Cumbrian Gulls (and Geese) - 23rd and 24th August 2023

 Jayne and I had a few days up in the Lake District last week. We stayed in Keswick and visited Derwent Water and Bowness-on-Windermere.

The first darvic-ringed Canada Geese we saw were 3 on Derwent Water (FAPF, FAPZ and FAPK) We also had 1 darvic-ringed Greylag Goose (ZD4) here and 2 darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls (2X88 and 2B35).

Greylag Goose

2X88

We visited Bowness-on-Windermere, where we spotted a further 5 Canada Geese (FATA, FATB, FANP, FAHZ and AAZZ) and 4 darvic-ringed Black-headed Gulls (212H, 2L78, 2N42 and 2Y90). 

All the Canada Geese and Black-headed Gulls had been ringed in the area by the Waterbird Colour Marking Group and had been recorded locally. 2Y90, however, was particularly interesting, as it had originally been ringed, as a pullus, in Klaipeda, Lithuania on 22nd June 2019, and the darvic had been added, in Bowness, on 2nd January 2021, presumably as a winter visitor. Interestingly, Klaipeda is the site where a Rufford regular, P519, was also ringed.

2Y90

Rufford - 23rd July 2023

 I had an hour at Rufford yesterday afternoon (2.15 - 3.30pm). It was very quiet, with just 5 Black-headed Gulls present! 4 of the gulls were adults, with the first returning juvenile also seen. One of the gulls was a darviced bird, yes you guessed it..... 293A!

293A

Other birds seen were: Canada Goose (13), Swallow (1), Mallard, Tufted Duck, Great-crested Grebe (1) and Greylag Goose (c.100!!!). Two of the Greylags were ringed with BTO metal rings. I expected them to be birds I'd seen before, but, happily, they weren't. The first bird, ring number 5215926, had originally been ringed, as an adult, on 9th June 2007 (16 years ago!). The second bird, 5230484, had been ringed, also, as an adult, on 29th March 2017 (6 years). Both birds had been ringed at Pittance Park (now Center Parcs), just 3km away.

5215926

5230484

Linacre - 6th April 2023

 After a short drive to a site in Nottinghamshire to see breeding plumaged Black-necked Grebes (124) (7 birds seen) and a single Little Ringed Plover (125), I popped into Linacre for my first visit in a few weeks.

I arrived at Linacre at 10.30am, and spent until 1.00pm on site, walking around all three reservoirs. The highlight of the visit was the 12 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap and 1 Willow Warbler, that were singing. I also found my first Great-crested Grebe nest of the year (1 bird sitting, along with 2 other birds), a pair of Little Grebes, 1 Greylag Goose (my first Linacre record of 2023), 41 Mallards, 44 Tufted Ducks, 12 Coots, 8 Moorhens, 5 Mandarin Ducks, 1 Grey Wagtail, a female Goosander (late record) and 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (all feeding in the field by the main entrance - my highest ever count!).

Whilst on site, the sun came out and I managed to spot a few insects - 7 Dark-edged Bee-flies, Tree Bumblebees, Common Carder Bees, Buff-tailed Bumblebees and a Mining Bee sp.

Dark-edged Bee-fly

The sun also brought out the flowers, with Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine, Coltsfoot, Dandelion and daisies all in bloom.

Greylag Goose 4UT

 Jayne and I were in York yesterday. Whilst sat by the river I noticed a Greylag Goose with a darvic ring, 4UT. A quick search revealed that the bird in question had been ringed on 19th June 2017 at Wheldrake Ings Nature Reserve, by Waterbird Colour Marking Group.

4UT

Our sighting was the ninth since ringing, and it had spent time at Wheldrake, Rodley Nature Reserve in Leeds before setting in York city centre from July 2021.

Linacre WeBS - 27th February 2022

 This morning, I went down to Linacre to carry out this month's WeBS count. It was a beautiful, bright morning with a slight frost.

