Black-headed Gull EY13347

On Saturday I was walking around along the cliff tops in Seahouses, Northumberland when I spotted a Black-headed Gull wearing a metal ring. I got some bread, and, after about 20 minutes, managed to get enough photos to read the number; EY13347.

EY13347

I sent the record off to the BTO, and heard back that the bird had been ringed by The Natural History Society of Northumbria, as a pullus, on Inner Farne (2km away) on 3rd July 2014 (1787 days ago). Not the furthest ever recovery, but still very interesting to see,

Year List Update - 28th May 2019

I last blogged about my Year List a few weeks ago, and since then, I've added 5 new species. The first three: Garden Warbler, Tree Pipit and Little Owl, were seen in Derbyshire, whilst the last two: Little Tern and Little Stint, were seen in Northumberland.

The Garden Warbler (2), were seen and heard in Deep Dale, the Tree Pipit was seen at Padley Gorge and the Little Owl was a nice surprise, seen in Apperknowle, on the way to work last week.

I've seen 2 Little Terns in Northumberland. The first was fishing just off the beach at Seahouses, and the second was seen flying from Lindisfarne Castle.

The Little Stint, a breeding plumaged bird was seen yesterday, and again today at Low Newton Pools.

Year List Update:
173 – Garden Warbler
174 - Tree Pipit
175 - Little Owl
176 – Little Tern

177 – Little Stint

Starlings are Go!

My last post about the Starling nest on my house was on 5th May, when the 5 chicks were ringed by me (see here). Since then, the birds have continued to grow, and 4 of the 5 eventually fledged on 12th May, 18 days since they hatched. Unfortunately, 1 of the Starlings didn't make it, and was found dead in the box once the other birds had fledged. The details of the nest have been added to the BTO's Nestbox Challenge Scheme.

The box was empty for a couple of days, before the adult birds started singing around it again, and today there were the first signs of nest number 2.

Starling Nest 2?

RSPB Frampton Marsh

One year ago Jayne, Luke and I spent the day at RSPB Frampton Marsh in 23 degree heat, and gorgeous sunshine (see here). We were back again today, and the weather wasn't quite as kind (12 degrees, grey and overcast), but the birds more than made up for it. In the 5 hours that we were there, we got some fantastic views of the birds, including 2 "lifers" for Luke (Turtle Dove and Grasshopper Warbler, both heard, but not seen), and 13 "year ticks" for me.

We started off walking from the car park, where we had c.10 Swift overhead. We then heard Reed, Sedge and Cetti's Warbler, and a very close Cuckoo (glimpsed briefly by Jayne), before watching 2 breeding plumaged Spotted Redshank, 2 Wood Sandpiper, several Ruff, 1 Greenshank, Redshank, Avocet, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin (1 breeding plumaged bird), Lapwing, Whimbrel (1), Common Sandpiper (1), Little Egret, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Shelduck, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Garganey (one pair), Canada, Greylag and Barnacle Geese, Mute Swan, Brent Geese, Swallow, Sand and House Martin, Pied and Yellow Wagtail, Skylark, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat!

Male Ruff

Phonescoped Garganey

Year List update:

160 – Swift
161 – Sedge Warbler
162 – Reed Warbler
163 – Spotted Redshank
164 – Wood Sandpiper
165 – Ruff
166 – Garganey
167 – Common Tern
168 – Turtle Dove
169 – Whimbrel
170 – Grasshopper Warbler
171 – Little Ringed Plover
172 – Yellow Wagtail

Starlings Ringed

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged about the Starling nest on my house (see here). Since then, the 5 chicks have done really well, and today I ringed them for the BTO Ringing Scheme. Details of the nest will also be entered onto the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website.

5 chicks in the nestbox

Starling chick

Linacre Nestboxes - 4th May 2019

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre checking the nestboxes for the BTO Nest Record Scheme yesterday. Things had moved on very nicely since last week with 26 active nests (up from 25 last week), including 5 with chicks, one of which (8 Great Tit chicks), I was able to ring for the BTO Ringing Scheme.

Chicks!

The new nest was a very nice find, as it contained a bright blue egg in a grass cup, indicating a Pied Flycatcher nest. There were 3 singing Pied Flycatchers present as well, so hopefully, we'll end up with a few more nests as well.

Pied Flycatcher nest

Whilst walking around we also spotted 3 broods of Mallards (8, 9 and 1), 1 brood of Moorhens (3), 20 House Martins, 10 Swallows, and..... a Common Sandpiper (the first Linacre record of 2019).

I popped back down to  Linacre again this morning for an hour, and managed to find a singing Reed Bunting (first ever record of a singing bird, and my first Linacre record since 2013, when 1 was trapped and ringed (see here), and a singing Whitethroat. I managed to get an awful record shot of the latter bird, showing a ring. We haven't ringed that many Whitethroats at Linacre, so it would be great to retrap it this year to see if it is a returning bird or not.

Year List update:
159 - Whitethroat

Coal Aston Nestboxes - 2nd May 2019

It is just over 2 weeks since my last visit to the nestboxes in Coal Aston (see here), so I went up this afternoon to see how they had progressed.

Last visit there were 6 active nests, and today there were still 6 active nests! This time, however, 5 of the 6 nests were being actively incubated by Great Tits (4) and a Nuthatch (1). The 6th nest contained 8 warm eggs, but there was no sign of the sitting bird. Details of today's visit will be recorded for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Incubating Nuthatch

8 eggs - great arrangement!