Year List Update

 Over the last few weeks, Jayne and I have added several new birds to the Year List. 

The first species were Wood Warbler (163) and Grey Partridge (164). The next two were both seen, on Thursday. They were: Nightjar (165) and Woodcock (166).

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).

Derbyshire Woodcock and Nightjar - 21st June 2023

 On Wednesday, Jayne and I went out with our friend Stewart from Derbyshire Bird Tours in the search for Nightjar and Woodcock.

We met up at 8.15pm and spent the next two and a half hours up on the edge of the moors, where we had fantastic views of both these species, along with Tree Pipit, Cuckoo, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler (heard), Great Spotted Woodpecker , Tawny Owl (heard) and Linnet.

Year list update: 169 - Woodcock

Linacre Reservoirs - 6th March 2021

 Yesterday was my first visit to Linacre of March. I arrived on site at 6.45am and spent two hours walking around all three reservoirs. 

As always at this time of the year there were a lot of species singing, including  1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song Thrushes, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Woodpigeon, Great and Coal Tit, Robin, Wren and Dunnock. In addition, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming and a pair of Stock Doves and Jackdaws were exploring potential nest sites.

Out on the water there were 3 Canada Geese (1 pair on the bottom reservoir, and 1 single bird on the middle), 104 Mallards, 90 Tufted Duck, 44 Mandarins, 11 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Cormorant, 1 Little Grebe (heard), 3 Great-crested Grebes (2 on the middle reservoir, and 1 on the top), 42 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Common Gull (2nd record of the year!) and 1 male Goosander.

The best sighting of the day, however, was a Woodcock that appeared out of the woods, and flew straight past me along the entire length of the top reservoir!! It was my best ever sighting of this species, as I usually only see them in silhouette in the summer "roding" over woodland, and also a great Linacre record for this rarely-seen, nocturnal species. My last record was a dead bird, seen in January 2020 (see here).

Year List Update

Last week, Luke and I visited Linacre (see here). Whilst there, I managed to add several birds to my "year list" (numbers 61 - 71). I was particularly pleased with the Woodcock and Pied Wagtail ( 2 species very rarely seen at Linacre).

The final species, Brambling, was seen at the National Trust's Longshaw Estate, where Jayne and I saw a flock of at least 20 birds in the Beech woods by the small pond.

Year List update:
61 – Mandarin Duck
62 – Grey Wagtail
63 – Woodcock
64 – Nuthatch
65 – Treecreeper
66 – Jay
67 – Chaffinch
68 – Siskin
69 - Little Grebe
70 – Green Woodpecker
71 – Pied Wagtail
72 – Brambling

Linacre - 5th January 2020

Luke and I had our first visit to Linacre on Sunday morning, and it turned out to be a very good trip with some really interesting records.

First up the water bird numbers: Mallard (122 - a very good total), Tufted Duck (16), Mandarin Duck (28), Moorhen (17), Coot (4), Little Grebe (3), Great-crested Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (2), Pied Wagtail (1, we only had 1 record in the whole of 2019, so this is a pretty good start to the year), Greylag Goose (2, again a very good record for the start of the year), Canada Goose (2 flying over), Black-headed Gull (28), Kingfisher (1, seen by Luke, but not by me!) and Goosander (1 female).

Away from the water, there were lots of small birds around including: Mistle Thrush, Bullfinch, Siskin, Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Treecreeper.

The most interesting sighting of the morning, however, came as we were walking through the woods by the middle reservoir. We noticed a bird on the ground, and soon realised it was a male Sparrowhawk. As we walked towards it, it took off and we noticed it had left some prey behind, a still-warm Woodcock!!! The Sparrowhawk had started to eat its meal, so, after taking a few photos, we left the bird where we'd found it, and hopefully it came back to finish it off when we'd gone.

Woodcock (deceased)

Year List Update

On Friday I was out with the Chesterfield RSPB Group at Clumber Park for the annual Nightjar Walk.

We started off at the Chapel, where we saw a variety of waterbirds, including a fly-over Little Egret, and dozens of juvenile Canada and Greylag Geese. Passerines were few and far between, but we did drop very lucky when 3 Woodlarks flew over from South Lawn and landed on the grass, approximately 30m away from us! Luke managed to get a decent shot of one of the birds.

Woodlark

Later, we drove across to our traditional site for the Nightjars and Woodcock, where we saw both species.

