Summer Migrants at Linacre

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre this morning and walked around all 3 reservoirs. We recorded good numbers of the usual waterbirds, along with a pair of Greylag Goose (present since Wednesday 29th) and our first singing Blackcap (3) and Willow Warbler (1) of 2017. The Willow Warbler was by the top reservoir, and was 3 days earlier than 2016, whilst the Blackcaps were by the middle reservoir (1), and by the stairs by the bottom reservoir (2) and were an  amazing 16 days earlier than last year!! Also singing this morning were: 9 Chiffchaffs, 7 Song Thrushes, Wrens, Stock Doves and Dunnocks. 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.

Greylag Geese (a pair?)

Waterbirds seen were: Mallard (33), Tufted Duck (27), Coot (6), Moorhen (12), Cormorant (3; 2 adults and a young bird), Great-crested Grebe (6; 3 pairs, including 1 pair that appeared to have a nest), Mandarin Duck (6) and Grey Wagtail (4: 2 pairs). A mixed flock of c.30 Siskins and Lesser Redpolls was flying around the Larch woodlands.

Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine and Coltsfoot were in all in flower. Interestingly, another 4 Perch and another dead Trout were in the overflow from the middle reservoir, along with, what looked like a half eaten duck, possibly a Mallard?

Mallard?

Year List update:
115 - Chiffchaff (at Linacre on 12th March)
116 - Willow Warbler

Monsal Dale in the Sunshine

It was a lovely, sunny day yesterday, with blue, cloudless skies and a high of 13 degrees celsius, so Jayne and I had a walk though Monsal Dale. We parked up at the White Lodge car park and walked the mile and a half, along the River Wye, to the viaduct, at Monsal Head.

As the sun was out, we were hoping for our first butterflies of the year, and we were not disappointed, with 2 Peacocks, 5 Brimstones and 2 Commas. We also spotted a Bee-Fly, but couldn't get a photo to identify to species level, before it flew away!

Comma

Birds seen along the way were: Dipper, at least 2, possibly more, Mandarin Duck; 1 pair, Canada Goose; 1 pair, Grey Wagtail 2, Mallard 2, Tufted Duck 5, Little Grebe 2, Chiffchaff (singing) and Common Buzzard (2).

Dipper

Wild flowers seen were: Lesser Celandine, Dog Violet, Wood Anenome and Primrose.

Primrose

Year List update:

111 – Tree Sparrow (seen on 18th March at Carsington Water)

112 – Dipper

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.

Linacre Reservoir - 2nd April 2011- Drained reservoirs, Grey Wagtail and Bluebells

As I mentioned in my previous post today was another excellent day's birding. After visiting Burbage Moor I had a drive down to Linacre to catch up on the developments with the draining of the top reservoir. Here are a couple of images of what it looked like this morning.

As you can see, the water levels are well below the norm, I estimate at least 10-15m below. Despite this there were still several birds present including a summer plumaged Cormorant, 6 Mandarin Duck, several Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and approximately 10 Tufted Duck. No waders yet though! As I walked around the middle reservoir I noticed this was being drained as well so photos of that next week.

No new summer migrants were seen or heard today, but I did manage to locate and photograph a singing Grey Wagtail around the middle reservoir. Here he is, complete with open beak!

Grey Wagtail

As well as the above birds I also noted the first few Bluebells of the year, just below the bottom car park, lots of newly-opened Wood Anemone and Celandine or Lesser Celandine and this lovely little plant which I can't name. Does anyone else know what it is? If so, please let me know.

Bluebells

Wood Anenome

(Lesser) Celandine

Any ideas?????