Whimbrel, Wheatear and Whitethroat!

 Over the last few days, down here in Suffolk, I've seen a few birds, including the three species listed in the title.

The first bird, Whimbrel (182), was found on Walberswick NNR , whilst "dipping" the Zitting Cisticola!

Whimbrel

The next bird, a Northern Wheatear, was seen today, on Aldeburgh beach. Its always great to see this species on migration. I even managed to spot it catch a grasshopper!

Wheatear

The last bird, Whitethroat, was a juvenile bird, that was spotted in the hedge of the garden where we're stopping. At first, it was quite skulking, but then it popped out and posed beautifully. This photo was taken through a glass window.

Whitethroat

RSPB Minsmere - 22nd August 2026

 Yesterday, Jayne and I had an early morning visit to RSPB Minsmere. We had three hours on site (6.30am - 9.30am), and added a new butterfly species for the year - Grayling.

We started off at the Visitors' Centre, before walking around the Coastal Trail. Our first bird of the visit was a Green Woodpecker, that flew off as we drove onto the site. Carrying on, we saw a good number of warblers, including a very bright, showy Lesser Whitethroat, along with a family party of Whitethroats. Chiffchaffs and Cettis Warblers, were also heard.

Arriving at the famous Scrape, we soon added a fly-over Hobby and a number of wader species: Lapwing, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Snipe, Green Sandpiper and Avocet, including a couple of well grown juveniles. It was here that we spotted our first Grayling of the day.

Grayling

Other birds seen around the Scrape were: Common Tern (adults and juveniles), Great Egret, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, a single Barnacle Goose, Canada, Egyptian and Greylag Goose, Moorhen, Coot, 2 Little Gulls and Pied Wagtail.

Great Egret

Little Gull

Island Mere Hide was quite quiet (we missed the Bittern by a few minutes!), but we added Cormorant and Great-crested Grebe to the morning's list.

Arriving back at the Visitors' Centre, we finished off the morning with a vegan sausage cob, which we shared with a local Pheasant, a Robin and some Chaffinches.

Year List Update and a Lifer!

Today has been a pretty great day, in terms of Year List species, and a very nice, completely unexpected "lifer".

The day started well, with a nest box check at Linacre (more on the boxes in another post), when the first Garden Warbler (137) of the year was found in the ringing site.

After Linacre, Jayne and I drove across to Lincolnshire, where we saw a couple of Common Cranes (138) at Willow Tree Fen, before driving across to RSPB Frampton Marsh. On arrival, I had a quick check on Birdguides, and saw that an American Golden Plover (139 for the year and my 520th bird for the worldwide Life List) had been found on the reserve, that morning! Luckily, it was still present, and 5 minutes later, we were watching it feeding some 100m away.

American Golden Plover

After enjoying the plover, we walked around the reserve and added the following "year ticks": Ruff (140), Whitethroat (141), Spotted Redshank (142 - a beautiful breeding plumaged bird), Lesser Whitethroat (143), Common Sandpiper (144), Yellow Wagtail (145), Reed Warbler (146), Spoonbill (147) and Common Tern (148). This Yellow Wagtail was seen, on the road, driving out of the reserve.

Yellow Wagtail

Other species seen were: Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Reed Bunting, Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Linnet, Goldfinch, White Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Canada, Brent and Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Pintail (1 pair), Gadwall, Teal, Pochard, Wigeon, Redshank, Lapwing, Avocet and Little Ringed Plover.

Little Ringed Plover

Butterflies seen were: Orange Tip, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue.

Two more Ticks

Our base in Northumberland was at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, on the outskirts of Amble and Ashington.

The lake is a great place, especially in winter, but, whilst there last week, we had a great time looking at the breeding birds, and the summering Black-headed Gulls. Most birds appeared to be 1st summer birds, with a few adults. Many of the 1st summer birds have a full brown hood, but still retain the juvenile feathers.

Black-headed Gull

Another great bird for me was the Whooper Swan (177). This bird appears to be a resident bird, who I first saw here in January 2024 (see here). He/she was present around the site, and was quite tame, allowing some great views from the car park.

Whooper Swan

Other birds seen here were: Greylag and Canada Geese (with goslings), Mallards, Pied Wagtails (juveniles), Mute Swans (13 in total, with at least 6 metal ringed), Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and, perhaps the most surprising, for me at least, Tree Sparrows (adults and juveniles).

Tree Sparrow

Our last stop was in Whitley Bay. We started off at St Mary's Island, where we saw the Grey Seals, along with  a few Terns (possibly Sandwich), which were flying past, and finally, a single Fulmar (178). We then had a few hours on the beach at Tynemouth, where we were lucky enough to watch a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins (including at least 1 juvenile), swimming, feeding and jumping out of the water!!!! The final highlight was a singing Whitethroat, that posed beautifully.

