Linacre Insects

I spent a few hours at Linacre over the last few days and recorded the following insects: Southern Hawker (1), Brown Hawker (3, including 1 ovipositing female), Common Blue Damselfly (2 males) and Common Darter (2 tenerals on 30th - my first 2019 record).

Brown Hawker (female)

Common Darter

Butterflies seen were: Red Admiral (3), Painted Lady (1), Large White (1), Green-veined White (1), Common Blue Butterfly (2 males and 1 female), Wall Brown (1), Small Tortoiseshell (1), Peacock (2), Speckled Wood and Small Copper (3).

Small Copper

Herring Gull EPM

Jayne and I were in Llandudno over the weekend. Whilst there we spotted a Herring Gull with a colour ring, EPM. I recognised it straight away as a bird I'd seen there before, in December 2016 (see here for details and ringing and subsequent re sightings).

EPM

I sent the record off, and saw that it had now been reported on the sea front at Llandudno another 6 times since my sighting. All sightings range from September to April, with mine being the earliest "winter" record, so we still don't know if it breeds elsewhere, and winters in Llandudno. It is now  9 years and 255 days since it was ringed.

Whilst in North Wales, we visited the National Trust's Bodnant Gardens again, and saw Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Common Darter (mating pairs) and several Southern Hawkers. Butterflies seen were: Painted Lady (10), Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue.

Common Darter

Azure Damselflies

LINACRE LIFER!!!

It was about 20 degrees on Thursday, so I popped down to Linacre in the afternoon for 3 hours to see what was about. In the sun there were lots of butterflies in and around the buddleia in the ringing site, including: Painted Lady (8 - it's been a fantastic year nationwide for this species, and my best ever at Linacre too), Red Admiral (1), Peacock (2), Comma (1), Wall Brown (1), Gatekeeper (1), Common Blue Butterfly (3 males, 1 in the ringing site and 2 on the bank below the top reservoir. A female was also seen in the ringing site on 23rd), Small Tortoiseshell (1), Meadow Brown (1), Speckled Wood (1), Small Copper (1 on the bank below the bottom reservoir) and Large White (2). Other insects seen were: Brown Hawker (2), Volucella inanis (1), Volucella pellucens (1) and many Marmalade and Eristalis hoverflies.

Birdwise it was relatively quiet, except for the Linacre lifer in the shape of a juvenile REDSTART!!

Redstart

This bird was seen flycatching on the boardwalk, with about 3 Chiffchaffs, for about 1 minute, during a short rain shower. Luckily I managed to get this photo before it flitted off into the bushes and disappeared. I only have one other record of this species at Linacre, 2 birds reported in May 2016, so it could be a breeding species, which has been missed, or it could  just be a passage migrant. Only time, and more records will tell. 

Other birds seen were: Mallard (71), Tufted Duck (14), Mandarin Duck (29), Coot (2 adults and no juveniles!!), Moorhen (12; 4 adults and 8 juveniles), Great-crested Grebe (1 adult), Grey Wagtail (1 juvenile), Robin (1 juvenile), Swallow (2), House Martin (6) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (10 dropped in for 5 minutes during the rain).

Polish BH Gull at Rufford

Last Thursday (22nd August), I was back at Rufford CP in Nottinghamshire to check on the Black-headed Gulls again. There were still only about 20 gulls there, but I did see EUM3 (Dutch ringed bird) and 206A (British-ringed bird), along with a new gull, TRVE, a Polish-ringed bird - my first for Rufford!

TRVE

As you can see from the photo, this bird is a juvenile/1st winter one, having been born this year. The metal ring, FS34676, has the word Poland on it, so I there's a clue as to where it was ringed. Details have been sent off, and I'll update the blog as soon as I hear back.

UPDATE: This bird was ringed, in Poland, as a chick, on 27th May 2019, 1349km away!

Black-headed Gull EA32375 in Bakewell

Yesterday, Luke and I went across to Bakewell to see if we could find any ringed Black-headed Gulls. There were only about 20 gulls there, but we soon spotted one wearing a metal ring. We began to feed it with some bread, and within 20 minutes or so we'd managed to photograph and read the ring number, EA32375. We also spotted London on the ring, showing it was a British-ringed bird. Details were sent off to the BTO, and I'll update the blog when I hear back.

