Linacre Ringing - a new species

I was down at Linacre yesterday morning ringing with my trainer, 2 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, and a visiting ringer from Glasgow. We spent  just over 4 hours on site (6 am - 10.30 am), and caught and processed 60 birds, including a new species for the site and for me- a Siskin.

Siskin

Siskins are annual winter visitors to Linacre, and may breed in the coniferous trees on site, but this has never been proven. Yesterday's bird was an adult male bird (thanks David and Ray for the help ageing), which was still undergoing it's post breeding moult, hence the slightly "scruffy" appearance of this bird's head. As I said, this is the first we've ever caught here, and it was a new species for me to ring. As well as this, it was also my first August record at Linacre.

Along with the Siskin, we also caught the following birds (new/retrap): Dunnock 3/0, Blackcap 8/2, Chiffchaff 6/1, Robin 1/0, Goldfinch 9/0,  Wren 2/0, Willow Warbler 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/0, Blue Tit 9/1, Great Tit 6/0, Coal Tit 1/0, Blackbird 0/1, Chaffinch 1/0 and Nuthatch 1/3. The new Nuthatch was especially good for Paul, our visiting ringer, as this was the first one he'd ringed. One of the retrap Blackcaps was also good, as it was a young bird that we'd caught here at Linacre at the start of August. Always nice to retrap a bird and see that it's still going strong.

As the ringing was quite busy, we didn't have a lot of time to spot much else, but we did see 1 Red Admiral, a Cormorant and a Common Buzzard around the site.

RSPB Frampton Marsh

I had a drive over to Lincolnshire today to see if I could see a Red-footed Falcon at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's Willow Tree Fen Reserve. Unfortunately, I "dipped", but I did spot at least half a dozen Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cows, a Green Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and 2 Marsh Harriers.

Afterwards, I drove over to RSPB Frampton Marsh, near Boston, to look for some of the many waders that had been reported recently on the Birdguides website. The first species I saw was Black-tailed Godwit, followed closely by Ruff , Snipe, Ringed Plover and Lapwing. Wood Sandpiper was the next species seen with 2 individuals seen. Little Stints (2 juveniles), and a single juvenile Curlew Sandpiper were also seen. I got  a few "record shots".

Little Stint showing white "braces"

Little Stint (face on)

Curlew Sandpiper (juvenile)

Wood Sandpiper 

Ruff (juvenile)

Along with the waders there were also hundreds of Mallards, Teals, Canada and Greylag Geese, as well as 6 Pintail, Black-headed and Herring Gulls and a single, unseasonable Pink-footed Goose!

Year List update:

160 – Yellow Wagtail

161 – Green Sandpiper

162 – Wood Sandpiper

163 – Little Stint

164 – Curlew Sandpiper

165 – Pink-footed Goose

166 - Pintail

Barlow Dragonflies

Barlow Fish Ponds are just a few miles away from home, and are a good place to see a few damsel and dragonflies. I spent a couple of hours there on Wednesday afternoon, and recorded Banded Demoiselle, Brown Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer and Common and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

The Banded Demoiselles (4+), were all males, and were mainly seen around the first two ponds. As far as I know, they are relatively scarce in Derbyshire. This is my first record at this site, and only my second in Derbyshire.  

Banded Demoiselle 

Brown Hawkers, on the other hand, are a lot more common, and I saw at least 6 females ovipositing around the site, along with several males perched up.

Brown Hawker ovipositing

Black-tailed Skimmer is a species that prefers to spend most of its time resting on the ground, and the male that I saw was doing just that.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common and Blue-tailed Damselflies were also seen during this visit, with many pairs "in tandem" and ovipositing.

Blue-tailed Damselflies "in tandem"

Common Blue Damselflies "in tandem"

More information about all these species can be found on the British Dragonfly Society's website here.

Derbyshire Osprey

News on the Bird Guides website that there were a couple of Ospreys at Ogston Reservoir, made me decide to pop across there earlier in the week in order to "tick" it for the Year List. I arrived at the West Bank car park at about 9.30am, and within 5 minutes, saw an Osprey flying high over the reservoir. It continued to fly along the reservoir, and then stooped, dived into the water and caught a fish!!!

Year List update:
159: Osprey

Linacre Insects

Whilst down at Linacre yesterday, I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the insect life there. Nothing new was noted, but what was there was cooperating, and I managed some nice shots.

Common Blue Damselflies were present again in good numbers, including several males and pairs "in tandem".

Common Blue Damselfly

Along with the Common Blue, I also recorded 3 Brown Hawkers and a single Migrant Hawker, but unfortunately, neither species would pose for a photo.

The sun came out while I was there, and so too did the butterflies. Gatekeepers were seen in good numbers (6+), as were Meadow Browns (5), while 1 Small Copper, 1 Comma, 4 Peacocks and 4 Green-veined Whites were also seen feeding around the site.

Gatekeeper

Comma

Green-veined White

As well as the butterflies, I also stumbled upon a couple of moth species; namely Large Yellow Underwing and a Copper Underwing species.

Large Yellow Underwing

Copper Underwing sp.

There are 2 species of Copper Underwing in Britain, but to confirm whether this is a Svennson's Copper Underwing, or just a "normal" Copper Underwing, you need to check the hindwing. Unfortunately, the moth flew off before I could check, so it'll have to go down as a Copper Underwing species.

Linacre WeBS - August 2015

I wasn't able to do this month's WeBS walk at Linacre last week, so I popped down today. It was quite quiet, as is normal at this time of year, but I was very pleased to see a female Tufted Duck with 5 small ducklings! This is the 3 brood that have been reported this year. Here are a few photos.

Female and 5 ducklings

1 of the 5 ducklings

Proud mum!

The female bird was very protective of the 5 ducklings (which you'd expect), and it was amazing to watch the young birds as they dived constantly for food. It's also very interesting to see the stiff tail feathers on the ducklings, which they use to help when diving, and the bills, which look a bit too big for the youngsters!

There were 3 young Mandarin Ducks around today, including 2 that sat up on the wall of the top reservoir.

Mandarin Duck

Totals for this month were: Mallard (37), Tufted Duck (21; 16 adults and 5 ducklings), Mandarin Duck (3 juveniles), Grey Wagtail (3), Kingfisher (1), Coot (5 adults), Moorhen (4; 2 adults and 2 juveniles), Grey Heron (1). Other birds seen today included Robin (1 juvenile), Swallow (6) and House Martin (5). 

Colour-ringed Gulls - an update

Earlier in the summer I blogged about 2 different color ringed gulls that I'd seen around the country, see here and here. Well, I've had details back from 1 of the 2 gulls, so I thought I'd pass on the information.

First the Great Black-backed Gull, that I saw in RSPB Titchwell. At the time I thought it was a Norwegian bird, so I was very pleased when I received an e-mail from Norway confirming this. The bird in question had been ringed as a pullus in July 2014, and had been recorded 3 times in the area in the next few days. My record was the first sighting since then, and the first one outside Norway.

In addition to these 2 gulls, I also spotted a couple of colour ringed  Herring Gulls in St Ives, Cornwall last week. Again, a quick search of the European Color ringing website ( see here), suggested that these 2 birds were local born birds, and an email from the West Cornwall Ringing Group confirmed this. Both gulls had been ringed in St Ives in June 2014 as part of  a study to investigate the movements, and feeding habits, of these gulls. Both birds have been recorded in St Ives, with one visiting the nearby RSPB Hayle Estuary Reserve.  Here's a couple of pictures of both birds.

W:185

 W:195