Whitethroat

Westleton Heath - 10th August 2023

 On Thursday, I popped down to Westleton Heath to catch up with the last species I wanted to see whilst down in Suffolk, the Dartford Warbler.

Westleton Heath

I parked up in the car park, and within a couple of minutes, had heard the distinctive "chattering". I managed 4 sightings of different birds, but, unfortunately, they didn't come very close, so this is a heavily cropped photo.

Dartford Warbler!

Other species seen were: Whitethroat, Pheasant, Carrion Crow and Herring Gull (over). 

2 Gatekeepers and 2 Grayling butterflies were also seen.

Grayling

Year List update: Dartford Warbler (180)

Wales - 15th - 22nd April 2022

 Jayne and I have just spent a week in Llanbedrog, North Wales. Although primarily a family break, we did manage to do some birding, and added 10 species to the "Year List".

The first new bird was a very nice surprise, a drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (129), that was heard  from our bed!! Unfortunately, we couldn't see it, but we heard it for three mornings on the trot (at 6:30am!). The next two additions were Gannet (130) and Whitethroat (131), which were both seen in Aberdaron. The 132nd species seen was Osprey. We saw 2 pairs of birds at the Glaslyn Osprey Centre, near Porthmadog. 

Yesterday, we had a trip to Cemlyn Lagoon and RSPB South Stack. Cemlyn was very busy with 100+ Sandwich Terns (133) coming and going, along with a similar amount of Black-headed Gulls. We popped in to the old harbour at Holyhead and managed to see three Black Guillemots (134), before heading across to RSPB South Stack, where we added Razorbill (135), Kittiwake (136), Puffin (137) and House Martin (138) to the list. 

Other species seen here included: Chough, Raven, Guillemot, Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Swallow, Lesser, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Linnet. 

Linacre Nestboxes - 3rd May 2021

 It's been a couple of weeks since I last checked the nestboxes at Linacre, so I popped down for a couple of hours this morning, before the rain and wind started!!

It was a mixture of good news and bad news (as is always the case with every nestbox season). The bad news was that all three owl boxes, that had been used by Mandarins this year, appear to have failed. A quick check yesterday afternoon, revealed cold, uncovered eggs and no females. The better news, however, is that this morning's tit box check revealed a total of 32 active nests, the first chicks of the year (7 Great Tits, still naked and blind, so most likely very recently hatched),  my first ever record of a Coal Tit using a nestbox, and a pair of Pied Flycatchers entering a nestbox!! In addition, the Mallard's nest with 8 eggs was empty this morning (hopefully fledged successfully), and another nest, with 6 eggs this time, was found on the floor in the woods.

Pied Flycatcher

After checking the boxes, I walked around all three reservoirs, and spotted the following waterbirds: Mallard (72; 51 adults and 21 ducklings from 4 broods of 8, 1, 5 and 7), Coot (12; 7 adults and 1 brood of 5 - first of the year), Moorhen 14; 9 adults and 1 brood of 5 - first of the year), Mandarin (7 males), Tufted Duck (30),  Canada Goose (5; 3 flew over and 2 on the top reservoir), Greylag Goose (2 on the top reservoir -  second record of the year), Great-crested Grebe (4 adults), Grey Wagtail (1), Lesser Black-backed Gull (1 adult) and  a 1st summer/2nd calendar year (born 2020) Black-headed Gull - only my second May record of this species. 2 Swallows were also seen over the top reservoir.

Black-headed Gull

Whilst on site, I also had a short time on the ringing site, where I saw a pair of Bullfinch (first Linacre record of the year!), a singing Song Thrush, 1 singing Willow Warbler, and, best of all, my first Whitethroat of the year. 

Year List update:

139 - Whitethroat

Year List Update - 15th May 2020

I last updated my year list back in February (see here). At the time, I had recorded 91 species in the UK, and was looking forward to an Easter trip to Majorca!! Obviously, due to the Corona Virus lockdown, the trip was cancelled, as was all other, non-essential travel, and opportunities to see some of my usual spring birds didn't happen.

Having said that, the list has continued to increase, with birds seen over the garden, or on our daily exercise walks, and it now stands at a not- too-terrible 108 species.