Year List update:

181 – Woodlark

182 – Woodcock
183 – Nightjar

Year List update

Back in June I took part in Chesterfield RSPB's annual evening walk around Clumber Park. We had a few hours walking around the park, before heading to the area were we saw Nightjar and Woodcock last year. We got lucky again, seeing about 4 Woodcocks and 3 Nightjars.

The Crossbills (9 in total) were seen and heard flying around the woodlands at Linacre.

Year list update:
154 – Crossbill
155 – Woodcock
156 – Nightjar

Year List Update - 4 new species

Over the last couple of weeks the "year listing" has slowed down some what, but despite this, I've managed to add 4 new species, taking the 2017 list to a very respectable 173.

The first new species was Grasshopper Warbler, with 1 male "reeling" at The Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield on 11th. I also added Long-eared Owl last weekend, at a site in Derbyshire, and the last 2 species; Woodcock and Nightjar were added during a visit to Clumber Park with Chesterfield RSPB Group.

Year List update:
170 – Grasshopper Warbler
171 – Long-eared Owl
172 – Woodcock
173 - Nightjar

Nightjars and Woodcock

Every year, at the end of June, I lead a walk for the Chesterfield RSPB Group around Clumber Park, to see Woodcock and Nightjar. We were there on Friday, and managed to record both species, and another "year tick", Spotted Flycatcher.

We started the walk at 7pm, and spent an hour or so walking around by the lake, where we had sightings of Wren, Blackbird, Swallow, Swift, House Martin, Pied Wagtail, Jackdaw, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush, Woodpigeon and the first of 2 Spotted Flycatchers. Down on the water, we recorded Mute Swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Coot (2 nests), Tufted Duck and Canada and Greylag Goose, including this leucistic individual.

Greylag Goose

At about 8.30pm, we moved across to the south side of the lake for a short walk, and added Kestrel, Willow Warbler and Yellowhammer to the group's list, before moving again, to the area where we knew we'd see the star birds! Woodcock put on a good show as soon as we got in place, with about half a dozen birds seen and heard flying around. The Nightjars, however, made us wait a little longer, however, with first "churring" heard at about 10.15pm. Unfortunately, for the first time on our trips, we didn't manage to see the Nightjars, most likely as the area we use is now becoming a little over grown.

Year list update:

151 – Spotted Flycatcher

152 – Woodcock

153 - Nightjar

Linacre Ringing - Redwings,Woodcock and more Shag photos.

After all the excitement of yesterday's new bird at Linacre I was back down there again this morning, this time with the Sorby Breck Ring Group.

We got on site at 6.30am to set up in the dark and set the "Latvian Love Song" lure playing. This tape lure is designed especially to attract Redwing, and we were very lucky to catch and ring 5 new birds this morning (all this year's birds), our first for Linacre and only my second ever. Here's one.

Redwing

Whilst setting up the nets, we flushed a Woodcock (thanks David for spotting it), which is the first record for Linacre in 2015, and heard a couple of Tawny Owls.  As well as the Redwings, we also managed to catch a process 48 other birds, namely (new/retraps): Robin (1/6), Dunnock (0/4), Goldcrest (2/1), Goldfinch (2/0), Wren (1/0), Bullfinch (0/1), Blue (7/6), Great (2/6), Coal (0/4) and Long-tailed Tits (4/1).

In between net rounds we also recorded the following birds: Kestrel, 1 hunting over the ringing site, Starling (c.30 flew over), Stock Dove (2 sat in the Birch tree by the nest box we put up recently) and Grey Heron (1 flew over). A Little Owl was also seen on the main drive when we arrived (thanks again David).

After ringing, I met up with my nephew, and we went to look for yesterday's Shags. Luke had already spotted 5, including 4 on the dam wall of the middle reservoir. Here's one of his photos.

Shag

We walked around the middle reservoir, and spotted a total of 6 birds, including 5 perched together on the overflow at the top end of the middle reservoir. Here's a photo. 

5 Shags

Darley Dale Wildlife blogger was on site today- great to meet you by the way. See here for his blog post with 3 great photos of the Shags. Whilst looking at them, we also spotted a couple of Kingfishers, 3 male Teal (very unusual here), 11 Mandarin Ducks and Luke also spotted the Wigeon again.

Year List Update

I was out at Clumber Park on Friday evening with the Chesterfield RSPB Group for the annual Nightjar Walk.

We met at 7pm and had a short walk around the lake where we saw hundreds (!) of Canada and Greylag Geese, which included adults and this year's young. Also present were Mallard, Gadwall, Coots, a Moorhen, Mute Swan and Great-crested Grebes. 

