Linacre - 31st December 2022

 I hadn't got anything else on today, so I had my last visit of 2022 to Linacre this afternoon. I was there from 1.15pm to 2.45pm in grey, overcast conditions with rain on and off, and a temperature of 11 degrees.

As expected, it was quite quiet, but the following birds were seen: 148 Mallard, 30 Tufted Duck, 29 Mandarin Duck, 15 Moorhen, 10 Coot, 7 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (unusual December record), 1 Great-crested Grebe, 1 female Goosander, 3 Little Grebe ( a good count for December), 1 Cormorant and 1 Grey Wagtail.

Woodland birds were far and few between, the highlight being a single "wheeting" Chiffchaff! The total number of species recorded at Linacre this year has been 68.

This will be the last post of 2022, so Happy New Year to all my followers and here's to a bird-filled 2023.

Year List 2022

 Over the last few days I've added the (most likely) last two species to my Year List for 2022, Smew and Scaup.

The Smew, a redhead, was seen at Attenborough Gravel Pits on Wednesday. The Scaup, a male, was seen today at Thrybergh Country Park. These last two species take me to 163 for the year. Whilst in California, Jayne and I also recorded 101 species of bird, 70 of which were lifers!! In total the, my Year List for 2022 stands at 264 species.

Scaup

Whilst at Thrybergh, I had a look at the Mute Swans, and recorded 6 darvic rings (Y835, Y636, Y674, 061Y, 251Y and 252Y). There were 13 Mute Swans present, but the others had their legs covered up!

061Y and Y636

After Thrybergh, I drove across to Rother Valley to see if the Norwegian-ringed Black-headed Gull, JMT9, was still about - it was!!

JMT9

Also present were two darviced Mute Swans, Y178 and 439Y. Interestingly, 439Y had been seen at Rufford CP, in January 2020!

Rufford Gulls - 23rd December 2022

 It was raining very hard this afternoon, so today's visit to Rufford lasted just 1 hour. There were only 45 Black-headed Gulls present, but I did manage to see 5 colour-ringed birds: P519, 271B, 276B, V77K and a new one, 207C.

207C

207C was ringed just yesterday (22nd December), at Center Parcs, and, unsurprisingly, is the first re-sighting.

Other birds seen were: Mute Swan (2), Gadwall (1m and 1fm), 1 Herring Gull and 4 Goosander (3m and 1fm).

Linacre WeBS December 18th 2022

 After a week of ice and snowy conditions (maximum temperature of  3 degrees) I went down to Linacre yesterday morning (17th) to carry out this month's WeBS count. I had expected the reservoirs to be frozen, but, apart from a little ice ( c.10 %) on the bottom reservoir, the other two reservoirs were completely ice-free.

I walked around all three reservoirs and recorded the following numbers: 231 Mallard (highest count of the year), 114 Mandarin Duck, 72 Tufted Duck, 16 Moorhen, 8 Coot, c.50 Black-headed Gull, 5 Cormorant, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Little Grebe.

Black-headed Gulls

Other birds seen around the site included: 1 Tawny Owl, Siskin (3, the first of the winter), Magpie, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Wren, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Fieldfare (heard) and Redwing (10 over).

UPDATE: A report on Derbyshire Facebook Page from 18th recorded 119 Teal (!!!), 2 Gadwall, 1 male Shoveler, 104 Tufted Duck, 8 Goosander, 3 Cormorants and  19 Lapwing!!!

Rufford Gulls 4th and 10th December 2022

Last Sunday, 4th December, I had a quick, 1 hour, visit to Rufford. In the short time I was there, I spotted EL87245, EUM3, 271A, V77K (my first sighting this winter of this Danish-ringed bird) and a new Finnish metal-ringed bird, ST315.116 (ringing details to follow). Two other Finnish metal-ringed birds were also seen, but I couldn't get the full sequences.

Welcome back V77K

After the last few days' icy weather, I arrived at Rufford for today's visit (12.40pm - 15.10pm) to find the main lake with 95% ice cover. This meant that the gulls' legs were on show, as they perched on the ice. In total, there were approximately 2-300 Black-headed Gulls, 70(!) Common Gulls and 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls present, all bathing in the small piece of open water. 

Ringed birds seen were: 246A, 284A, 293A, 294A, 297A, 255B, 272B (my first sighting since being ringed on 12th November 2022 at Center Parcs), 276B, 278B (also my first sighting since ringing on 12th November 2022 at Center Parcs), V77K, EUM3, P519, EL87245 and last week's Finnish bird ST315.116.

272B

278B

Linacre Weekend

 Last weekend (26th and 27th November) I had a couple of visits to Linacre. On Saturday, I walked around all three reservoirs for this month's WeBS walk. On Sunday I was down again for a few hours ringing, with 3 members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

The WeBS walk was fantastic with the highest counts of the year for Mallard (201), Mandarin Duck (185) and Tufted Duck (87). Other species seen were: Moorhen (13; 12 adults and 1 juvenile), Coot (10 adults), Grey Wagtail (2), Pied Wagtail (1), Little Grebe (1) and Great-crested Grebe (2). Another highlight of the walk was the amazing sight of approximately 4-500 Jackdaws that were flying around the middle reservoir in a Starling-like murmuration just before dawn!

The ringing session on Sunday was very good as well, with 50 birds of 10 species ringed (new/re trap): Robin 0/2, Redwing 5/0, Great Tit 12/2, Blue Tit 9/6, Coal Tit 5/1, Goldcrest 1/1, Lesser Redpoll 2/0, Magpie 1/0, Dunnock 1/1 and Blackbird 0/1. 

The Blackbird was a great re trap, having been ringed, by me, in August 2016, as a 3 (born that year), making it 6 and a half years old! It was also really good to catch the first Redwing of the winter and the Lesser Redpolls.