Cairn Gorm

Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a few days, and, as the title suggests, we visited Cairn Gorm today. We went in search of Ptarmigan, but were out of luck. We did, however, manage to hear Red Grouse and see Meadow Pipts (!), a male Pied Wagtail and a super flock of 15 Snow Buntings. Four of the buntings landed close enough to get a few photos.

Snow Buntings in snow

After the visit to Cairn Gorm we drove down to RSPB Loch Garten where we popped into the centre to see the pair of breeding Ospreys. Both birds were on the nest when we arrived. We didn't see the other specialities, but we're heading back there tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

In the evening we had a short visit to the River Spey where we saw 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 pairs of Goldeneye , several singing Willow Warblers and a single Dipper.

Year List update:
136 – Red Grouse
137 – Common Sandpiper
138 – Redstart
139 – Snow Bunting
140 – Osprey
141 - Dipper

Linacre News - 25th April 2016

I wasn't able to get down to Linacre this weekend, so I was very pleased to see some records on the Sheffield Bird Study Group website this afternoon.

The first record was one of the Shag that is still present. I first saw Shags at Linacre back on 21st November 2015, so this recent report means that there has been at least 1 bird present for 5 months now. Other water birds reported were: Great-crested Grebe (4 birds, including a record of a nesting pair), Little Grebe ( a pair) and Tufted Duck (36, the highest count this year).

Other birds reported were Swallow (40+), House Martin (7), a Sparrowhawk and Blackcap (10+).

5 eggs and..... 5 chicks

It's been exactly 2 weeks since I last blogged about the Starling nest in the box on the side of my house. Since then there have been a few developments, as the  title of today's blog suggests.

First up, is a picture taken on 12th April. As you can see, there were 5 eggs in the nest.

12th April - 5 eggs

When I saw the 5 eggs I knew it was time for incubation to begin, so I left the nest until today. I decided to check again this afternoon after I noticed one of the adult birds leaving the nest. I had a quick check and found this... 5 chicks!

24th April - 5 chicks

This year's birds have nested approximately a week earlier than they did in 2015, with the chicks hatching on 30th April (see blog posts entitled Starling Nest 2015 for details), so, if all goes well, and the chicks prosper, they should be ready to fledge in about 3 weeks time ( 15th May).

I'll enter the new details into the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website, and, as in the previous 2 years, I'll ring the chicks before they fledge so that we can hopefully see where they end up.

House Sparrow Nest

As well as the Starling nest box I also have a House Sparrow Terrace on the side of my house. It was used last year, and I managed to ring a couple of pulli (see here). This year I noticed birds attending the box and yesterday I had a quick check to see what was happening. Here's what I found:

House Sparrow eggs

I've entered the details into the BTO's Nest box Challenge scheme and will continue to monitor the outcome of the nest, and hopefully ring the chicks later in the season.

Linacre Ringing and Nestboxes- 17th April 2016

The temperature yesterday morning was minus 1 when I arrived at Linacre for a ringing session with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. Thankfully, the sun was already of its way up, and the skies were clear, so the frost soon cleared and the temperature rose to 8 degrees.

We put 3 nets up, 2 around the feeders and 1in amongst the Willows, and soon had the first birds of the day, including a male Chiffchaff, and a male Blackcap. The Blackcap was the first record for Linacre in 2016, and both species were the first to be ringed at Linacre in 2016. The Chiffchaff was a retrap, having been ringed last May at Linacre. It wasn't recorded again last year, so who knows whether it stayed around or whether it moved on. Hopefully, we, or someone else, will re trap it again this summer, so that we've an idea where it goes. We caught another 3 Chiffchaffs (all un ringed), later in the session.

Chiffchaff

Blackcap

We carried on ringing a few birds at a time over the next 3 hours, and ended with 24 of the following species (new/retrap): Bullfinch (0/2), Chaffinch (1/1), Blue Tit (2/2), Great Tit (1/4), Coal Tit (0/1), Chiffchaff (1/3), Blackcap (1/0), Blackbird 0/1, Song Thrush (1/0), Nuthatch (1/0), Dunnock (0/1) and Robin (1/0).

Stewart and I also went and checked the 6 "owl" nestboxes that we have around the site. No owl nests were found this year, although a Tawny Owl flew out from a nearby tree as we walked to one box. One of the boxes contained a clutch of 13 Mandarin Duck eggs, the Little Owl box was unused, and the 4 other boxes were either empty or contained Grey Squirrels! We'll check the boxes again in a few weeks time, just in case any more get used by the Mandarins, and also to try to catch the bird whose eggs we found. It'll be interesting to see if she's one of the 2 bird that we ringed last year (see here), or whether she'd a new bird.

After the ringing session  I went to try and re find a Common Sandpiper that my nephew had found earlier in the day. We dropped lucky, finding the bird on the bottom reservoir. I was particularly pleased as this was the first Linacre record since 2013. The Shag was also still present.

Linacre Nestbox Season Begins - just!

It was supposed to snow this morning, so I decided to stay in bed. In the end it didn't snow, it didn't even rain, so I eventually  went down to Linacre in the afternoon to have a first check of the nestboxes for the 2016 season. In all, I checked all the tit boxes (80+), with just half a dozen or so showing any sign of nesting activity. All the nests found were N1, meaning they'd just been started, and consisted of just a few pieces of moss. A Great Tit was seen with nesting material need to one of the boxes.

Whilst walking around I heard at least 8 singing Chiffchaffs and 2 singing Willow Warblers, along with a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker. 3 Canada Geese were on the top reservoir along with a pair of Mandarin Ducks,  a super group of c.50 Swallows- very nice. 1 House Martin was found in amongst the Swallows. The juvenile/2nd calendar year Shag was still present on the bottom reservoir along with 2 Cormorants. I managed to get a fuzzy picture of what I think is a Chiffchaff in the Willows by the top reservoir. As you can see, a pesky branch got in the way of the auto focus, but it's not too bad.

Chiffchaff

The Willows around the top reservoir were starting to come out today, so I got this photo.

Willow

The weather was about 8 degrees and there were a few sunny spells. During the sunny spells I noticed my first bee species of the year, a Tree Bumblebee, feeding on a dandelion.

Tree Bumblebee

Egg number 4

As I drove onto the drive this afternoon I saw 2 Starlings come out of the nest box on the side of the house. Knowing they'd be gone for a minute or two, I grabbed the camera and took a quick picture. Here's what I saw..... egg number 4!

Starling nest with 4 eggs

According to the literature, Starlings start to incubate properly on the penultimate egg, so, if this pair have 5 eggs as they did last year (click on Starling Nest 2015 labels for details), they should start incubation today. I'll leave well alone now and listen out for the calls of the young birds in a couple of weeks. Details, as always, have been added to the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website.