End of the year report.

No I'm not going crazy. I know it's only June, but for the birds using the nest boxes at Linacre this year, it is the end of the breeding season. I went down last night to ring the last 2 remaining broods, 1 of 7 Blue Tits and 1 of 5 Great Tits, so I thought I'd give you a round up of this year's highs and lows.

Thankfully this year, the highs have far outweighed the lows. Over the last month or so we've had 28 tit boxes and 2 owl boxes used, which is a 33% occupancy rate. Of the 28 tit boxes used, 25 were successful and only 3 failed before the young birds could be ringed. Obviously, not all the birds have fledged yet, so there could still be some more deaths before the birds fledge.

Blue Tits used 19 boxes, 18 of which were successful and brood sizes ranged from 3-12 chicks, with the mean being 7. Great Tits used 9 boxes, 7 of which were successful, again with a  range of  3- 7 chicks, the mean being 5. A total of 166 tit pulli have been ringed from the boxes (129 Blue Tits and 37 Great Tits), which is 20 more than last year.

Two of the three owl boxes were used by Mandarin Ducks this year. As a group, we managed to ring both female birds. Both boxes contained between 10 eggs and, after fledging, just 2 eggs were found in one box and one dead chick was found in the other, giving a successful fledging rate of 80% and 90% respectively. At least 2 broods have been spotted on the reservoirs already this year, and we look forward to seeing if the female bird will breed again in the boxes in 2014. The third owl box wasn't used for breeding this year, but a Tawny Owl was present in it in April, so again, fingers are crossed for next year. The Kestrel box was occupied by Grey Squirrels again this year!

Away from the boxes, the only open nest found was that of a Song Thrush. Four eggs were found on 12th May (see here). Four chicks were seen later in the month and three were ringed in early June (see here). The nest is now empty, so hopefully the birds fledged successfully.

The final nest that we managed to monitor and ring birds from was a Little Owl nest found in a tree by the entrance. The first reports of Little Owl came in summer last year, and a pair was spotted in the same set of trees throughout the Spring. In May we checked out a possible nest site and ringed the female bird (see here), and then one chick from the nest on 16th June (see here).

Nests that were seen, but not ringed, included 2 Great-crested Grebes and 1 Little Grebe, but I'll update these as the summer progresses. Now all we want is to recapture some of this year's birds over the winter period and, hopefully, using the boxes again next year.

Linacre insects and flowers

At this time of the year the birdlife at Linacre can go quite quiet, so, whilst walking around on Sunday, I also started to look around at the flowers that are coming out and some of the insects that live on them. Some of the species I didn't recognise, so I put them on iSpot and got a few new names. Here are a few pictures.

Red and Black Froghopper

 

 

Marmalade Hoverfly

 

Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius - male)

 

Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

 

Marsh Snipefly (Rhagio tringarius)

 

Marsh Orchid species

 

Common-spotted Orchid

 

Linacre WeBS- June 22nd 2013

This month's WeBS count at Linacre was a joint effort between myself and Chesterfield RSPB Group. I counted for a couple of hours this afternoon, whilst Mandy and Chris provided details from yesterday morning. Thanks for the input.

The counts this month were as follows: Mallard (49; 17 adults and 4 broods of ducklings, 7, 7,8 and 10), Coot (20; 7 adults and 5 broods of chicks totalling 13 birds), Great-crested Grebe ( 11; 3 adults and 2 broods of 4 chicks each), Little Grebe (2 adults with a nest), Tufted Duck (11; all adults), Grey Heron (1), Canada Goose (1 on the bottom reservoir with a female Mallard and her ducklings), Cormorant (1 adult bird- the first of the "winter"!!),

Checking back on June sightings for the last few years, these numbers are pretty much in line with what's expected. I'm particularly happy with the Little Grebe nest though, as this species has been very quiet and elusive this year. Hopefully they'll continue with the nest and raise some young as well.

Here are a few shots of the Mallard ducklings.

 

 

 

Mallards and a Canada Goose

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

Busy Weekend

This weekend I have been very busy with ringing and birding. After Friday night's trip to Ladybower Woods I was out on Saturday and Sunday morning ringing with members of the group, adding another 23 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 2 Pied Flycatchers and 1 Little Owl pullus to the total. As well as the ringing I also managed an addition to my "Year List" with a singing Quail in fields near Shilito Woods (thanks for the tip off Sylvia).

Saturday morning's ringing session took place at a new site for me, Greenwood Farm, an area of land in the Peak District, owned by the National Trust, and part of the Longshaw Estate. Over a three hour visit we managed to ring 2 broods of Pied Flycatchers, as well as several Blue and Great Tit clutches, including 1 Blue Tit nest with 15 well grown pulli, the highest number I've ever seen.

Sunday morning started with the year tick, when I went to listen to a singing Quail. The song is very distinctive, listen here, but the bird is very elusive and rarely seen. Afterwards I drove up to Linacre, where the group ringed another 44 more pulli, including a Little Owl chick from the nest where we ringed the female bird in May (see here). Back in May she had laid 2 eggs, but when we checked yesterday only 1 had hatched.

Little Owl pullus

There were three boxes with pulli still to ring, so when they're done next week I'll give a round up of this year's successes.

After the ringing we popped down to the ringing site to check on the net lanes and whilst down there we spotted this beautiful day-flying moth, which according to Ispot and UKMoths is a Forester. It's a new species for Linacre and it posed nicely for this photo.

Forrester

Year List:

144- Quail

Another Ringing Tick

Following quick on the heels of last week's Redstart chicks, I was back at the DWT's Ladybower Woods reserve on Friday to catch up with the Pied Flycatcher chicks that were too small to ring last weekend.

Oak woodland at Ladybower Wood

This time around there was one box of  pulli that were ready, so together with Ray, my trainer and Stewart, I got to ring my 43rd species of bird and my 5th new species of the year.

Here are the brood before ringing and one of the 6 individuals I was lucky enough to ring.

Pied Flycatchers

 

Pied Flycatcher pullus

 

Small Phoenix!

Whilst out ringing at the DWT's Ladybower Woods this morning Stewart and I came across this interesting moth.

Small Phoenix

 

After a bit of research I think I've identified it as a Small Phoenix, which is a relatively common moth found across Britain, in open woodland, feeding on willowherbs such as Rosebay Willowherb. Here's a link to the UK Moths website, so you can check for yourself.