Linacre nestboxes and bird sightings

I've had 2 visits to Linacre this weekend, one yesterday with Brian from the Sorby Breck Ringing Group, to check the nestboxes, and one today, with my nephew, to record the bird life on the reservoirs.

Yesterday's nestbox check was successful and we ringed 5 broods of chicks ( 4 Blue Tits and 1 Great Tit). The Pied Flycatcher's nest was still going strong, with a female bird incubating, and there were another 17 nests with eggs and/or small chicks in). Unfortunately, 2 broods had failed, with dead birds found in the nests.

Today's visit, with Luke, took place between 7.00am and 8.45am, and we walked around the middle and top reservoirs. The highlights were the Shag (now present since Nov 21st 2015!), 7 Swifts (my first Linacre record of 2016), the first juvenile Robin of 2016 and an active Great-spotted Woodpecker nest. There were also 3 Grey Wagtails (2 adults and 1 juvenile), 6 Coots (all adults), 4 Moorhens (2 adults and 2 half grown chicks), 12 Tufted Ducks (all adults), just 1 adult Great-crested Grebe , 29 Mallards (18 adults and 11 ducklings) and 2 male Mandarin Ducks going into eclipse plumage. Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and 1 Willow Warbler were all singing. We also had hundreds of tadpoles in the shallow water by the boardwalk on the top reservoir.

Shag

Tadpoles

Male Mandarin Ducks (moulting)

White-faced Darter

Today Jayne and I spent two hours in the sunshine on the Natural England Chartley Moss reserve in Staffordshire, looking for a very rare dragonfly called the White-faced Darter (see link here for details of this species). We were there as part of a guided tour with a Natural England site manager, and the British Dragonfly Society's conservation officer, as this is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), with access allowed on just one day a year.

The walk started at 2pm, and the first sighting was a Barn Owl (!) flying through the fields by the entrance to the site. It even sat and posed for a photo.

Barn Owl

We were soon out on the bog, where we spotted a male Brimstone butterfly and a male Green Hairstreak. We walked across to the two pools where the darters are seen, and spent about one and half hours watching and photographing them. Here are my best efforts.

Male

Teneral (newly emerged dragonfly)

Male showing white face

As well as the White-faced Darters, we also saw Four-spotted Chasers, a Large Red Damselfly and a couple of blue damselflies, which were unfortunately, too far out to identify to species. A couple of Common Lizards were also spotted.

Common Lizard

Bird wise, it was quite quiet, but we did see a male Mallard, and heard Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap singing.

Clumber Park

It was quite warm and sunny on Sunday, so Jayne and I had a drive out to Clumber Park. We walked around the main lake, and saw our first damselflies of 2016 and a new bird for the "year list"; Cuckoo.

The first damselfly we saw was a male Large Red Damselfly. He was sitting on a reed by the lake, and I managed a decent photo.

Large Red Damselfly

Close by we found the second species; Blue-tailed Damselfly. We had 1 male fly past and land on a reed, unfortunately, out of reach of the camera. More details about these species, and more, can be found on the British Dragonfly Society's website.

We carried on walking around the lake, finding young Coots, Canada and Greylag Geese along with 40+ Mute Swans, Great-crested Grebe, Swift, House Martins, Swallows, Moorhens and Gadwall.

Gadwall (male and female)

The best bird, however, was a Cuckoo that was heard calling a couple of times as we walked around the south side of the lake, near the weir.

Year List update:
150 - Cuckoo

Starling box - a second brood!!

According to the books, Starlings can sometimes have 2 broods in a year. So far, the box on the side of my house has only ever produced 1 brood a year, but not any longer.

Shortly after the 1st brood fledged, the same , or another, new male Starling was back around the box singing and attempting to attract a female. He didn't seem to be having any luck, despite having built the foundations for a new nest. Here's what the box looked like on 21st May.

A new nest - 21st May 2016

Undeterred, he carried on singing and defending the box. Today, when I got back from work, I saw a female bird sticking her head out of the box. She flew out, so I ran upstairs to check what was happening, and this is what I saw.... a new egg!!

First egg - 24th May

As you can see, the nest has been built up since the 21st, and a new brood has begun. I'll check back in a few days time, and begin another record  for the BTO's Nestbox Challenge.

Linacre Nestbox Update

I spent 3 hours at Linacre this morning with my nephew Luke and Brian from Sorby Breck Ringing Group checking the nest boxes. We ended with a total of 26 active nests (25 Blue or Great Tit nests and the Pied Flycatcher nest), and ringed the first brood of 2016 (7 Great Tits). As you can see from the picture, the Flycatcher nest had increased from 1 to 7 eggs, which is an excellent achievement. I haven't seen the female bird yet, but a male bird was singing in the area around the nest again today. All of today's details will be added to the Nest Record Cards for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Pied Flycatcher nest

Away from the nest boxes, we also had sightings of 1 Great-crested Grebe on the top reservoir, the Shag, which was still present on the bottom reservoir (thanks Luke), and a Grey Wagtail which was found feeding 3 juveniles (thanks again to Luke for this sighting). Canada Geese were heard calling as we walked through the woods, but weren't seen. Willow Warblers, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Song Thrush were all singing.

The sun came out while we were there, which meant we saw a few butterflies, namely Green-veined White,  2 male Orange Tips and 2 Speckled Woods.

Deep Dale

Last May I visited Deep Dale to see the Early Purple Orchids and Cowslips that grow there. This weekend Jayne and I had a return visit to see them again.

Early Purple Orchids and Cowslip

 Whilst there, we also spotted a few butterflies, including this male Orange Tip and a beautiful Green Hairstreak.

Orange Tip (male)

Green Hairstreak

Year List Update

I've managed to add a few new species to this year's Year List over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd better write a short post to keep the blog up to date.

The Pied Flycatcher was added at Linacre last weekend and the Swift was first recorded on Friday 6th May, flying over Tesco in Chesterfield. The Wood Warbler was seen at Padley Gorge last Sunday (8th) following a tip off of a singing male from Chesterfield RSPB Group. The Little Owl was seen in a tree by the side of the road in Barlow, again, from a tip off from a colleague at school. I managed to get a photo.

Little Owl

The final two species, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler, were seen this morning. The Whitethroat was a singing male seen in a hedgerow in Apperknowle, and the Reed Warbler was 1 of several seen and heard singing at Poolsbrook Marsh as I was carrying out some maintenance work with Ray and David from Sorby Breck Ringing Group, on the net rides for some ringing next week.

Year List update:

144 – Pied Flycatcher

145 – Swift

146 – Wood Warbler

147 - Little Owl

148 – Whitethroat

149 – Reed Warbler