Year List update:
92 – Yellowhammer
93 – Chiffchaff
94 – Whooper Swan
95 – Dipper
96 – Skylark
97 - Blackcap
98 – Willow Warbler
99 – Raven
100 – Linnet
101 - Swallow
102 – House Martin
103 – Whitethroat
104 – Garden Warbler
105 – Swift
106 – Pied Flycatcher
107 – Meadow Pipit
108 – Cuckoo (heard)

Birds 92 - 105 were all first recorded in Dronfield and the surrounding area, with the exception of the Whooper Swan, which was a late addition, having been seen over Linacre on 21st March (my last visit before lockdown). Willow Warbler was first recorded in the garden, my first ever garden sighting! Numbers 106 - 108 were seen yesterday, by Jayne and me, on our first car trip since March, when we had an hour at Padley Gorge (4pm - 5.00pm).

Linacre ringing - 8th September 2019

I didn't manage to get any ringing in at Linacre in July and August, but I was down there on Sunday with 4 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group and what a session we had! In just over 4 hours we managed to catch and ring 81 birds of 15 species.

Birds caught were (new/retrap): Wren 1/0, Dunnock 4/0, Robin 1/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Blackcap 6/0, Willow Warbler 2/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Blue Tit 26/1, Great Tit 23/3, Coal Tit 2/0, Nuthatch 2/0, Goldfinch 1/0 and Chaffinch 1/0. As is normal at this time of year, the vast majority of the birds caught today were juveniles, including 1 of the retrap Great Tits that had been ringed in one of the boxes at Linacre on 23th May this year. Other notable records were the juvenile Whitethroat, 2 young Willow Warblers, 6 juvenile Blackcaps and 2 juvenile Chiffchaffs.

Whitethroat (juvenile)

Chiffchaff (juvenile)

Other birds seen/heard were: Grey Heron (1 over), House Martin (9 over), Swallow (3 over), Tawny Owl (birds heard in the woods on arrival at 6am) and Meadow Pipit (2 over).

The sun was out, and the temperature rose to 15 degrees late morning, which brought out some late butterflies: 5 Red Admirals,  3 Painted Ladies, 4 Small Tortoiseshells, 1 Large White and 1 Small White and a Mother of Pearl moth.

Painted Lady

Linacre Ringing and Insects - 30th June 2019

I haven't done any mist netting at Linacre since the end of March, so yesterday morning I was down there with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We had just 3 hours before the wind picked up, but we managed a respectable 38 birds, including our first juvenile birds of the year, and a very nice retrap.

Juvenile birds made up the majority of today's birds (29 out of the 38 birds caught), and consisted of Blue and Great Tits, Blackcaps (2, and the first of 2019), Whitethroat (1, the first of 2019), Dunnock (1) Robin (4, also the first of 2019) and Goldfinch (1).

Goldfinch (juvenile)

Robin (juvenile)

The retrap was an adult male Whitethroat. It had been ringed at Linacre on 1st July 2017 (1 year 364 days ago), as a 5M (i.e. born in 2016). This was the first it had been retrapped since then, and showed signs of breeding. I saw a ringed Whitethroat at Linacre back in May (see here), which was singing in the ringing site, so was presumably this bird. 

Adult Whitethroat

Totals for today were (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/0, Robin 4/0, Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Whitethroat 1/1, Blackcap 3/0, Blue Tit 13/1, Great Tit 8/0, Nuthatch 1/0, Goldfinch 1/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

We also heard our first Garden Warbler of 2019.

After the ringing session I stayed on for a short while, and saw my first Volucella bombylans hoverfly of the year, and a pair of Large Skippers.

Volucella bombylans

Large Skipper (female)

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

French-ringed Reed Warbler

Yesterday I was out for my first ringing session in a while at Poolsbrook Marsh, with 5 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

We arrived on site at 5.00am, got the nets out and started to catch some birds. By the end of the morning's session we had caught 73 birds of 15 species. Totals were (new/retrap): Wren 2/0, Dunnock 2/0, Robin 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Reed Warbler 33/2, Lesser Whitethroat 2/0, Whitethroat 3/0, Blackcap 6/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Willow Warbler 5/1, Willow Tit 4/0, Blue Tit 0/1, Bullfinch 4/0 and Reed Bunting 3/0.

As you can see, we had a good range of resident and migrant species, including 7 species of warbler. The vast majority of birds were new (and juveniles), but we did have a few previously ringed birds, including a very special Reed Warbler bearing a "Museum Paris" ring!! As the name implies, this bird, which we aged as an adult, had been ringed in France. It'd be great to think that it is a bird that was born at Poolsbrook, and was then ringed on migration through France, before returning the breed here in Derbyshire. I'll update the blog when we get the details back from the BTO.

Other birds seen today included Kingfisher, Common Buzzard and Water Rail (heard only).

