Linacre Nestboxes Update

 On Monday I had a few hours down at Linacre ringing the first Blue and Great Tit chicks of 2023. In total, I ringed 11 broods; 6 Blue Tits (12, 5, 7, 6, 9, 7 and 11) and 3 Great Tits (4, 6, 5 and 11). I also had an hour there today, when I ringed another 5 broods; 3 Great Tits (6, 7 and 7) and 2 Blue Tits (6 and 6). 

There are still a few more boxes to ring, including a brood of 5 Pied Flycatchers.

Walking around, I also spotted this beautiful male Mandarin Duck and a brood of 13 Mallard ducklings.

Mandarin Duck

Mallard and ducklings

Long-eared Owl and Nightjar - 30th May 2023

 Last night, Jayne and I had a few hours at a moorland site near Sheffield, where we managed to hear Nightjars churring. Whilst there, we also had fantastic views of a hunting Long-eared Owl and heard the "squeaky gate" call of their young. Fantastic!!

Year List update: Long-eared Owl (167) and Nightjar (168).

Wales Weekend - 26th - 28th May 2023

Jayne and I had a few days on Anglesey this weekend. We stopped in Treaddur Bay and visited a few well known spots and one new one.

Our first stop was the National Trust's Bodnant Garden, where we enjoyed a lovely walk around, including the beautiful Laburnum Arch, and spotted a few insects - Beautiful Demoiselle (male and female), Common Blue, Large Red and Azure Damselfly. We also spotted a Grey Wagtail feeding recently fledged young - with Large Red Damselflies!!

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

The following day, we popped into Holyhead Harbour to catch up with Black Guillemot, before heading off to RSPB South Stack. We had a wonderful couple of hours here, in bright sunshine, and spotted: Razorbill, Guillemot, Herring Gull, Fulmar, Linnet, Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Hooded Crow, Raven, Peregrine Falcon, Chough, Small Heath, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Wall Brown and Common Blue Butterfly.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Our final stop of day two was the North Wales Wildlife Trust's Cemlyn Lagoons, where we saw Common, Arctic and Sandwich Terns, as well as Black-headed Gulls and Oystercatcher. 

On our final day we visited  the National Trust's Plas Newydd site, in search of Red Squirrels. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see any this time, but we did enjoy a lovely walk around the grounds and house.

Year List update: Black Guillemot (164), Sandwich Tern (165) and Arctic Tern (166).

Linacre WeBS - 21st May 2023

 This weekend was WeBS weekend, so I had a walk around this morning. The following birds were counted: Mallard (49 adults and just 2 ducklings), Tufted Duck (21), Mandarin Duck (22; 20 males and 2 females, no ducklings), Moorhen (4, no young), Coot (11 adults and 1 young - my first of the year), Little Grebe (5 adults; 4 on the middle reservoir and 1 on the top reservoir - no young yet), Great-crested Grebe (5; all adults, no chick seen today), Canada Goose (1) and Grey Wagtail (1 on the bottom reservoir).

Whilst on site, I also checked up on the nestboxes. Unfortunately, several had been predated, including two of the Pied Flycatcher nests. Thankfully, the third nest was still intact. Fingers crossed it survives.

The sun was out whilst I was there and I managed to see a couple of insects, a Green-veined White and my first damselfly of the year, a Common Blue on the ringing site.

Green-veined White

Common Blue Damselfly

Small Blue and Dingy Skipper - 20th May 2023

 After seeing details on social media earlier in the week, Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Pleasley Pit searching for a colony of introduced Small Blue butterflies.

We arrived at the car park, and after walking just 200m, saw our first butterflies (they really are small!!), 3 males, one of which posed beautifully.

Small Blue (male)

We walked on to the area where previous sightings had come from, where we managed to watch both males and females, including this mating pair. At one point there were 11 on the ground together!!

Small Blues (male on the left, I think)

Whilst there, we also spotted several other species: Peacock (2), Comma (2), Orange Tip (1 male) Large White (2) and, best of all, a Dingy Skipper.

