Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
Jayne and I had a quick walk around Linacre this morning. It was pretty quiet, until we arrived at the middle reservoir, where we disturbed a pair of Gadwalls.
This sighting is my first at Linacre since 2022, and only the fifth record since I started watching the site on a regular basis!. The other sightings were: 2 in February 2012, 2 in October 2013, 2 in December 2022 and 2 in March 2023. I managed to grab a quick photograph, before the battery on my camera ran out of juice!!
I had my first visit to Rufford for a few weeks yesterday, and, in a couple of hours, I'd spotted 22 ringed birds; 21 of "ours" and a familiar face, P519.
P519 is a Lithuanian-ringed bird (ringed, as an adult, on 1st April 2010, 1,456km away). I first spotted this bird in February 2019, although it had been seen here, by other observers, in January and November 2018. It has been seen every winter since then. Yesterday's sighting was the first of the winter.
After Thursday's ringing session, Luke and I spent the rest of the day birding around the area. During the time, we added 4 new species to my Year List, going over the 200 mark for the first time in a few years.
Our first stop was Porthgwarra and Gwennap Head, where we had a lovely walk along the cliff tops, spotting Stonechat, a single Wheatear, Raven, Jackdaws, and 5 Chough (198).
Our next stop was Penzance. We walked down on the seashore, near the railway depot, picking up a single Swallow and this stunning, and, as always, very confiding, Snow Bunting (199).
Yesterday morning (31st), Luke and I were up early visiting a private ringing site in the Nanjizal Valley in West Cornwall (West Cornwall Ringing Group). Thanks for arranging Luke, and thanks to Kester and Jon for allowing me onto your site.
We arrived at 7am, and got straight on with the ringing. The first bird I ringed was a Chiffchaff (the first of 26 ringed by me that morning!). Other birds ringed were: Blackcap (12), Robin (6), Song Thrush (5), Redwing (3), Blackbird (3), Great-spotted Woodpecker (2;1 new and 1 retrap), Goldcrest (1), Firecrest (3), Cetti's Warbler (3; 1 retrap and 2 new) and, best of all, Yellow-browed Warbler (3 new birds) 67 birds from a total of 80!
The obvious stand out birds were, of course, the Yellow-browed Warblers, the Firecrests and the Cetti's Warblers - 3 new species for me. The Yellow-Browed Warblers were also colour-ringed, as part of a national scheme (see here), to try and find out a little more about their distribution and wintering sites. This site has colour-ringed just over 40, this winter alone!
Today, we spent the day in and around the Falmouth area, with our nephew, Luke and family. We managed another couple of year ticks, Firecrest (195) and Common Scoter (196), had amazing views of a winter-plumaged Red-throated Diver and saw another couple of ringed Herring Gulls.
We started the day with a walk around the Penryn Campus, where Luke found us at least half a dozen Firecrests.
Jayne and I arrived in St Ives on Saturday afternoon, and, after settling in to our accommodation, we had a walk around the town, enjoying the lovely sunshine and sunshine.
As always, I had my eyes peeled for darvic-ringed Herring Gulls, and soon found two new birds; W916 and W918. I'll send off the details, but I'm sure they'll have been ringed in and around the harbour.
We spent the whole of Sunday in and around the town. We started off walking around the town, where we saw W916 and W918 again. A small group of c.40 Turnstones were also around the harbour, along with a single Black-headed Gull and a single Great Black-backed Gull. We then walked up onto The Island and spent a couple of hours in and around that area, adding Gannet (c.10), Red Admiral (1) and, best of all, a female-type Black Redstart (Year Tick 194).We found the bird feeding on rocks below the Coastguards' Lookout. Amazingly, another bird was found a couple of hours later, feeding around the rook of The Guildhall!!
Walking back along the harbour, we spotted another ringed Herring Gull,W917. This was a new bird, seen on the railings around the harbour.
Jayne and I arrived in Cornwall on Saturday, and, after some lovely food in the Birdies Bistro, headed straight to the RSPB's Hayle Estuary and Ryan's Field.
Walking into the hide, we were greeted by approximately 10 Redshank, a single Black-headed Gull and a Danish-ringed Spoonbill, that was feeding on the reserve.