3 members of the walk had arrived earlier and had managed to find a pair of Spotted Flycatchers on site, so we made a short detour and watched the birds "fly catching" from the top of a tree. Other small birds seen included Swifts, House Martins and singing Yellowhammers, Willow Warblers and a stunning male Linnet.

At about 9.30pm we moved to another part of the park to see if we could catch up with the Nightjars and Woodcocks. We didn't have to wait too long before the first Woodcock flew over our heads and the first "churring" was heard from the Nightjars at about 9.45pm. By 10.30pm we'd seen and heard 2 birds.

Year List update:
142 - Spotted Flycatcher
143 - Woodcock
144 - Nightjar

RSPB Nightjar Walk

On Friday I spent 4 hours in Clumber Park with several members of the Chesterfield RSPB Group, on our annual trip to see the Woodcocks and Nightjars that breed there.

We met at 7.30pm, and spent the first couple of hours looking round the main lake and grasslands by the Chapel. Despite super weather conditions, warm and sunny, we didn't see too many birds, just the expected water birds (Mute Swan, Canada and Greylag Goose, Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, Great-crested Grebe), and a few summer visitors (Swallow, Swift and House Martin).

We moved over to the regular area to see the Nightjars at about 9.15pm, and, within half an hour, we spotted the first birds. We were lucky enough to see 3 Nightjars over the next hour, along with about half a dozen Woodcocks, and a calling Cuckoo.

Here's a photo of one of the male Nightjars taken by a fellow RSPB member and friend, Norman Crowson.

Nightjar

Year List update:
151 - Woodcock
152 - Nightjar

Linacre WeBS - Januray 2014

The first WeBS walk of 2014 turned out to be a wet one with heavy rain throughout. Thankfully, however, the 2 members of the Chesterfield RSPB Group  who came along (many thanks!), soldiered on and managed some reasonable numbers, given the conditions.

 

Birds seen were: Mallard (76), Coot (12), Moorhen (6), Mandarin Duck (13), Black-headed Gull (5), Cormorant (2), Tufted Duck (60) Goosander (1 male). Unfortunately, due to the awful weather, there weren't any records of the Crossbills this week, but a report on the Sheffield Bird Study Group website of 38 from earlier in the week was very good. A Woodcock was also reported on 19th January on this website, the first record of the year.

 

I didn't walk around this month, but instead, put together 7 new tit boxes with Gillian, the DCC ranger and Noel from the RSPB Group. I'm going to get them up in the half term holidays to replace the open-fronted boxes that have never been used in the 7 years they've been in place! Come April time, hopefully these boxes will be used by the resident Blue and Great Tits, or, if we're very lucky, by Pied Flycatcher. Whatever happens, I'll record the details for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme ring any pulli and keep the blog updated.

Nightjar Walk - Clumber Park

Every year, at about this time, I join up with Chesterfield RSPB group to lead an evening walk around the National Trust's property of Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire. The key species we're looking for are Woodcock and Nightjar, and this year we managed excellent views of both species.

The evening started in the main car park, where we spent a couple of hours walking around the lake and woods. We managed good views of many different duck species, including Mallard, Tufted Duck and Gadwall. Canada and Greylag Geese were present in very good numbers (50+) of each species and there were at least 30 Mute Swans, with one group of 7 cygnets. Gulls were represented with several Black-headed and 1 over-flying Lesser Black-backed.

Summer migrants were present around the site and included Swifts, Swallows, House Martins attending nests on the buildings, a singing Cuckoo and 3 species of warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.

The night ended with a short drive to another area of the park where we heard and saw the stars of the night; Woodcock and Nightjar. Lovely birds!

Year List:
145 - Nightjar

Empty nestboxes, WeBS Walk, summer migrants and a new bird!

This weekend's visit to Linacre was pretty busy with the first check of the nest boxes and the monthly WeBS Walk. Added to this, I also recorded another summer migrant and my first sighting of a species which has been recorded before, but never by me.

First up was the WeBS Walk. Things were pretty quiet out on the water with the following birds recorded: Mallard (21), Tufted Duck (13), Coot (10), Moorhen (7), Cormorant (3), Great-crested Grebe (3), Black-headed Gull (4), Mandarin Duck (2 males), Grey Wagtail (3), and Greylag Goose (2 flew east down the valley).

