Big Moor Dragons - 26th July 2025

Yesterday, Jayne and I had a walk up to Little Barbrook Reservoir on Big Moor. We went to look for dragonflies, and managed to see a couple of new species for the year.

The highlight, as always, was our first Golden-ringed Dragonflies of 2025. We saw two individuals, both males, including this one that had, unfortunately, damaged its body, presumably whilst emerging. Despite this, it appeared to be doing ok, and we got very lucky, when it perched by the main path eating a wasp!

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Undamaged male!

Other odanata seen were: Emerald Damselfly (new for year), Black Darter (1) and Common Blue Damselfly (2 males).

A few butterflies were on the wing: Gatekeeper (8), Small Heath (1) and Red Admiral (1).

Birdwise, it was very quiet, but we did manage to see a couple of Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits, a Common Buzzard, and a single, juvenile Stonechat.

Ring-necked Duck - again!!

Ring-necked Duck isn't a species I see that often, especially not in Derbyshire, so a report of an eclipse male at Ogston Reservoir this week had my "twitching" instincts up and running. As it turns out, this is my 3rd record this year, and my second in my home county!.

I popped down on Thursday morning (24th) and found the bird within 2 minutes, right out, on the water, in front of the public hide. The light was awful, but I got great 'scope views and managed a few half-decent photos.

Ring-necked Duck (front bird) with Tufted Duck

Ringed-necked Duck

Year List Update - 20th July 2025

As always, at this time of the year, the Year List slows down, as most of the easier-to-find species have been recorded. I have, however, managed to add a few new species.

The first is Long-eared Owl (179), that was seen in NE Derbyshire in June. Next up was Crossbill (180), that was recorded at Linacre on 5th July. Spotted Flycatcher (181) was seen on a walk in Tideswell Dale, also on 5th July. Green Woodpecker (182) was heard, but not seen, at Hardwick Hall last week, and the final bird, Yellow-legged Gull (183), was seen today, at Ogston Reservoir.

Yellow-legged Gull 

Back to Rufford

 An hour at Rufford on Tuesday (15th) produced 5 ringed Black-headed Gulls, including a new metal-ringed bird from Sweden. Overall gull numbers were up markedly on my first visit, with 94 birds seen, including the first juveniles (6).

The Swedish-ringed gull, 6434047, an adult, was found in the usual spot, by the pontoon. Details of age and ringing date to follow.

6434047

The other ringed gulls were all well known to me, having been ringed at Center Parcs over the last few winters. They were 273A (ringed on 17th November 2021, as a 1st winter bird, making it 4 years old), 293A (ringed on 15th December 2021, as an adult, so at least 6 years old), 207C (ringed on 22nd December 2022, as an adult, so at least 5 years old) and 258C (ringed on 1st December 2023, as a 1st winter bird, so just 2 years old). Good to see them all in their breeding plumage.

273A

293A

207C

258C

Linacre Insects - 13th July 2025

 After the ringing session on Sunday, I stayed on at Linacre to enjoy the sunshine and go looking for some insects. I wasn't disappointed, and managed some very good numbers of butterflies (17 species, including a new one!), 3 new moths, 1 new ladybird species, 4 species of odanata and lots of hoverflies and bees.

First the butterflies. Species seen were: Purple Hairstreak (2, maybe up to 4 seen on oaks below the bottom reservoir on 12th), Meadow Brown ( a minimum of 32), Gatekeeper (9), Peacock (2), Large White (13), Small White (3), Green-veined White (6 feeding/drinking on mud on the top reservoir, Comma (7), Painted Lady (1 in the ringing site), Small Copper (2), Small Tortoiseshell (1), Speckled Wood (2) Ringlet (1), Red Admiral (1), Holly Blue (1 - my first Linacre record of the year), a single Brimstone (my first Linacre sighting this year), and the brand new species, Essex Skipper (seen feeding with a 6-spot Burnet moth).

Essex Skipper (black antennae) and 6-spot Burnet

Brimstone

The new moths seen were a single Ghost Moth (found in the ringing site) and a Dingy Footman (seen in vegetation by the middle reservoir. 

Ghost Moth

Dingy Footman

A couple of 6-spot Burnet moths were also seen in the field by the top reservoir (second record for Linacre) and a single Cinnabar Moth caterpillar was also spotted.

Odanata (dragonflies and damselflies) were represented by the first Brown Hawkers of the year (3), another hawker species (Migrant or Southern), a single male Blue-tailed Damselfly and 20+ (minimum) Common Blue Damselflies, including several pairs "in cop" (mating).

Common Blue Damselflies

The new species of ladybird seen was a 14-spot, found on one of the ringer's hats!! A single Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle was also found in the ringing site.

Last, but not least, a single Greylag Goose was seen on the top reservoir.

