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

Linacre Ringing - 15th October 2016

Weather conditions for ringing were perfect this morning, and with good numbers of Redwing being ringed by members of The Group last weekend, we decided to head down to Linacre this morning to try our luck. We arrived in the dark, at 6:30am, and got the nets up and sound systems on to begin attracting the Redwings down.  The first net round produced 5 birds, and by the end of the session at 11.30am we'd caught and ringed a very respectable 15 birds. Its hard to estimate how many birds were attracted into the area, but there must have been 100+ throughout the morning.

Redwing

Other birds ringed this morning were (new/retrap): Goldcrest (12/1), Wren (0/1), Robin (6/0), Blackbird (1/0), Long-tailed Tit (11/0), Blue Tit (23/5), Great Tit (11/1), Coal Tit (4/0) Goldfinch (4/0) and Treecreeper (1/0), bring the morning's total to 96 birds.

Here's a photo of this mornings' Treecreeper, a juvenile, just before it flew off. Love the beak and those amazing claws!!

Treecreeper

Other birds seen or heard this morning included Tawny Owl (heard first thing), Skylark (1 over, the first since June), Nuthatch and Woodpigeon.

Garden Finches and a juvenile Woodpigeon

I watch and record the birds in my garden every week for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. I don't blog about the results often, but this last week has been so good I wanted to share the news and a few photos.

Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches are regular visitors to the garden throughout the year, with weekly winter totals averaging 15, 5 and 20 respectively. This year, however, these 3 species have been joins by their much less common cousins; Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Brambling and Bullfinch.

Siskin in particular, have been very numerous this winter, with sightings in every week since the end of January. Numbers started off quite low, with 1s and 2s, but have steadily built up, culminating in a superb 14 birds this morning!

4 of today's 14 Siskins

Lesser Redpolls are not so numerous, but have again been present on and off throughout much of the Winter/early Spring.The maximum count so far being 6 present on 2nd April, including this very colourful male bird.

Lesser Redpoll and male Greenfinch

Bramblings were first recorded in mid January, with just 1 present. This built up to 3 birds; 2 males and 1 female, in February, until this afternoon, when I looked out and saw 7 birds, 2 males and 5 females, feeding on the lawn. This is my highest ever count!

Brambling

Bullfinches are the least common finch species in the garden, with just a few sightings each year. So far this year, I've recorded them on just s couple of occasions, including a pair today. Unfortunately, neither bird would pose for a photo.

Along with all the finches, the garden also attracts several other species on a daily basis, including Dunnock (3 today, singing and wing flicking to each other), Blue Tit (2), Coal Tit (1), Great Tit (1), Blackbird (4; 2 males and 2 females, 1 of which was collecting nesting materials), House Sparrow (1 male and 2 females, inspecting the nest box), Starling (4, including 2 nest building in the box), Collared Dove (1) and Woodpigeon (7, including the year's first juvenile bird!).

Juvenile Woodpigeon (complete with downy chest!)

Snowy Garden adds two new species

Last night brought a few hours of snow to the garden, the first proper snow of the winter so far, and meant that I woke up to this lovely, if somewhat grey, scene.

Snow!

As you can see in the picture I went out and cleared a spot around the feeders, filled up the water and put out a mixture of sunflower hearts, suet pellets and soaked raisins for the birds. In the next 3 hours I recorded 17 species of birds for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, including 2 "year ticks"; Brambling and Blackcap.

The Bramblings consisted of 3 birds; 2 different males and a female bird. All 3 birds were feeding with a large number of Chaffinches (a minimum of 15 birds), and actually used the seed feeder, something I haven't seen before. I got a couple of photos.

Brambling (male)

Brambling (female)

The Blackcap was a male bird that flew into a Honeysuckle plant in the garden, pecked at a dried up berry, and then flew off again! Somehow I managed to get a photo in the minute it was present! 

Male Blackcap

This isn't the first record of this species in the garden in winter, but my last record was way back in December 2013 (see blog post here). They are a regular wintering bird in the UK now, and the BTO has just published some very interesting research about how garden feeding may have influenced this behaviour (see here).

The other species seen today in the garden were; Goldfinch (c.20), Greenfinch (2), Lesser Redpoll (1 male), House Sparrow (2; 1 male and 1 female), Magpie (2), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (5), Starling (14), Robin (1), Blackbird (11; 6 males and 5 females), Blue Tit (1), Coal Tit (1), Dunnock (2) and Wren (1).