RSPB Marazion Marsh

Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Marazion Beach and RSPB Marazion Marsh near Penzance on Sunday morning.

We started off by walking along the beach, where we spotted 5 Ringed Plover and a group of approximately 40 Sanderling. The Sanderling, all of which were still in remnants of breeding plumage, were feeding furiously along the tide line. A solitary breeding plumaged Dunlin was also in amongst them.

Sanderling

Also along the strand line was a dead Harbour Porpoise.

Afterwards we headed across the road to the RSPB Marazion Marsh reserve where we found a female Mallard with 3 ducklings, a single Grey Heron and got brief views of Reed Warbler and Whitethroat. We also saw a stunning male Beautiful Demoiselle, several Gatekeeper, 1 Red Admiral and a Southern Hawker that caught and ate a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Southern Hawker with Speckled Wood meal

Red-footed Falcon!!

News of a 1st summer male Red-footed Falcon on Dunwich Heath on Tuesday evening had me up early (again!) this morning, to see if I could catch up with this species. I've seen a female Red-footed Falcon in Britain before, but this was my first male, so I was really keen to see it. Luckily, as the blog title suggests, I got lucky, and had super, 'scope views of the bird as it perched up in a dead tree in the reedbeds at the bottom of the National Trust's Dunwich Heath. It was also seen flying around briefly, catching dragonflies! An excellent addition to the "year list". No photos unfortunately, but here's a link to see photos of this species.

In addition to the falcon, I also added Little Gull to the "year list", with a first summer bird that flew overhead, along with several Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls. Other birds seen on the heath were: Linnet, Goldfinch, Dartford Warbler, Green Woodpecker, Stonechat and several Whitethroats, including 1 carrying food to a nest.

Whitethroat

Whilst looking for the falcon, I also heard a booming Bittern, pinging Bearded Tits and a calling Cuckoo. A Little Owl was seen on the drive.

Year List update:
165 - Red-footed Falcon
166 - Little Gull

Linacre WeBS - 21st May 2017

I spent two hours at Linacre on Sunday, carrying out this month's BTO WeBS walk. The following birds were recorded: Mallard (46; 33 adults and 2 broods of 6 and 7 ducklings), Mandarin Duck (21; 3 adults and 2 broods of 8 and 10 ducklings - the first young of 2017), Great-crested Grebe (4 adults), Coot (20; 11 adults and 3 broods of 2, 3 and 4), Moorhen (10; 8 adults and 2 chicks), Tufted Duck (14) and Kingfisher (2 birds heard, but only 1 seen- possibly an adult and a young bird??).

Mandarin and ducklings

Moorhen chick

Coot chick

Other birds seen around the reservoirs included Common Buzzard (1),Whitethroat (1 singing male in the ringing site - the first 2017 record),  Chiffchaff (6 singing) and Willow Warbler (1 singing).

Smashing Sunday

Four years ago, during the London Olympics, the British athletes celebrated what was called Super Saturday, when lots of medals were won. At the time, I "borrowed" the title for a blog post about a really good ringing session I took part in with Sorby Breck Ringing Group (see post here). Well, four years down the line, the Rio Olympics are taking place and the British athletes have had a "Super Sunday", with lots of medals won again, and guess what? I've "borrowed" the slightly amended title to describe a "smashing" ringing session I took part in with 2 other ringers on Sunday at Linacre Reservoirs.

In total, we caught 64 birds of 15 species, which, in itself is great, but what made it even more amazing was the number of warblers in the total. The most numerous warbler was Willow Warbler, with 12 juveniles ringed!! To put this total into some kind of context, since we started ringing at Linacre in 2012, we've only ever caught 13 adults, and have never caught any juveniles before, so Sunday's total was outstanding.

Willow Warbler (1 of 12 juveniles)

In addition, we also caught several other warblers, Chiffchaff (4 juveniles and a retrap adult), Blackcap (7 juveniles and 1 adult) and Whitethroat, (2 juveniles). I'm particularly pleased with the Whitethroat record, as I'd only heard and seen the male bird singing once this year, so proof of breeding was very welcome.

Whitethroat (1 of 2 ringed)

Along with the warblers, we also had a good morning with the Linacre "regulars" (new/re-traps): Blackbird 1/0, Robin 3/0, Wren 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Coal Tit 2/0, Dunnock 1/0, Blue Tit 12/0, Great Tit 8/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Bullfinch 4/0 and Goldcrest 3/0. Phew!