The highlights of this month's count were my first Linacre Greylag Goose record of the year (1 bird) along with 7 Canada Geese (down slightly from 9 on Tuesday 22nd) and a Green Woodpecker (year tick) that was heard calling by the middle reservoir. Mallard numbers were good (141 - the highest count of the year so far), as were Little Grebe (4) and Great-crested Grebe (4). Other counts included: Cormorant (2), Mandarin Duck (5 - 3 males and 2 females), Black-headed Gull (43), Moorhen (16), Coot (12), Tufted Duck (24 - the highest count of the year), Goosander (8 females) and Grey Wagtail (1).

2 Common Buzzards were also seen over the woods along with a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker and a singing Song Thrush.

Year List Update:                                                                                                                           105 - Golden Plover                                                                                                                                   106 - Green Woodpecker

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.

New Black-headed Gull - VA5573

There were about 200 Black-headed Gulls at Rufford CP yesterday, including three well known birds, 217A, 237A and V77K (see labels for details of these birds). The sighting of 237A was the first since March 2020 (see here). In addition, a new, 1st winter bird (born this year) bearing a Danish metal ring, VA5573 was seen. 

Danish-ringed Black-headed Gull VA5573

VA5573

Details received from the Danish Ringing Scheme show that the bird was ringed, as a pullus, 877km away, on Hirsholm, Denmark on 25th May 2020.

In addition to the gulls there were also two metal-ringed Mute Swans, W17370 and W17357. The former bird was also present on my last visit, and had been ringed by Birklands RG, 3km away in September 2014. W17357 had also been ringed by Birklands RG, 3km away. It was ringed, as a age 5 bird (born in 2015), on 10th February 2016.

W17357

The final rings read were 2 Canada Geese (5230424 and 5215963) and 1 Greylag Goose (5230471). All 3 birds had been sighted previously, and had been ringed just 3km away (click on the labels to see ringing details).

Rufford Gulls, Swans and Geese - 28th November 2020

Normally when I go to Rufford CP, it's to catch up with the Black-headed Gulls that over winter there. Yesterday's trip there was for exactly that reason , but I must admit my head was turned a little when I spotted two ringed Egyptian Geese! Not only was this my first record of this species here, but they were also very confiding allowing me to get their metal ring numbers: 1312215 and 1312233. 15 was first seen on 1st January 2004, making it at least 16 years old! 33 was ringed, as a juvenile bird (age 3), in December 2011, making it 9 years old.

Egyptian Goose 1312233

Whilst there, I also manged to spot two metal-ringed Canada Geese (5215963, 5230424). 23 had been ringed in September 2006 as an adult, so is 14+ years old, whilst 24 had been ringed, as a 3, in August 2013, making it 7 years old. 

Canada Goose - 5215963

I also spotted 2 Greylag Geese wearing metal rings: 5230419 and 5230471. 19 was an 8 year old bird, having been ringed in June 2012, as a 3. 71 was ringed in December 2014, as an adult, so is 6+ years old.

The last species wearing a metal ring was a single Mute Swan. This bird had the ring number W17370, and had been ringed 7th September 2014, as a 3, so was 6 years old.

Mute Swan W17370

All of the above birds were ringed by Birklands Ringing Group, either at Pittance Park (part of the Center Parcs complex) or at Rufford itself.

After all the excitement with the geese and swans, I eventually looked at the gulls (!) and spotted 7 darvic-ringed birds: 217A, 240A, 243A, 258A, P519, EUM3 and V77K. These are all well known birds (click on labels for full details), but 243A was the "best" as yesterday's sighting was only the third since being ringed at Center Parcs, 2km away, on 11th December 2019, and the first of the winter.

Black-headed Gull 243A

Linacre - 5th January 2020

Luke and I had our first visit to Linacre on Sunday morning, and it turned out to be a very good trip with some really interesting records.

First up the water bird numbers: Mallard (122 - a very good total), Tufted Duck (16), Mandarin Duck (28), Moorhen (17), Coot (4), Little Grebe (3), Great-crested Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (2), Pied Wagtail (1, we only had 1 record in the whole of 2019, so this is a pretty good start to the year), Greylag Goose (2, again a very good record for the start of the year), Canada Goose (2 flying over), Black-headed Gull (28), Kingfisher (1, seen by Luke, but not by me!) and Goosander (1 female).

Away from the water, there were lots of small birds around including: Mistle Thrush, Bullfinch, Siskin, Green and Great-spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Treecreeper.