EA32375

Whilst there, we also spotted the colour-ringed Canada Goose AAAH, a female bird, first seen here on 10th February 2018, and again on 15th July 2019, after being ringed in Bowness on Windermere in 2nd July 2013.

AAH

UPDATE: Details from the BTO show that EA32375 was ringed, as a chick, by Merseyside Ringing Group at Shotton, Flintshire on 26th June 2019, a distance of 91km away. Our sighting was the first since ringing.

Black-headed Gulls - an update

Last winter was my best ever for recording darvic, colour ringed Black-headed Gulls in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with 25 different birds seen. These birds returned to their breeding grounds in March, and so I haven't had any new sightings since then... until July.

The first sighting of this "winter" was of a possible returning bird, seen in Bakewell on 13th July (see here). Whilst going through my records I also noticed a Finnish bird that I had seen in Alvaston Park on 11th November 2018. I sent the record off and found out that the bird had been ringed 1808km away, as a pullus, on 6th June 2017.

Today I was at Rufford Country Park, Nottinghamshire, to see who was about, and I wasn't disappointed. The first bird I saw was a very familiar face, EUM3.

EUM3

Close by was a new gull, green-ringed 206A. 

206A

As soon as I saw this bird's ring colour I knew it was one that had been ringed by a member of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, as I'd had 2 other green-ringed birds ending in A, last winter (see here).  As it turned out, it had been ringed by our group on 18th December 2018, as an adult male, 4km away at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs lake. It was sighted at Rufford on 25th January 2019, and my sighting was the first of the winter. Fantastic!!

Little Bustard - LIFER!

News of a Little Bustard in West Yorkshire broke earlier this week. As it is a lifer, I thought I'd drive up to see it today. When I arrived, it had gone into hiding, but, after an hour and a half it decided to come out again, and put on a good show for the next hour. It never came nearer than about 200m, but I managed great 'scope views. Here are a couple of heavily cropped photos.

Little Bustard

Since my last Year List update, I've also added another 4 "year ticks" along with the Bustard. The first, Manx Shearwater, was seen on a boat trip in Cornwall. The Curlew Sandpiper and Bearded Tit were seen whilst visiting Rye Harbour last week, and the Chough (a Derbyshire tick), was seen on Monday.

Year List update:
184 – Manx Shearwater
185 – Curlew Sandpiper
186 - Bearded Tit
187 – Chough
188  - Little Bustard

Linacre Insects - 6th August 2019

Yesterday morning I went down to Linacre to do the final check of the nestboxes (more of that in another post), and afterwards spent another 3 hours walking around the site recording the insects (and a few birds!).

It was pretty sunny all the time I was there (up to 22 degrees by the time I left), and there were a good number of insects to see. First up the dragonflies and damselflies. The most numerous species, as always, was Common Blue Damselfly, with 20+ seen, including 2 mating pairs. Two male Blue-tailed Damselflies were also seen, along with 3 Southern Hawkers and 5 Brown Hawkers. 

Southern Hawker (immature male?)

Brown Hawker

Butterflies were also present in good numbers, including a new species for me at Linacre: Peacock 20, Ringlet 2, Large White 1, Small White 1, Green-veined White 4, Gatekeeper 6, Meadow Brown 7, Small Copper 1, Red Admiral 2, Comma 1, Painted Lady 5, Speckled Wood 1, Small Skipper 1, Narrow-bordered 5 spot Burnet moth (1 mating pair), Cinnabar Moth caterpillars, Shaded Broad Bar (1) and Wall Brown 1 female in the ringing site- my first record for Linacre!

Wall Brown

Hoverflies seen were: Volucella inanis (4), Volucella pellucens (2), Eristalis sp and Myathropa florea (1). Other insects were: Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle (1), 6-spotted Ladybird (1), Tachinid flies,  Common Carder, White-tailed and Red-tailed Bumblebees, 

London Coots - 30th July 2019

Whilst in East Sussex last week, Jayne and I went up to London for the day to visit the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. After going there, we went for a walk around St James' Park, where, in amongst the "exotics", including a lovely female Hooded Merganser, we saw, and photographed, 10 darvic-ringed Coots.

