Starling Nest 2024

 Starlings have returned to the nestbox on the side of the house again this year. As in previous years, I have begun monitoring the success of this nest for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, and will ring the chicks (under licence) when they're big enough.

The first evidence of a nest this year was on 29th March. The adults began incubating, and, on 23rd April, four chicks were were hatched. This is a photo from today, and, as you can see, they're thriving...despite the cold and wet conditions! The weather is set to improve this week, so fingers crossed they all survive. I'm sure the mealworms that I'm providing, will help a little.

Starling chicks

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.

Year List Update

 This week, I've added a few new species to this year's Year List.

The first new addition was Reed Bunting (93), which I recorded on Sunday whilst out ringing. The next addition was Chough (94), a single bird seen and heard flying over the Premier Inn at Aberystwyth on Monday. A Dipper (95) was the next species. This was seen at Bodnant Gardens on Tuesday. The final new species was Barn Owl (96), one of which was seen near Chapel-en-le-Frith yesterday.

Whilst in Aberystwyth on Monday, Jayne and I spent some time watching the 50,000ish (!) Starlings coming in to roost on the pier. Unfortunately, they didn't "murmurate" when we were there, but it was amazing to see them coming in, and leaving next morning.

Starlings

Starling Nest 2022

 Starlings have nested in the nestbox on the side of our house since 2014 ( 50 chicks fledged so far). This year they had a slow start, with the first egg laid on 12th April (1st April last year).In total, 5 eggs were laid in this clutch, and all five hatched successfully on 29th April. The parents did a great job in feeding them all (with some help from the mealworms we provided!) and, after being ringed, all five birds fledged (four on 20th May, and the fifth bird on 21st May).

The nestbox is now empty, but, a second brood could still be laid, so I'll keep my ears and eyes open to see what the rest of the year brings. As always, this nest, and its contents have been recorded for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.

Starling Nest Update - 19th May 2020

It seems like quite a while ago since I last blogged about the Starling nest that is in a box on the side of my house, and that I am monitoring for the BTO's Nesting Neighbours scheme. In my last post (here) 4 chicks, from 5 eggs, had just hatched (Monday 27th April). Since then, the adults have done a fantastic job and have raised all 4 chicks to the point of fledging. 2 fledged yesterday, and the last two fledged today. Before fledging I ringed all four chicks, under BTO license, so hopefully I'll get a report of at least one of them.

4 chicks ready to fledge

Starling Nest 2020 - Eggs are Laid

2020 is the seventh year in a row that I've had the pleasure of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) nesting in a box that I have on the side of my house here in Derbyshire. Since the first nest back in 2014, the birds have successfully reared and fledged  a total of 32 young, most of which I have also been able to ring for the BTO's Ringing Scheme. Unfortunately, I haven't yet had any recoveries of any of these birds since fledging. This year perhaps?

Anyway, the 2020 season began on 3rd April, when the first few pieces of grass and leaves were brought into the box. I always spot this, as most of the material ends up on our back door step!! Nest building continued, and the first egg was laid on 11th April ( 4 days later than 2019, and a full week later than my earliest ever egg on 4th April 2017).

Starlings lay one egg a day, and so, by 15th April, we had a full clutch of 5 eggs.

15th April - full clutch 

The birds will now incubate for a couple of weeks, so I'll leave well alone and check on the young birds' progress, when they've hatched.

All the data that I collect will be forwarded to the BTO's Nesting Neighbours Scheme (previously known as Nestbox Challenge).

Garden Ringing - 15th June 2019

I haven't done any ringing in my garden since March, so this morning I decided to get the net out for a few hours (05:45 - 09.00). My main target was to try and catch some of the 20ish juvenile Starlings that have been feeding daily in the garden, along with several ringed adult birds. By the end of the session I'd caught 17 birds, including 8 Starlings (6 new birds and 2 ringed birds), 2 juvenile Dunnocks, 4 Greenfinches (2 adults and 2 juveniles), 1 adult Blackbird and 2 adult House Sparrows.

I was able to sex the juvenile Starlings using their eye colour. The male birds have an all dark eye, whereas the females have a pale ring around the eye.