Poolsbrook Marsh - 24th July 2016

Every summer I go out ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group at Poolsbrook Marsh. We were out there again at the weekend, and managed to ring 56 birds of 15 species. Birds caught were (new/retrap) : Blackcap 4/0, Garden Warbler 6/0, Reed Warbler 16/2, Sedge Warbler 4/1, Willow Warbler 4/1, Chiffchaff 5/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Robin 3/0, Wren 1/0, Great Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 2/0, Bullfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0 and Reed Bunting 1/0.

As you can see, we managed to catch 7 species of warbler, including 4 birds that we'd ringed at this site before. 2 of the birds, a Sedge Warbler and a Reed Warbler had both been ringed just over 3 years ago (3 years and 4 days to be exact!). The Sedge Warbler was a juvenile bird when ringed, which shows how birds born here return to breed. The Reed Warbler was aged as an adult in 2013. Another Reed Warbler and one of Willow Warblers (both adults), were first caught on 5th July 2015, and re trapped here on Saturday, 1 year and 19 days later). Great records!

The other notable record of the morning was the excellent number of Reed Warblers and Garden Warblers caught. Out of the 56 birds caught, 34 were juveniles, which is also great news from this wonderful site.

In between net rounds and ringing, we managed to record a few birds, including Grey Heron, Swallow, House Martin, Swift (10) and a Kingfisher that was fishing nearby.

Linacre Ringing, a new damselfly and a Year Ticks

Yesterday saw the first mist netting session at Linacre since April with 3 members, including me, from Sorby Breck Ringing Group. To say it was quiet would be an understatement, with just 10 birds of 5 species ringed, but at least this consisted of 3 species of warbler, including a "year tick" .

The first bird out of the nets was the "year tick" - a Garden Warbler! Not only was this my first record of this species this year, but it was also a juvenile bird, proving breeding at Linacre. The next couple of birds were Chaffinch (re-trapped adult) and Nuthatch (new, juvenile bird), and then, about half an hour later, we caught a couple of Blackcaps (both adults, 1 new and 1 a re-trap) and a new juvenile Chiffchaff. The last four birds of the morning were a Blue Tit (new juvenile), Chaffinch (new juvenile), and 2 more Blackcaps ( new, adult birds).

After the ringing, we spent some time clearing some of the vegetation from the net rides, and managed to record a few insects, including  Red-tailed, White-tailed and Tree Bumblebees, a Small Skipper, a Bloodvein moth and a Large Red Damselfly, my first record of this species at Linacre. The damselfly, a female, was found resting on the Yellow Flag Irises in a very small pond on the ringing site.

Bloodvein

Large Red Damselfly

Other birds seen around the ringing site included a singing male Whitethroat (first Linacre record of 2016), 3 Swifts, 2 Swallows, and a  Mistle Thrush mobbing a hunting Kestrel.

Year List Update

I've managed to add a few new species to this year's Year List over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd better write a short post to keep the blog up to date.

The Pied Flycatcher was added at Linacre last weekend and the Swift was first recorded on Friday 6th May, flying over Tesco in Chesterfield. The Wood Warbler was seen at Padley Gorge last Sunday (8th) following a tip off of a singing male from Chesterfield RSPB Group. The Little Owl was seen in a tree by the side of the road in Barlow, again, from a tip off from a colleague at school. I managed to get a photo.

Little Owl

The final two species, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler, were seen this morning. The Whitethroat was a singing male seen in a hedgerow in Apperknowle, and the Reed Warbler was 1 of several seen and heard singing at Poolsbrook Marsh as I was carrying out some maintenance work with Ray and David from Sorby Breck Ringing Group, on the net rides for some ringing next week.

Year List update:

144 – Pied Flycatcher

145 – Swift

146 – Wood Warbler

147 - Little Owl

148 – Whitethroat

149 – Reed Warbler

Linacre Ringing- 8th August 2015

As I was driving down to Cornwall last weekend, 4 members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group were ringing at Linacre. They had an amazing few hours ringing a total of 71 birds (64 new birds and 7 retraps) of  17 species!

Birds ringed were: (new/retrap) Bullfinch 3/0, Chaffinch 3/0, Goldfinch 2/0, Goldcrest 4/0, Blue Tit 12/2, Great Tit 7/2, Coal Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/0, Wren 1/0, Robin 6/0, Dunnock 0/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Nuthatch 0/1,  Blackcap 8/0, Chiffchaff 8/1, Willow Warbler 5/0, Whitethroat 1/0.

As well as this super total, it was also very pleasing to note that of the 71 birds ringed, 55 were juvenile birds, born this year. Of particular note was the juvenile Whitethroat, and the 4 juvenile Willow Warblers, which are the first confirmed breeding for these two species at Linacre!