Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
The ongoing works at Linacre mean that the top reservoir has a lot of exposed mud. A few days ago I had my first ever Green Sandpiper for the site, and today, when I got there, I found another new species, a juvenile Greenshank!!!! Both species had been "on my radar" as possible, but to find both, within a few days of each other, is an absolute dream. The Green Sandpiper was still present too.
Yesterday, whilst doing the weekly shop (!), I got a message from Luke that there was a Birdguides record of a juvenile/1st winter Red-backed Shrike (193) that had been spotted in The Avenue Washlands Country Park. Jayne and I went straight across, and found the bird feeding by a small pond.
It posed well, and even caught, impaled and then ate a Migrant Hawker whilst we were there. A later photo, not mine, unfortunately, also showed it eating a Lesser Emperor dragonfly!!! Here are a few photos (the last three slightly enhanced!).
Yesterday, I went for a family walk to the Upper Derwent Valley. Whilst there, we managed to get a couple of very nice Derbyshire ticks: Crossbill and Osprey (192). I managed a couple of poor "record shots".
Following on from the Wryneck visit yesterday, I travelled over to RSPB Frampton Marsh to pick up another two "year ticks": Temminck's Stint (190) and Curlew Sandpiper (191). Luckily, both species were seen, feeding on the Marsh Farm Reservoir, and I spotted them, just before they were flushed by something, most likely an unseen raptor!
I haven't seen a Wryneck (189) for very many years, and I've never managed to photograph one, so I drove over the RSPB Freiston Shore, in Lincolnshire on 2/9, to see if I could catch up with the bird that has been there since the Bank Holiday weekend. I think the pictures show I was successful! What a bird!
Before I write this blog, I need to clarify something about the title. I was at Linacre this morning, and saw MY first ever Green Sandpiper. It may not be the first ever record, as I was contacted last week by someone, who said they'd seen two there last week. Also, one of the volunteers (Pete) said he, and another volunteer (Antony) had, also seen a "sandpiper" on the top reservoir last week. Despite this, I was very pleased to get my first record.
I know that the title of this post wouldn't come as a surprise to regular readers, as I often blog about ringed gulls here. The reason I've used it though, is because the three ringed Black-headed Gulls are all juvenile/1st winter birds, that have been ringed in three different countries!
The first gull, TCEP (FS70675) is a bird that was ringed in western Poland, right on the border with Germany, as a pullus, on 26th June 2026. This is the first sighting since ringing, and is 1027km from its place of birth.