Male Starling

Female Starling

The two ringed Starlings that I managed to catch were very interesting. The first bird was an adult female with a very well developed brood patch (indicating breeding), and, when I read the ring, turned out to be a bird I'd caught in the garden in 20th May 2018. It had a brood patch then too.

The second ringed bird was a juvenile, and turned out to be one of the four pulli I'd ringed in May in the nestbox on the side of my house (see here). This bird was the only one of the 6 juveniles caught this morning to have started its post juvenile moult, as seen in this picture below.

Starling with a few adult feathers

It could also be sexed as a female, using the eye colour.

Female Starling

Other birds seen. but not ringed, were Chaffinch (2;1 male and 1 female), Goldfinch (4; 2 adults and 2 juveniles), Blue Tit (1 adult) and Coal Tit (1  juvenile).

Starlings are Go!

My last post about the Starling nest on my house was on 5th May, when the 5 chicks were ringed by me (see here). Since then, the birds have continued to grow, and 4 of the 5 eventually fledged on 12th May, 18 days since they hatched. Unfortunately, 1 of the Starlings didn't make it, and was found dead in the box once the other birds had fledged. The details of the nest have been added to the BTO's Nestbox Challenge Scheme.

The box was empty for a couple of days, before the adult birds started singing around it again, and today there were the first signs of nest number 2.

Starling Nest 2?

Starlings Ringed

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged about the Starling nest on my house (see here). Since then, the 5 chicks have done really well, and today I ringed them for the BTO Ringing Scheme. Details of the nest will also be entered onto the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website.

5 chicks in the nestbox

Starling chick

Starling Nest - We've got Chicks!

This year's Starling nest had 5 eggs back on 11th April. The average incubation period for this species is two weeks, so, when noise was heard from the box on 24th, is was clear this year's chicks had hatched. This was the view of the nestbox this afternoon - 5 naked and blind chicks.

5 chicks on 27th April 2019

I'll update the BTO's Nestbox Challenge site with the details, and leave the chicks for a week or so, before ringing them.

Five eggs

Following on from my last post, the Starlings have now laid a full clutch of 5 eggs.

5 eggs

This should be a complete clutch now, so I'll leave the nest alone for the next couple of weeks, until the chicks are due to hatch. As always, the details will forwarded to the BTO Nest Box Challenge.

Starling Nest 2019 - The First Egg

Last year, due to a spell of cold and miserable weather, the Starlings that nest in the box on the side of my house didn't lay their first egg until 14th April. This year, the first egg was laid today (7th April). 

1st egg

Hopefully, the pair will go on to lay another 4 eggs this week and raise the chicks successfully.

Year List 2019 - the first post

We arrived back in the UK on 1st January after a few days in New York. The first bird of the new year was a Starling, seen as we drove out of the airport. On the drive back we saw numbers 2 - 15. Numbers 16 - 30 were seen on a quick trip to Poolsbrook CP, and the final bird of the day, Golden Plover, was seen in fields above Apperknowle.

Year List:
1 – Starling
2 – Magpie
3 – Feral Pigeon
4 – Woodpigeon
5 – Jackdaw
6 – Rook
7 – Mallard
8 - Redwing
9 - Goldfinch
10 – Kestrel
11 – Herring Gull
12 - Lesser Black-backed Gull
13 – House Sparrow
14 – Collared Dove
15 – Black-headed Gull
16 – Coal Tit
17 – Mistle Thrush
18 – Blackbird
19 – Great Tit
20 – Great Black-backed Gull
21 – Moorhen
22 – Coot
23 – Tufted Duck
24 – Great-crested Grebe
25 – Greylag Goose
26 – Pink-footed Goose
27 – Cormorant
28 – Pied Wagtail
29 – Robin
30 – Golden Plover

Starling Nest 2018 - the first eggs

The weather this Spring has been very stop and go, with temperatures below average and lots of rain. As a result, the Starlings that nest in a box on the side of my house have also been slow to start breeding.

Last year the nest was started on 26th March, but this year, the first signs of a nest didn't come until 6th April.

6th April 2018

The first eggs (3) were then found on 16th April. Working backwards, the first egg must have been laid on 14th April (10 days later than last year). 

16th April 2018

Hopefully, a full clutch of 5 eggs will be laid again this year, and then incubated for around 12 days, hatching around the 30th April.

As always, the details of this nest will be forwarded to the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. 