Year List update:
89 - Brambling
90 - Blackcap

Garden Lesser Redpoll

The number of birds coming to the feeders in my garden has started to increase again in the last few weeks. When I got home from work this afternoon I filled the sunflower hearts and five minutes later spotted this- a Lesser Redpoll!

Lesser Redpoll

This is my first garden record since February, so it'll be a good record for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. Other birds seen recently in the garden are: Blackbird, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Magpie, Dunnock, Starling, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon and Collared Dove.

Garden Youngsters

The nice thing about watching the garden birds at this time of the year, is the fact that young birds start to fledge from nearby nests and appear in the garden. So far this year I've seen young Blackbirds, Starling, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch,  Woodpigeon, Dunnock and House Sparrow. All records have been entered into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Here are a few photos.

Blackbird

Dunnock

Starling

Goldfinch

Woodpigeon

Bullfinch

Garden birds in the snow.

We've had a bit of snow here over the last few days, so I've been watching the garden intently to see if we got any different visitors. Luckily today I spotted a Song Thrush and a Brambling, both very infrequent visitors to the garden.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Brambling

Song Thrush

 As well as these two species, I also had all the "usual suspects"; Chaffinch (15), Goldfinch (18), Greenfinch (4), Collared Dove (2), Woodpigeon (1), Magpie (2), Blue Tit (1), Blackbird (8), Dunnock (2) and House Sparrow (2).

Starling

Goldfinch and Greenfinch

 

As always, I'll be sending the records into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Garden Mega!!

I don't blog that much about the birds in my garden, but today's an exception because I had a "mega" bird in - a Great-spotted Woodpecker!

Great-spotted Woodpecker



Looking back in my BTO Garden Birdwatch notes, the last time I recorded a woodpecker in the garden was in July 2001. Today's bird, as you can see from the picture, was feeding on fat pellets, which I only put out on Thursday, so hopefully, if I keep them topped up, it will return over the winter.

Other birds seen this afternoon, included this female Sparrowhawk, a male Sparrowhawk, that I didn't manage to get a photo of, 4 Greenfinch, 3 House Sparrow, a Robin, 2 Collared Doves, 3 Woodpigeons, 4 Blackbirds, 4 Starlings, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit 1 Coal Tit, and 15+ Goldfinch. A flock of approximately 30 Redwings were feeding on the Hawthorns behind the house. Hopefully, I can encourage a few into the garden over the winter. Bring on the snow!

 

Sparrowhawk (female)

Garden Birding - a few surprises

Every week I record the wildlife that uses the garden, as part of the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. The recording runs from Sunday to Saturday, so this morning's session was the first for this week.

It started well with over 20 Goldfinches present feeding on and around the sunflower feeders. 6 Chaffinches and 6 Greenfinches were also recorded along with 3 Blue Tits, 1 Great Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Robin, 3 Dunnocks, 7 Blackbirds, 2 Starlings, 2 Woodpigeons and 6 Collared Doves (including a mating pair).

These species are recorded weekly in varying numbers, but today I recorded another 3 species that are a bit more unusual. The first was a Fieldfare, a species which is recorded once or twice a year in the garden, usually during heavy snow. Today's bird flew into the garden briefly, before flying to feed on the Hawthorn bushes behind the garden.

The second bird was a Lesser Redpoll. This species is more common and is usually present throughout the winter in small numbers. I had a couple last week, and today's bird was feeding along with the Goldfinch on the sunflower hearts.

The final new bird was a very big surprise, a male Blackcap! Over wintering Blackcaps have become an increasingly common sighting in Britain over the last 20 years, but this was my first record in the garden. It spent about 10 minutes feeding in the Mahonia bush. Hopefully, it'll stay around for a while. More information about Blackcaps can be found here.

Blackcap on Mahonia

Warbler ringing and a pulli tick

After a couple of weeks away from ringing I managed to get out this morning with the Group to the Avenue Washlands in Chesterfield. After a slow start, we ended the morning on 43 birds of  15 different species.

Out of the 43 birds, 23 were warblers, including many of this year's birds (3Js). Here are some pictures:

Blackcap

 

Chiffchaff

 

Willow Warbler

 

Whitethroat

 

We also caught a Garden Warbler, but I missed the photo opportunity!

 

As well as the warblers we also caught a few of the resident birds namely: Robin (4 juveniles), Bullfinch ( 1 female), Goldfinch (1 male), Wren ( 2 juveniles), Blackbird (1 adult), Song Thrush (1 adult), Dunnock (1), Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tit.