As well as the waterbirds there were 4 singing Chiffchaffs and the new summer migrant, a Swallow, that flew over the lower car park. The new bird for me was a Woodcock, that flew up from the woodland floor when I was checking the nestboxes. As I said, this species has been reported at Linacre before, but not by me, so it was very nice to record it. Hopefully it will be the first of many sightings. Another new bird for the year at Linacre was a Skylark that was singing in the fields by the top reservoir. Finally, the Little Owls were still in their favourite tree by the entrance.

The nest boxes were checked, but unfortunately, they were all completely empty. This is in contrast to this time last year, when several boxes already had nests and egss in them. See here for details. Next week perhaps?

Year List update:
109- Woodcock

Quiet Linacre

No ringing this weekend due to a combination of heavy, persistent rain (Saturday) and wind (Sunday). Instead I had a couple of hours walking around the reservoirs, which, to put it nicely, was a very quiet experience.

Out on the water were just 59 Mallards, 5 Moorhens, 4 Coots, 4 Cormorants, 11 Tufted Duck, 1 Kingfisher (best record by far), 4 Black-headed Gulls and 1 Grey Heron. As you can see there were no records of Mandarin Duck, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail and Grebes! A count of 10 Goosander, including 7 males,  was posted on the Sheffield Bird Study Group later on Sunday. Also posted recently was a record of Woodcock, which is the first record this year. I really will have to work harder next year to find this species at Linacre.

Nightjars and Woodcocks

Friday evening saw me and 5 others spending  a few hours in Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire on the Chesterfield RSPB's annual visit to see Nightjars and Woodcocks.

We'd had alot of rain this week, so we weren't expecting too much, but as we arrived, the rain stopped and the sun came out! The first part of the walk took place around the main lake, We saw a good number of waterbirds including Gadwall, Mallard, Mute Swan, Great-crested Grebe and a single male Mandarin Duck.

After an hour or so we headed over to the grassland area where we found a singing Yellowhammer, two Stock Doves and a single Tree Pipit.

Tree Pipit

The final part of the evening started at about 9.30pm, when we moved over to the Nightjar area. Within minutes of our arrival we'd seen a"roding" Woodcock and over the next hour we saw several more. A Cuckoo was heard calling and at about 9.45pm the Nightjars began to "churr" and we managed to see two birds flying around.

The Year List has moved on 4 species:

139 -Tree Pipit
140 - Woodcock
141 - Nightjar
142 - Cuckoo

Clumber Park - 10th June 2011

As a birdwatcher, there are certain events that I look forward to every year, such as the first returning summer migrants or winter thrushes. Another event that I always enjoy is this early summer evening visit to Clumber Park, in Nottinghamshire, to look for the Nightjars and Woodcock.

Clumber lake with Greylag Geese

Tonight's visit, run as part of the Chesterfield RSPB's programme of events, began at 7pm in the chapel car park where the first birds, a beautiful pair of Stock Doves were seen in one of the nearby trees. Walking down to the lake we soon spotted Swift (dozens feeding low over the water), Swallow, House and Sand Martin. Waterbirds were present on the lake itself and included Gadwall, Coot, Mute Swan, Mallard, Canada and Greylag Goose, all with young in tow.

Coot's nest and young

Other waterbirds seen, but which didn't have young were Moorhen, Tufted Duck and a pair of Shoveler, the male of which was going into eclipse plumage.

The walk continued down the side of the water where we managed to locate a few more summer migrants with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and a Blackcap/Garden Warbler all singing. An Oystercatcher found feeding on the grass, was an unusual sight and was my first at this site. The highlight, however, of this part of the walk was a pair of Spotted Flycatcher that we managed to find and watch "flycatching" on the far side of the lake.

At about 9.15pm we headed back to the car park and drove to another area of the park where we had seen both Nightjar and Woodcock in previous years. We got in position next to an area of cleared plantation and waited for the light to fade.

Nightjar habitat in Clumber Park

Whilst waiting for the first Nightjars, we heard a distinctive call and saw a couple of Woodcock"roding" overhead. A Cuckoo was also calling, but wasn't seen. After about half an hour (about 9.40pm before the I think!) we heard the first "churring" and its wasn't long before Nightjars appeared flying low overhead. At one point we had 2 birds singing at the same time and saw at least 3 birds, including a female that flew up from the floor, presumably from a hidden nest. If you've never herard a Nightjar "churring", follow this link, it's an amazing sound!!

The evening ended at about 10.30pm and we all left the area leaving the birds churring away. Many thanks to all that attended.