Linacre - 11th November 2017

It's been a while since I was last at Linacre, but today I was down on site for a couple of hours with my nephew, Luke.

We arrived at 7.40am, and walked around all 3 reservoirs. Waterbirds seen were: Mallard (69), Tufted Duck (12), Mandarin Duck (2), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1), Coot (5 adults), Moorhen (16; 11 adults and 5 well grown juveniles), Black-headed Gull (26)and Grey Wagtail (3).

Black-headed Gull

Grey Wagtail

The woods were quite quiet, but we did manage to record Great-spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Robin (singing), Wren (singing), Siskin, Kestrel (1 male), Starling (flock of c.30 flew over), Redwing (17 over), Jay, Magpie (2), Carrion Crow, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit.

Spotted Flycatcher

I was up in Ripley, North Yorkshire at the weekend enjoying my son's wedding(!). In a quiet moment, I had a walk around the village where I spotted a pair of Spotted Flycatchers, who were busy "flycatching" in the church yard, and returning to an unseen nest. Both birds were very confiding, and posed beautifully on the various gravestones. A very nice "year tick".

Spotted Flycatcher

Whilst there, I also had a walk down to the nearby Ripley Castle and River Nidd, where I had another pair of Flycatchers collecting food, as well as Grey Wagtails feeding at least 2 juveniles, a fly over Grey Heron and several pairs of Jackdaws visiting nest holes. Other species recorded in the village including Pied Wagtail, House Sparrow, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Red Kite, Swallow, nest building House Martin and Swift.

House Martin

Year List update:
174 - Spotted Flycatcher

All Gone!

It's been 3 weeks since I last blogged about the Starling nest in the nestbox on my house, so here's an update.

The 4 chicks hatched on 4th June, and were ringed, by me, on 10th June.

Starling pullus

3 of the young survived to fledging, bringing the total to 8 from this box this year. They were still in the box on 19th June, including this adventurous individual.

19th June 2017

The birds fledged on 20th June (Thanks Lydia for the sightings), and spent a short while in the garden, before flying off to who knows where. hopefully, the rings attached will be read somewhere, and I'll get an update on their whereabouts.

20th June 2017

Now that the nesting season is over for this box, I'll update the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website. See you all in 2018!!

Four New Chicks

On 22nd May I blogged about the Starling nestbox on my house having a second clutch of 4 eggs. On Saturday afternoon I had a look in the box and spotted .... 4 newly hatched chicks!

4 chicks

A great record, and one to add to the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website.

Nice surprise!

The first brood of Starlings fledged from the nestbox on my house on 12th May. Since then, a male bird has been present singing and building a new nest. Here's what the nest looked like on 16th May.

16th May 2017

I didn't think he'd managed to attract a mate, until today when I saw an adult bird leaving the box. I had a quick peek, and spotted 4 eggs!!

22nd May 2017

According to the literature, Starlings lay 1 egg a day, so working back, the first egg must have been laid on 19th, just 7 days after the last brood fledged.  Last year, the second clutch was just 3 eggs, so this year's is already an improvement! Hopefully, they'll lay another egg tomorrow, making 2 clutches of 5.

I can now start a new record for the BTO's Nestbox Challenge scheme.

All Gone!

I last blogged about the Starling nest in April, when I ringed the chicks. Since then, they've gone from strength to strength, growing into 5 healthy, fully-feathered chicks, as can be seen in this photo taken on 8th May.

8th May 2017

Since then, there's been a lot of activity around the box, as the adult birds have tried to encourage the young to leave. By 11th (yesterday), 4 of the 5 birds had flown, and today, when I got home from work, the box was empty.

12th May 2017 - empty nest

I'll update the BTO's Nestbox Challenge website with the data, and see if the birds have another brood like they did last year.

As well as these birds to look out for, I've also had my first ever ringed adult Starling in the garden this week. First seen on the 7th May, I was very keen to get a photo of the ring, just in case it was one of the previous year's birds. Unfortunately, the ring number wasn't one from the rings I'd used, so I contacted our data manager at Sorby Breck Ringing Group, who told me that it had been ringed by another member of our group about 1 mile away in June 2016. It was aged as a 5 then, so was born in 2015. It was collecting mealworms, so presumably has a nest nearby.

Ringed Starling