Dingy Skipper

Starling Nest 2023

 The Starlings arrived back in the nestbox on the side of our house again this year and laid their first egg on 8th April. 4 eggs were laid and incubation began.

The chicks hatched on 23rd April, and grew well. I ringed them (under licence) and today, when I checked the box, all four of the birds had successfully fledged.

Starling chicks, 13th May 2023

The nest details were logged as part of the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Linacre Weekend

 I had two visits to Linacre over the weekend, one for ringing and one to check the nestboxes.

The ringing trip, on Saturday, with two other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, was a short affair, with just 3 birds caught! Thankfully, the three birds were all warblers; one Blackcap, one Chiffchaff and best of all, a Garden Warbler - our first here since 2021, and the first ringed since 2017!!

The nestbox checking visit, on Sunday, was very successful, with 47 active nests found. The most exciting were 3 Pied Flycatcher nests (the highest ever total!) and a Blackbird nest, that had been built on the base of an old, broken tit box. Another 2 male Pied Flycatchers were also singing, so, I'm hoping there may be a couple more nests before the season is over. As always, the results of the visit will be added to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Out on the reservoirs, there were 2 active Great-crested Grebe nests (and last week's chick), 1 Moorhen nest and 3 broods of Mallards. 12 Swallows and half a dozen House Martins were also flying around the middle reservoir. All in all, a great couple of visits!

Deep Dale - 14th May 2023

 The weather played ball today (20 degrees and sunny) so Jayne and I set off up Deep Dale for a walk.

Whilst there, we spotted 4 species of butterfly, including our first Green Hairstreaks of 2023. Species seen were: Orange Tip (15+), Green Hairstreak (c.10), Brimstone (1 male) and  Red Admiral (1).

Green Hairstreak

Birds were far and few between, but we did see 1 male Redstart, Jackdaw, Carrion Crows, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and, best of all, a single Spotted Flycatcher - my 163rd species of the year.

Swift and Wood Warbler

 Two new additions to the "year list" over the couple of days, with Swift (161) and Wood Warbler (162) added.

My first Swifts of the year were 3 over school on Friday, whilst the Wood Warblers (3) were seen today in the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust's Wyming Brook reserve. 1 bird in particular was very "showy", just by the path.

Wood Warbler

Linacre- 8th May 2023

 I had my first walk of May, around Linacre on Monday morning before the rain set in. It was a great walk with some very nice sightings.

The highlight of the morning was the sight of my first Great-crested Grebe chick of the year, riding on the back of a parent bird. In addition, there were another 6 adults around the site, so hopefully some more chicks should be appearing soon!!

Great-crested Grebe family

Other birds seen were: Chiffchaff (4 singing), Blackcap (2 singing), Willow Warbler (1singing), Song Thrush (2 singing and 1 seen), Common Buzzard (1), Canada Goose (1), Cormorant (1), Tufted Duck (40), Mallard (70; 46 adults and 4 broods of 3, 10, 5, 2 and 4 ducklings), Grey Heron (2), Mandarin (3 males), Moorhen (just 4!!), Coot (12 adults), Little Grebe (1 heard), Swallow (5), Grey Wagtail (3), Lesser Black-backed Gull ( 4 adults) and, best of all, a fly-over Oystercatcher (the first Linacre record since 2020).

Longshaw and Padley Gorge

Jayne and I had a walk around Longshaw and Padley Gorge this morning. It was surprisingly quiet, but we did manage to hear a single Cuckoo (158), 1 singing Redstart (159) and 1 Tree Pipit (160).

Other birds seen/heard were: Kestrel, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Pied Flycatcher, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. 

Dunham Massey - 1st May 2023

 Yesterday, we had a family day out at the National Trust's Dunham Massey. Whilst there, I spotted two new species for the year: Ring-necked Parakeet (156) and, very surprisingly, a Common Sandpiper (157).

We also saw Fallow Deer in the Deer Park.

Fallow Deer