The most interesting sighting of the morning, however, came as we were walking through the woods by the middle reservoir. We noticed a bird on the ground, and soon realised it was a male Sparrowhawk. As we walked towards it, it took off and we noticed it had left some prey behind, a still-warm Woodcock!!! The Sparrowhawk had started to eat its meal, so, after taking a few photos, we left the bird where we'd found it, and hopefully it came back to finish it off when we'd gone.

Woodcock (deceased)

Linacre Nestboxes and Summer Migrants - 14th April 2019

Luke and I were down at Linacre this morning to have the first check of the nestboxes for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. We went around all of the "tit" boxes and found 12 with eggs in them already, including one with a Great Tit sitting, and a further 20 with the beginnings of nests in them. All the eggs were tit eggs, and all but one of the nests were tit nests. One nest looked a little different with grass in it, so fingers crossed for this one. Unfortunately, there weren't any signs of Nuthatches using the boxes... yet. The owl boxes will be checked later in the week.

Tit nest with 12 eggs

Along with these nests, we also inadvertently flushed a female Mallard off a nest that was built on top of a 1m high wall (the first one I've ever found at Linacre), and also had a pair of very annoyed Chiffchaffs alarm calling and wing flicking at us as we walked past them. The Moorhen's nest that we found last weekend was still active, with a bird sitting on it, whilst a tiny, newly-fledged Moorhen chick was by the boardwalk on the top reservoir. Last, but by no means least, was a Blackbird carrying nesting material.

Mallard nest

Other birds noted this morning were: 4 Bramblings still around the top reservoir, Greylag Geese (birds heard honking, but not seen, 1st record of 2019), Teal (a pair on the top reservoir), Siskin and Lesser Redpoll (heard by the top reservoir), Blackcap (4+ singing), Willow Warbler (2 singing) and a very nice mixed flock of Swallow (c.40), Sand Martins (c.20) and House Martins (4+) feeding on the top reservoir, and coming in to roost on the dam wall (1st Linacre records of 2019).

Danish Black-headed Gull

Yesterday, Luke and I were at Poolsbrook CP for a few hours. Whilst there, we managed to spot a metal ringed Black-headed Gull from Denmark (3rd of the winter!).

Danish BH Gull

I heard back today, and the bird had been ringed on the small island of Sprogø, 830km away, as a chick on 2nd June 2017. Nice!!

Whilst there, we also had 2 ringed Greylag Geese. The 2 ring numbers were sequential, and the birds looked like an adult and a juvenile birds, so they were most likely ringed together. I'll update the blog as soon as we hear back from the BTO. A very tame Pink-footed Goose was also present, and associating with the Greylags.

Greylags and Pink-footed Goose

UPDATE: Both Greylag Geese were ringed at Poolsbrook on 5th September 2016, so they haven't gone very far. 98 was born in 2018 and 99 was ringed as "at least 1 year old".

Iceland - Day 1

Jayne and I were in Iceland for 4 days last week. It wasn't a "birding break", but we did get some nice views of the local birdlife, including 2 "lifers" and a darvic, colour ringed Redwing.

The first thing to say about Iceland's birds, is that there aren't that many... at least not in March! The first species we saw was Raven. Up to 6 birds were seen flying around together, and it was the only species of corvid seen during our trip. Having said that, they were very easy to see, and included several birds present in and around the streets of Reykjavik.

Raven

We spent our first day in Reykjavik, and it was here that we found a very noisy and confiding group of Redwing, feeding with a couple of Blackbirds and Starlings.

Redwing

In amongst the Redwing was a darvic, colour-ringed individual, 075. A quick search of the internet, found a project, The Turdus Project (see here), being run by the University of Iceland, and I was able to find out that this bird had been ringed in Reykjavik on 23rd May 2017, as a nestling. It had been reported  10 times in and around the city since then, and had not migrated. This is one of the aims of the project, to see the link between migratory strategy and breeding success, so it'll be interesting to see how the birds that stay in Iceland for the winter, do, compared to those that migrate. Here's the only photo I got of 075.