 

On the way home we popped into Linacre, where Ray had located a Woodpigeon nest with one squab in it. It was too small to ring last week, so we went back today and I ringed it. A new pulli tick!

 

Woodpigeon squab

 

Not the world's most beautiful juvenile, but nevertheless, a new species and I can now begin to apply for a pulli endorsement on my ringing licence. One step nearer to becoming an independent ringer, but still lots to learn!!

Return of the snow!

Last weekend I was walking around Linacre hoping to see my first summer migrants. This weekend I'm sitting at home looking at a very snowy garden! Here's the view from my living room this afternoon.

Snowy garden

 

The blob in the top left hand corner is the pond that has/had 4 big masses of frogspawn in ealier this week.

Suffice to say I didn't get out ringing or birding today, but instead spent most of the day watching the feeders. In the end, I managed to see some interesting birds including "Mr White"(see here if you haven't read about this bird before), a couple of stunning breeding plumaged Lesser Redpoll, 20+ Goldfinches, 7 Siskins, 10 Blackbirds, 2 Robins, 3 Dunnocks, one each of Blue and Coal Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tits (feeding on the fat block), an enormous female Sparrowhawk, 3 House Sparrows, 3 Collared Doves and a couple of Woodpigeons. Not a bad haul, but I would have preferred to have been out at Linacre ringing my first Chiffchaffs of the year. Next week perhaps?

As always, the results will all be entered into the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Snowy weekend

It's been a snowy weekend here in Derbyshire, so unfortunately both ringing and birding at Linacre have had to be put on hold. Thankfully though I have a very well stocked garden feeding station, so I've spent quite a few hours sitting in the warmth of my living room, with a cup of tea and my binoculars in hand, enjoying the birds and getting some interesting records for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Snowy garden

We always have good numbers of Goldfinch on the feeders, so today's count of 16 was very nice, but normal. More unusual were the 2 Song Thrushes that managed to grab some food before being scared off by the Blackbirds, 16 Woodpigeons that discivered the sunflower hearts I'd put out. Normally we have around 2 or 3, but word has obviously got round in woodpigeon circles! Also present today were 15 Blackbirds, including one that took over control of the patio area and water supply, 4 Greenfinch, 5 House Sparrows, 1 Starling, a fly-over Sparrowhawk, 1 Collared Dove, 1 Carrion Crow, 3 Redwings (briefly in the trees at the bottom of the garden), 2 Coal Tits, 1 Great Tit, 2 Blue Tits, a flock of 8 Long-tailed Tits that fed briefly on the fat balls, 7 Chaffinches and a single Lesser Redpoll.

Unfortunately no photos again. I still haven't managed to find out what's going on with Blogger, but hopefully I will soon!

New site and lots of birds.

This morning's ringing session with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group took place at a new site, a private garden in Wingerworth in Chesterfield. 3 nets were put up and in the vicinity of a very well stocked feeding station that is fed throughout the year. By the end of the morning we had ringed a total of 91 birds of 10 species, (Blackbird, Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Robin, Great-spotted Woodpecker,  Blue, Great and Coal Tit). What an amazing start!

As there were so many birds today I was able to handle a good number of birds, retraps in brackets ( Nuthatch (1), Great Tit 10, Blue Tit 10, Goldfinch 2, Coal Tit 3, Dunnock 1, Chaffinch 2, and Blackbird 1). It also gave me a great opportunity to practise ageing and sexing techniques on the commoner species. The Great-spotted Woodpecker in particular was interesting, as it was only the third I've seen "in the hand". See here for my last encounter with this species. Here's a picture of one of the bird's feet, showing the two claws facing backwards and two facing forwards, so called zygodactyl feet! We also got a great chance to see the amazing tongue and the stiff tail feathers used when climbing trees. A super bird.

Great-spotted Woodpecker foot complete with shiny new ring

Other birds seen or heard this morning  were: Common Buzzard (3 overhead), Pink-footed Goose (c.100 overhead, my first of the winter), Jay, Woodpigeon, Tawny Owl, Sparrowhawk, one singing Chiffchaff and Willow Tit. Hopefully we'll be able to catch and ring these species next time.

Garden News - 31st May 2011

It's now over 10 years since I started recording the wildlife in my garden for the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme. At the beginning birds such as the Starling were a regular feature in my weekly lists, but over the next years this gradually changed, until they became a real rarity!