Coot HHX

My nephew, Luke, has seen some of these before, so we knew that they'd been ringed by West London Birding. I sent details off, and heard back very quickly that 9 of the 10 birds had been ringed in St James' Park, between September 2016 and March 2019, with the exception of D67, who had been ringed in Regent's Park, 4km away. Not the most exciting movements, but interesting none the less, and, hopefully, as more data comes in the project will provide a good insight into these birds' lives.

Derbyshire Chough!!!!

News broke yesterday that a Chough had been discovered at Windgather Rocks on the Cheshire/Derbyshire border. This is the first ever record of this species for Derbyshire, so I had to pop across to see it.

The bird was present and "showing well" down to approximately 20m, as it fed on a sheep-grazed piece of land in Cheshire. Within a few minutes, the bird flew up and over me and the small group of admirers(!), and landed on the rocks behind us.... in Derbyshire!

Chough

It then flew back into Cheshire, and promptly disappeared over the hill! 15 minutes later it reappeared and landed back in the original field and fed for the next hour or so, before I left at 1pm. Here are a few photos.

RSPB Dungeness

Jayne and I had a trip around RSPB Dungeness on 1st August. We spent a couple of hours on the reserve, and saw some nice birds, insects and a couple of Harbour Porpoises.

Birdwise we saw, amongst others Dunlin, Lapwing, Common Tern, Little Egret and heard Bearded Tits.

Insects were in good numbers, and included Common Blue Damselfly, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common and Ruddy Darter, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

One of the Emperor dragonflies landed in a bush, and allowed some photos, as did a male Black-tailed Skimmer.

Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

After visiting the reserve, we had a walk down to the beach by the lighthouse, where we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises in the sea ( and a dead one on the beach) and several Herring Gulls on the beach.

Harbour Porpoise

Silver-spotted Skipper

Whilst researching places to visit in East Sussex, I noticed that there was a species of butterfly, the Silver-spotted Skipper, present on and around the South Downs. As it has a very restricted distribution in the UK, and we'd never seen this one before, Jayne and I decided to have a walk in the area around the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head, to see if we could find it.

Beachy Head

We started our walk at the National Trust's Birling Gap car park, and walked up onto the Downs for a couple of miles to the Belle Tout Lighthouse (now a B and B) and Beachy Head.

Seven Sisters and Birling Gap

At the start of our walk, we spotted a couple of Small Skipper, and the first of dozens, if not hundreds, of Gatekeepers. As we continued up the cliffs we added Dark Green Fritillary (1), Chalkhill Blue and Meadow Brown to the list of butterflies seen, before finding the first Silver-spotted Skippers just below the Lighthouse.

Chalkhill Blue

As it was a lovely sunny day they were quite tricky to see, but we eventually managed to get a few photos.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Jayne and I have had a week in East Sussex, staying in Rye Harbour. Whilst there, we had a couple of walks around the Sussex Wildlife Trust's Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.

Our first walk, with the ranger, on 27th July, saw us visit the shingle ridges and scrapes. We were introduced to a wide range of interesting flora, and also spent time looking at birdlife, including dozens of Dunlin, 1Knot, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, Redshank, Curlew and Whimbrel. There were also several Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns (adults and juveniles) still present. Whilst there, Jayne also spotted a small bee that turned out to be a Sharp-tailed Bee (Coelioxys conoidea).

Sharp-tailed Bee

We had a second walk around this morning, and this time we visited the Castle Water side of the reserve. This area is very different, consisting of large areas of reedbed, and deeper lakes. Here we saw: Mallards, Coots, Mute Swans, Greylag Geese, and then.....a juvenile Green Woodpecker, a Kingfisher (1), a Great White Egret and at least 2 juvenile Bearded Tits!!

Although it was quite overcast we also managed to see a few insects including Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Painted Lady (1), Common Carpet (moth), Brown Hawker, Common Blue Damselfly, Small Red-eyed Damselfly, Volucella inanis (hoverfly), Common and Ruddy Darter.

Common Carpet

We also managed to spot 3 Marsh Frogs (a new species for us both), a non-native amphibian from Europe, that was introduced into Kent in 1935, and has set up feral populations in the south east.

Marsh frog