Greylag Goose

Linacre Ringing - 13th July 2025

Yesterday, we had a fantastic ringing session down at Linacre, where we ringed 54 birds of 11 species, including 4 summer migrants.

Birds ringed were (new/retrap): Blackcap 15/0, 9 of which were juveniles, Chiffchaff 7/0, including 6 juveniles, Willow Warbler 1/0 (adult), Garden Warbler 1/1 ( 1 juvenile and a retrap adult, first caught at Linacre in May 2023), Blue Tit 12/1 (all juveniles, the retrap having been ringed in Box 1a on 18th May), Great Tit 9/2 ( 9 juveniles, including 1 from Box G2, ringed on 11th May), Treecreeper 1/0 (juvenile), Nuthatch 1/0 (adult), Bullfinch 1/0 (adult), Wren 1/0 (juvenile) and Robin 1/0 (juvenile).

Hardwick Hall - 12th July 2025

 It's been in the high 20s, low 30s this week, so Jayne and I made an early(ish) start for our walk around Hardwick Park and Hall. We walked around the ponds, and then up through the park to the hall and gardens.

Walking around the ponds, we soon spotted the first damsels and dragons of the day, with Common Blue and Red-eyed Damselflies seen. Several Emperors were also seen (minimum of 3) and a couple of Black-tailed Skimmers. 

Black-tailed Skimmer

Butterflies were numerous (which was a nice change!) with Gatekeepers being the most numerous (30+), along with Small Copper (1), Meadow Brown (20+), Large Whites, Small Whites and Red Admiral.

There were also lots of hoverflies, including a single Volucella inanis. A single Hummingbird Hawkmoth was also seen in the gardens.

Volucella inanis

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Linacre 5th July 2025- A new Hoverfly!

 I had 2 hours down at Linacre yesterday morning. It was 18 degrees and overcast, but a few sunny spells enticed some butterflies out. I also had a new species of hoverfly and a bird species not recorded here since 2018!

The butterflies seen were: Ringlet (2), Meadow Brown (3), Gatekeeper (3, my first Linacre record of 2025), Comma (1) and, best of all, a single, pristine Painted Lady (my first of the year). 2 Common Blue Damselflies were also seen.

Painted Lady

The new hoverfly was a very distinctive one, called Chrysotoxum bicinctum. See here for details. There were at least 2 on the vegetation by the overflow of the top reservoir. This is the second species of Chrysotoxum hoverfly I've seen at Linacre, the first being Chrysotoxum festivum, seen back in August 2016.

Chrysotoxum bicinctum

Chrysotoxum festivum

Birds seen were: Mallard (58), Tufted Duck (13), Mandarin (21; 20 adults and 1 duckling), Coot (18; 5 adults and 13 juveniles), Moorhen (0!!), Grey Heron (1), Grey Wagtail (3; 2 juveniles), Great-crested Grebe (12; 6 adults and 6 juveniles), Herring Gull (1 adult) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (3; 2 adults and a sub adult). 1 of the Lesser Black-backs was actively hunting the Mandarin duckling. 3 Chiffchaffs and 1 Blackcap were heard singing.

The most exciting species of bird was Crossbill, which, as I said, were the first record since 2018. Initially 3 birds were heard, and then seen briefly, landing in the Larch trees by the top reservoir. A further 8 (or most likely the some birds, plus 5 more) were seen flying over the ringing site. A great record, and hopefully the first of an "irruption year".

212F Returns!

 After yesterday's visit to look at butterflies, Jayne and I had a quick drive over to Rufford to see if there were any Black-headed Gulls back. There were just 7 gulls present, but the first one I saw was wearing a green darvic ring!!! I grabbed a quick photo, and saw that the bird in question was 212F, a new bird for me. 

212F

212F was ringed, as a 1st year bird, in October 2024. It was seen twice over last winter, both times in Derby, but this was the first record at Rufford. The above photo shows a few retained juvenile feathers.

Below is a photo of the same bird, from Derby, in December 2024.

212F

Whilst there, we also spotted a couple of Swallows and a single Holly Blue butterfly.

Butterfly Update

 Over the last week or two I've been out and about looking for a few new summer butterflies.

The first were seen at Barbrook Pools (formerly Barbrook Reservoir) last Sunday, when the 2 Small Coppers, Large Skippers and Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet moths were present. Whilst there, I was also able to confirm breeding for Tufted Duck (female and 8 ducklings) and Lapwing (1 adult and 3 chicks).

Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet

Tufted Duck 

The next butterflies seen were at Lindrick Dale, yesterday. Overall, numbers were well down on previous years (possibly due to the very warm spring?), with just 4 Dark Green Fritillaries, 6 Marbled Whites, 4 Gatekeepers, 1 Ringlet and about half a dozen Small Skippers seen. 1 other species, Silver-washed Fritillary, was also seen flying around the woods, on the walk through.