Imagine my surprise then this morning when I woke up to the sound of a family party feeding in the garden. Looking out of the window I was really pleased to  see a group of approximately 15 birds, a mixture of adults and juveniles, squabbling over the meal worms that I'd put out. I grabbed the camera and managed to get this shot before they disappeared again.

Starlings

These are the first juvenile Starlings that I've seen this year, but as mentioned previously, the garden has been full of young birds from other species for a couple of weeks. New in this week were Woodpigeon, Magpie (2 from the nest at the bottom of the garden), Dunnock, Goldfinch and Chaffinch (a first for the garden).

Juvenile Dunnock (very streaky)

Garden News - 26th March 2011

When I arrived back from the moors this morning I was watching the Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Woodpigeons in the garden when I spotted these two lovely Bullfinch in the trees. They are annual visitors to the garden, usually in early spring and then again in late summer, so these birds' timimg was spot on. They flew down onto the patio to feed on some spilt sunflower hearts, but only stayed for a minute or two, before flying off over the trees. More records for the BTO's Garden Birdwatching Scheme.

Bullfinch (female on left)

Other news form the garden includes an update on the white Blackbird, first spotted at the end of last year.

"Mr White"

He is alive and well and was spotted mating with a "normal" female Blackbird last Wednesday. Let's see what happens if they manage to raise young this year.

Garden News - 13th February 2011

Just a quick update with a new "year tick" from the garden in the shape of a Siskin. The bird, a male, was spotted with approximately 15 Goldfinch in the trees this morning and fed  for a bout 3 minutes before flying away. Managed to get just 1 half-decent shot through the branches and the rain!!

Siskin

Other birds present today were: the white Blackbird, 2 Dunnock, 3 House Sparrows, the nest-building Magpies,  2 Greenfinch and a Woodpigeon. All records were sent in to the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme.

Garden news - 23rd January 2011

One of the best things about birdwatching is that you can do it "anytime, anyplace, anywhere". The garden therefore, is always a great spot  for a bit of "birding therapy".

As I've mentioned before, I've been actively recording the birds in my garden as part of the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme since 1999. As such it was that this morning I was watching the antics of the local Woodpigeons, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Dunnocks, Robin (back down to single figures, now the cold weather has gone), Chaffinches, Collared Doves etc when I spotted an old friend, the white Blackbird first seen back in September and written about in this blog on 27th December. After a period of about 2 weeks with no sign of him, he's suddenly reappeared in the garden, as bossy and argumentative as ever!

This sighting, however, was totally overshadowed, when I looked up into the trees to see a gorgeous male BRAMBLING. This species is usually recorded once or twice a year in the garden, but more often than not in late March/early April when birds are presumably on the move back north. As such, this record is very early, but nevertheless, very pleasing and will find its way into both the Garden Birdwatch archives as well as the Bird Atlas. Note the white rump which can just be seen between the wings and the orange "shoulder", which help seperate it from the much more common Chaffinch. Just managed to grab a quick, pretty awful, photo before it disappeared.

                                               Male Brambling, just before he flew away!


As evidence that Spring is just around the corner, a pair of Magpies, are busy rebuilding last year's nest in the tree at the bottom of the garden. I know they're not everyone's favourite, but I say "live and let live".

Garden Birdwatching- 27th December 2010

With a break from school and more time at home due to the Chritsmas celebrations I've been concentrating my birdwatching efforts on the back garden this week. Because we feed the birds everyday, throughout the year, we usually get a good number of species and individual birds coming in. In fact, during the present cold conditions we've had much higher numbers of common birds than usual and a few nice surprises!!

Blackbird numbers have increased to 18 and they've recently been joined by both Redwing (4) and Fieldfare (6). The Robins have become less territorial and have even been seen tolerating each other, Starlings have returned to feast on the mealworms provided and Goldfinch numbers have increased to 20+. Blue, Great and Coal Tits rush in to grab a sunflower heart and Greenfinch and Chaffinch also take advantage of the food on offer. A Song Thrush has been seen on just one ocassion and Woodpigeon and Collared Dove visit everyday.

One particular bird that has been present in the garden since about September and which is very easy to recognise is a male Blackbird with a great deal of white feathers in his plumage. I mangaed to get a few shots of him recently, one of which is shown below. It will be interesting to see if he stays into the summer or whether he leaves in the spring. I'll keep you informed.

To make all this garden birdwatching even more fun I take part in the BTO's Garden Birdwatch Scheme, whereby I record all the birds using the garden each week and submit the records via their website. I've been doing this since 1999 and it's great to look back over the year's records and compare the results. Why not click on the above link and take part in 2011?