Welcome to my blog all about my birdwatching, wild bird ringing activities and moth recording at Linacre Reservoirs, Derbyshire; in Great Britain and abroad.
Today was the day for this month's WeBS walk around Linacre. I had a couple of hours, walking around all three reservoirs, recording just shy of 400 waterbirds of 9 species.
Counts were: Mallard (154), Mandarin Duck (153), Coot (10), Moorhen (19), Tufted Duck (47), Kingfisher (1), Cormorant (1), Great-crested Grebe (3) and Black-headed Gull (13).
Other birds seen/heard were: Raven (2), Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Nuthatch, Wren, Robin, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit and Redwing.
It's been a couple of weeks since my last visit to Rufford, and I'm very pleased to say that this time there were Black-headed Gulls, and rings to be seen!! In total, I saw 7 of "our" green-ringed gulls, P519, a Lithuanian bird ringed in April 2010, as an adult, and first seen here in January 2018, and a new Finnish metal-ringed bird ST340.623.
The green-ringed birds were: 258A, 273A (the first sighting since October 2022), 293A, 272B (the first sighting this winter), 280B (ringed by me in November 2022, as a 4, and the first sighting this winter), 202C (last seen on 12th March 2023) and 207C (third sighting this winter).
The two other ringed birds were P519 - the first sighting since 5th February 2023, and the new Finnish-ringed bird, an adult.
Well not quite!! I popped across to Rufford yesterday, and found just 28 Black-headed Gulls there. Unfortunately, none were ringed. It seems like the warm, wet winter weather may mean that the gulls are staying out in the wider countryside to feed and not needing to come into the park for food. Obviously, this is great for them, but very frustrating for me!!
The only other birds at Rufford were: 1 Canada Goose, c.20 Mallards, 15 Tufted Ducks and 5 Goosander (3 males and 2 females).
After Rufford, I popped across to Clumber, but it was similar picture there. Just 20ish Black-headed Gulls, no Common Gulls and no rings! Roll on the colder weather.
The only saving grace was a darvic-ringed Mute Swan, Y358 at Clumber.
I had my first visit of the new month to Linacre this morning. I spent a couple of hours walking around all three reservoirs, and recorded some good numbers of waterfowl.
Birds seen were: Mandarin Duck (170 - my highest count of the year so far, and my third highest ever), Mallard (119), Tufted Duck (67 - the highest count of the year), Moorhen (11), Coot (10), Black-headed Gull (22), Lesser Black-backed Gull (6 over), Goosander (3 females- the first of the winter), Grey Wagtail (1) and Pied Wagtail (1).
Other species of note were: Redwing (2 over) Fieldfare (4 over), Siskin (heard), 1 juvenile Woodpigeon and Treecreeper (1 seen).
Jayne and I have just returned from a family break in Pitlochry. Whilst there, we saw a few new birds and some lovely Red Squirrels.
We visited RSPB Loch Garten, and, after a short while (10 minutes), spotted my first ever British Crested Tit (191). It was feeding on peanuts, by the footpath to the centre. It flew in, fed for about 30 seconds and then flew off!
