Starling Nest Update

The Starlings that are nest building in the box on the side of my house have been busy again over the last week. I had a check in the box today and this is what I saw.

Starling box.

As you can see, the nest is starting to take form, so hopefully, it'll be completed soon, and we'll get some eggs. The details of this nesting attempt will now be added to the BTO's Nest Box Challenge.

Black-necked Grebe and Colour-ringed Turnstones

I'm off for the Easter holidays at the moment, so I decided to head off to Scarborough for the day with Jayne and Lydia. The sun was shining for most of the day, and I managed to add 3 new birds to the "year list", with 2 Black-necked Grebes in the harbour, along with several pairs of Kittiwakes that were starting to nest build on the harbour walls, and a couple of Rock Pipits on the sea defences..

Black-necked Grebe

Kittiwake

Other birds seen around the harbour were Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Peregrine Falcon on the cliffs and Turnstones. In amongst the 20 or so Turnstone were 8 colour-ringed birds.

Turnstones

I've recorded colour-ringed Turnstones in the harbour at Scarborough before, back in 2014, and found out that they were ringed in the harbour itself. It'll be interesting to see if they've been reported elsewhere since then. I'll update with details as soon as I get them from the scheme.

Year List Update:
125 - Black-necked Grebe
126 - Kittiwake
127 - Rock Pipit

Happier news- Summer Migrants return

Following on from yesterday's sad post about the demise of one of the juvenile/2nd calendar year Shags, I am very pleased to be able to report some good news from Linacre.

At the same time that the Shag was found, Jim Clarke, also found the first summer migrants of the year; 1 Swallow and 2 Sand Martins. When I went down later in the afternoon, I too, dropped lucky and spotted both these species, but I saw 2 Swallows and 1 Sand Martin! 2 Chiffchaffs were also singing.

The Swallow and Sand Martin were new for the year, as was a Red Kite that Lydia found whilst we were driving back from Leeds.

Year List update:
122 - Red Kite
123 - Swallow
124 - Sand Martin

Senseless Death

I know that everything has to die, but when that death is caused by human stupidity then it somehow feels more pointless and frustrating than it otherwise would. I got a message on the blog this morning from a gentleman called Jim, who had been to Linacre this morning, and had found a dead Shag hanging by its neck from a tree, tangled up in some discarded fishing line! I popped down there this afternoon, and this is what I found.

Shag

The bird had obviously got caught up in the wire, and then it had tightened around the bird's neck, strangling it. Very, very frustrating and senseless! I wanted to cut the bird down, and throw the fishing line away, but unfortunately, it was about 15-20ft away from the bank. I'll try to get something longer and get rid as soon as possible. 

Good Friday Sunshine

As the title suggests, the weather today has been great, with lots of sunshine, and bright blue skies for most of the day. I started the day at Linacre with Luke, where we had two and a half hours walking around all three reservoirs.

The highlights of today's visit were the first singing Chiffchaffs of the year (2, with another non-singing individual seen by the boardwalk on the top reservoir), and the juvenile Shag that was still present on the middle reservoir. The Chiffchaffs were 4 days later than in 2015.

Shag

As well as these records, we also had  lots of the commoner woodland birds, Wren, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Blue, Great and Coal Tits, singing in the sunshine, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Carrion Crow carrying nesting material, 2 Magpies, Jackdaws checking out potential nest sites, a Nuthatch plastering a hole, a singing Skylark, 2 Common Buzzards, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Mistle Thrushes and a flock of Siskin (phew!)

Along with the Shag, there were also 5 Canada Geese (2 pairs on the top reservoir and a lone individual on the middle reservoir- breeding this year perhaps?), 12 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 18 Tufted Ducks, 7 Mandarins (all males), 22 Mallards, 1 Grey Heron, Grey Wagtails (2, including 1 singing bird) and 4 Great-crested Grebes.

Great-crested Grebe

2 Brown Hares were also seen in the fields by the entrance and a single Wood Anemone was out in bloom.

Finches and Redpolls

More often than not, when we're ringing in a garden setting, the commonest birds we catch are tits. Yesterday's session at our regular site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield, however, didn't follow this pattern, with the majority of birds ringed being, as the title suggests, finches and redpolls (32 from 57). The finch species caught were (new/retrap): Siskin 13/0, Lesser Redpoll 9/3, Chaffinch 1/0, Goldfinch 2/0 and Bullfinch 4/0. As well as these species, we also caught: Blue Tit 4/1, Great Tit 2/6, Coal Tit 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Nuthatch 0/2, Great-spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Wren 1/0, Blackbird 2/0 and Robin 1/2. Here's one of the Lesser Redpolls, a super male bird.

Lesser Redpoll (male)

Siskin Control

Back in February, I was out ringing with Sorby Breck Ringing Group , at one of our regular sites in Wingerworth, Chesterfield. We had a very busy session with over 100 birds ringed (see details here), including a "control" Siskin, i.e. a bird ringed elsewhere.

Last week we heard back from the BTO, stating that this bird had originally been ringed at a site  in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, on the 24th July 2015. It had then travelled a minimum of 395km in 205 days, before being caught by us in Derbyshire. A great record!

Siskin (not the control)