 15 adults and 17 ducklings), Tufted Duck (17;14 adults and 3 ducklings), Great-crested Grebe (4; 3 adults and 1 juvenile), Mallard (48; all adults or well grown juveniles) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (4 adults). 6 House Martins were also seen, but there no records of Swift or Swallow.

As well as the birds, we also saw several insects, including 2 new moths and a new caddisfly species. The new moths were, Celypha lacunana and Chrysoteuchia culmella and the caddisfly was Mystacides longicornis. Other insects seen were, Yellow Shell (1), Volucella pellucens hoverfly (3), Meadow Brown (1), 1 Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle, male Common Blue Damselfly and a female Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (form rufescens)

Linacre Bird News - 7th April 2019

Luke and I were at Linacre this morning for a walk around all 3 reservoirs. We recorded the following waterbirds: Mallard (37), Tufted Duck (46), Mandarin (14), Great-crested Grebe (5 - including 1 pair displaying), Cormorant (2), Grey Wagtail (1 heard), Black-headed Gull (3 - unusual in April), Coot (9), Moorhen (7, including 1 sat tightly on a nest).

Moorhen

Whilst walking around the reservoirs we also recorded at least 9 singing Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps and the first Willow Warbler of the year. Other signs of breeding included both Mistle Thrush and Chaffinch seen carrying nesting material.

Blackcap

Interestingly, Luke managed to spot 4 Bramblings by the top reservoir, an excellent record!