Linacre 21st March 2021 - Chiffchaffs are back!!

 It was a grey, still, overcast morning with a temperature of  9 degrees, as I arrived on site. As usual, I did a two hour walk around all three reservoirs, listening out for any new arrivals and counting the wintering duck.

Numbers of duck are beginning to fall now, as birds disperse from the water, to start their breeding activity. Having said that, there were still good numbers present: 51 Mallard, 14 Coot, 12 Moorhen (including a bird sitting on one of last year's nests!), 10 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Canada Geese, 3 Greylag Geese (flying over - year tick), 2 Cormorants, 80 Tufted Duck, 4 Great-crested Grebe, 1 Little Grebe and 28 Mandarin Ducks (including 6 in trees by the bottom car park - nest prospecting).

The woodland was very noisy this morning (with bird song!), and included my first Chiffchaffs of 2021, with 2 singing around the reservoirs. A Great-spotted Woodpecker was also watched drumming, a Skylark was singing in the fields by the top reservoir, and 3 Siskin were seen feeding on the path by the boardwalk.

Linacre WeBS - 14th March 2021

 This weekend was the monthly WeBS count down at Linacre. I was down for two hours on Sunday morning, and walked around all three reservoirs.

The waterbirds counted were: 74 Mallard, 108 Tufted Duck, 50 Mandarin Duck, 10 Moorhens, 14 Coots, 5 Grey Wagtails (including the first singing male of the year), 1 Little Grebe, 1 Great-crested Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 5 Canada Geese, 2 Goosander (both females), 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull and 40 Black-headed Gulls.

The woodland birds were in full song, but, unfortunately, no summer migrants...yet! These beautiful daffodils were also out in full bloom.

Daffodils

LONG-TAILED SKUA!!!

 News broke of an adult Long-tailed Skua in the Mayfield Valley, Sheffield, on Thursday. At first, it seemed like it would be a fly-through, with just one observer catching up with it. Thankfully, however, it hung around on Friday, and was reported again this morning.

I popped across, and eventually found it hunkered down in a field, sheltering from the 40mph winds and horizontal rain and hail! It spent most of the hour and a half I was there, sitting tight, with just one, very brief moment to stand up, stretch its wings and sit back down again.

Thankfully, I managed a couple of have decent photos, which is always nice for a LIFER!!

Long-tailed Skua

Year List update:

63 - Long-tailed Skua (lifer)

German-ringed Blackbird - 28th February 2021

 With ringing in public places severely restricted at the moment, I decided to put my 20ft net up in the garden.

I'm very glad I did, because the first bird I had was a second calendar year, female Blackbird wearing a German ring!! This is my first ever foreign-ringed Blackbird, so you can imagine how excited I was. The bird has been reported, so I'll update as soon as I hear back.

Blackbird 7103826

Linacre Reservoirs - 6th March 2021

 Yesterday was my first visit to Linacre of March. I arrived on site at 6.45am and spent two hours walking around all three reservoirs. 

As always at this time of the year there were a lot of species singing, including  1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song Thrushes, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Woodpigeon, Great and Coal Tit, Robin, Wren and Dunnock. In addition, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming and a pair of Stock Doves and Jackdaws were exploring potential nest sites.

Out on the water there were 3 Canada Geese (1 pair on the bottom reservoir, and 1 single bird on the middle), 104 Mallards, 90 Tufted Duck, 44 Mandarins, 11 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Cormorant, 1 Little Grebe (heard), 3 Great-crested Grebes (2 on the middle reservoir, and 1 on the top), 42 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Common Gull (2nd record of the year!) and 1 male Goosander.

The best sighting of the day, however, was a Woodcock that appeared out of the woods, and flew straight past me along the entire length of the top reservoir!! It was my best ever sighting of this species, as I usually only see them in silhouette in the summer "roding" over woodland, and also a great Linacre record for this rarely-seen, nocturnal species. My last record was a dead bird, seen in January 2020 (see here).