Redwing 075

A walk along the sea front produced several pairs of Eider Duck, whilst in the harbour we spotted Herring,  Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls, and then, a couple of distant adult Glaucous Gulls. I tried luring them in with some bread (about £5.00 a loaf!!!), but they weren't interested. 

That's it for the first day. More in a second post.

Linacre WeBS and Nestboxes - 20th February 2018

I was down at Linacre this morning, with 2 jobs to do. The first job was to replace a few of the nestboxes that had been damaged by Grey Squirrels last year, just in time for the BTO's National Nestbox Week. In total 6 boxes were replaced, and a few others were picked up off the floor!! Thanks to Chesterfield RSPB Group for providing the boxes. It'll be another couple of months before the first nests will be built, and I can begin to new Nest Record Cards for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, so I'll report back then.

New nestbox

The second job was this months WeBS count. Numbers were average for the time of year: Mallard 51, Tufted Duck 27, Coot 5, Moorhen 6, Great-crested Grebe 4; 2 pairs, 1 on the top reservoir and 1 on the middle reservoir, Little Grebe 1 breeding plumaged bird, Mandarin Duck 2, Black-headed Gull 18 and Cormorant 6.

Cormorant

The temperature today was 10 degrees and it was quite sunny, so several of the woodland birds were singing, including 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush, Nuthatch, Coal and Great Tit, Robin and Dunnock. A drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker was heard, as was a "yaffling" Green Woodpecker.

The Snowdrops were looking very nice in the woods by the top car park too.

Snowdrops

Mute Swan 089 and Family

Back in February I blogged about a darvic ringed Mute Swan (ringed by Sorby Breck Ringing Group) that had taken up residence at Holmebrook Valley CP in Chesterfield (see post here). At the time I mentioned that he had set up a territory with a female bird. Well, as the title suggests, the pair have been successful, and last week I went down to see the birds with their 3 cygnets.

089

089's partner and cygnets

As well as the swans there was also a pair of Greylag Geese with 4 goslings.

Greylag Geese

Two species of damselfly were also seen, namely: Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselflies.

Linacre - 7th May 2017

I spent a couple of hours at Linacre yesterday, recording 2 new species for the year; Swift and Skylark. The Swifts, 4 birds, were flying over the bottom car park when I arrived at 6.30am, and the Skylark, a single singing bird, was in the fields above the top reservoir. As well as these 2 species, I also recorded my first ever May record of Black-headed Gull, with 3 breeding plumaged birds flying over the middle reservoir!

Other birds of note  were: Greylag Goose (2), Canada Goose (1), Mallard (52; 46 adults and one brood of 6 ducklings), Tufted Duck (22), Mandarin (3 males), Grey Heron (1), Coot (14; 8 adults and a brood of 6 chicks), Moorhen (6 adults and 2 nests), Great-crested Grebe (4 birds and 2 nests) and Grey Wagtail (2).

Greylag Goose

Moorhen

Other birds seen were: House Martin (3), Swallow (1), Willow Warbler (2 singing), Chiffchaff (4 singing), Blackcap (3 singing), Song Thrush (collecting food), Bullfinch (1 male) and Buzzard (1 being mobbed- as always!!).

Summer Migrants at Linacre

Luke and I had 2 hours at Linacre this morning and walked around all 3 reservoirs. We recorded good numbers of the usual waterbirds, along with a pair of Greylag Goose (present since Wednesday 29th) and our first singing Blackcap (3) and Willow Warbler (1) of 2017. The Willow Warbler was by the top reservoir, and was 3 days earlier than 2016, whilst the Blackcaps were by the middle reservoir (1), and by the stairs by the bottom reservoir (2) and were an  amazing 16 days earlier than last year!! Also singing this morning were: 9 Chiffchaffs, 7 Song Thrushes, Wrens, Stock Doves and Dunnocks. 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.

Greylag Geese (a pair?)

Waterbirds seen were: Mallard (33), Tufted Duck (27), Coot (6), Moorhen (12), Cormorant (3; 2 adults and a young bird), Great-crested Grebe (6; 3 pairs, including 1 pair that appeared to have a nest), Mandarin Duck (6) and Grey Wagtail (4: 2 pairs). A mixed flock of c.30 Siskins and Lesser Redpolls was flying around the Larch woodlands.

Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine and Coltsfoot were in all in flower. Interestingly, another 4 Perch and another dead Trout were in the overflow from the middle reservoir, along with, what looked like a half eaten duck, possibly a Mallard?

Mallard?

Year List update:
115 - Chiffchaff (at Linacre on 12th March)
116 - Willow Warbler

Year List Update

After walking around Linacre yesterday, I had an hour up at Shillito Woods. I put out some seed, and within a few minutes there were 13 Bramblings, 5 Yellowhammers, dozens of Chaffinches, Robins, Blackbirds, Blue and Great Tits.

Brambling

In the afternoon, Jayne and I went to Rufford Country Park. We walked around the lake, and added another four birds to the "year list"; Greylag Goose, Pochard (1 male), Common Gull (minimum of 5 birds, including at least 1 adult) and Goosander (10; 5 males and 5 redheads).

Pochard

Common Gull (2nd cy)

The final addition to this year's list is Pink-footed Goose, and relates to a skein of approximately 200 birds that were flying over the Avenue Washlands this morning during a ringing session.

Year List update:
74 – Brambling
75 – Greylag Goose
76 – Pochard
77 – Common Gull
78 – Goosander
79 – Pink-footed Goose

Clumber Park

It was quite warm and sunny on Sunday, so Jayne and I had a drive out to Clumber Park. We walked around the main lake, and saw our first damselflies of 2016 and a new bird for the "year list"; Cuckoo.

The first damselfly we saw was a male Large Red Damselfly. He was sitting on a reed by the lake, and I managed a decent photo.

Large Red Damselfly

Close by we found the second species; Blue-tailed Damselfly. We had 1 male fly past and land on a reed, unfortunately, out of reach of the camera. More details about these species, and more, can be found on the British Dragonfly Society's website.

We carried on walking around the lake, finding young Coots, Canada and Greylag Geese along with 40+ Mute Swans, Great-crested Grebe, Swift, House Martins, Swallows, Moorhens and Gadwall.

Gadwall (male and female)

The best bird, however, was a Cuckoo that was heard calling a couple of times as we walked around the south side of the lake, near the weir.

Year List update:
150 - Cuckoo

Linacre Whoopers

I was down at Linacre this morning with Luke. We started off at the bottom reservoir, where we managed to find the 2 juvenile Shags, and also saw a couple of Kingfishers, including 1 perched up on the overflow. Unfortunately, it had moved on before we got near enough to get a photo. We then moved on to the middle reservoir where we found 15 Mandarin Ducks, 5 Goosanders (2 males and 3 "redheads"), and a couple of  Great-crested Grebes, including 1 in breeding plumage.

As we walked up to the top reservoir we spotted a group of large, white birds that turned out to be... Whooper Swans, 13 in total. This my first record since January 2014, when there were 15 present for one day. We watched them for about 45 minutes, before they took off and flew high to the North West. Apparently, 15 were also present yesterday (thanks Amanda).

Whooper Swans

Also present today were 21 Canada Geese that flew in and landed briefly on the top reservoir and a single Greylag Goose that flew over the top reservoir honking loudly! Both species were the first Linacre records of 2016.

More Year Ticks

After yesterday's visits to Linacre, I went for a walk around Rufford Country Park in the afternoon with Jayne. Whilst there I managed to add another 4 species to the "year list", namely Hawfinch (1 in the Lime trees by the car park), Greylag Goose (dozens on the main lake), Gadwall (1 pair on the lake) and Treecreeper (1 in the trees by the main lake). Unfortunately, no photos of these new species.

We also noted Mallards, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Coot, Moorhen, Goosander (c.10), Black-headed and Common Gulls (c.10). I got a few photos of the Common Gulls.

Common Gulls (2 different 1st winters/2nd calendar year birds)

One last "year tick" was a Barn Owl that I saw hunting in fields in Apperknowle on Wednesday. It was in the fields by "the triangle" at 7.30am. Great sight!

Year List update:
84 - Hawfinch
85 - Greylag Goose
86 - Gadwall
87 - Treecreeper
88 - Barn Owl