Linacre - 1st January 2018

Last Monday I had my first walk of 2018 around Linacre Reservoirs. I was on site for one and a half hours and recorded 25 species, including my first Goosander (1 male bird on the middle reservoir) since March 2017, my first Linacre Raven ( a singe bird "cronking" loudly from the top of a tree by the top reservoir) since 2016 and an excellent count of 7 Cormorants, all roosting in the trees by the bottom reservoir.

Raven

Other waterbirds seen were: Mallard (57), Tufted Duck (20), Mandarin Duck (22), Moorhen (13), Coot (2), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1) and Black-headed Gull (35).

Year List 2018

Last Monday I was out for my first birding trip of 2018. I just had a few hours around home and managed to see 45 species..

I started the morning at St Helen's Church in Darley Dale where a group of approximately 20 25 Hawfinches had been reported. I managed to pick up about 15 feeding in the Yew trees- a great start to a new year! Numbers 1 - 26 were seen driving then and back.

Hawfinch

Afterwards I drove on to Holmebrook Valley Park and Linacre, where I had a walk around all 3 reservoirs, adding numbers 27 - 44. House Sparrow was added at home, and Peregrine Falcon was seen today flying over Dronfield.

Year List:
1 – Blackbird
2 – Carrion Crow
3 – Dunnock
4 – Feral Pigeon
5 – Magpie
6 – Woodpigeon
7 – Jackdaw
8 – Rook
9 – Collared Dove
10 – Kestrel
11 – Greenfinch
12 – Jay
13 – Blue Tit
14 – Herring Gull
15 – Black-headed Gull
16 – Wren
17 – Nuthatch
18 – Pied Wagtail
19 – Hawfinch
20 – Goldfinch
21 – Chaffinch
22 – Coal Tit
23 – Robin
24 – Common Buzzard

25 – Redwing

26 – Lesser Black-backed Gull
27 – Starling
28 – Great Tit
29 – Mute Swan
30 – Mallard
31 – Coot
32 – Moorhen
33 – Greylag Goose
34 – Grey Heron
35 – Bullfinch
36 – Long-tailed Tit
37 – Tufted Duck
38 – Cormorant
39 – Little Grebe
40 – Goosander
41 – Great-spotted Woodpecker
42 – Mandarin Duck
43 – Great-crested Grebe
44 – Raven
45 – House Sparrow

46 – Peregrine Falcon

Norwegian Black-headed Gull - Poolsbrook CP

After looking at the Parrot Crossbills this morning I drove across to Poolsbrook CP to see if there were any interesting gulls. Unfortunately, there weren't any other than the usual Great Black-backed (6), Lesser Black-backed (4), Herring (10) and Black-headed (c.100).

One bird, an adult Black-headed Gull, however, caught my eye, when I spotted a colour ring, J6HO (white on green).

BH Gull J6HO

A quick check on the internet (www.cr-birding.org ) showed that it was a Norwegian bird. Details of the bird were entered into the Norwegian Bird Ringing Scheme's website, and details came back that the bird had been ringed in Oslo, Norway, in April 2017 as an adult bird (3rd calendar year plus). See here for details. This was the first sighting of the bird since it was ringed.

Parrot Crossbills - Lifer!!

I was up at the top end of the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire this morning to catch up with some Parrot Crossbills that had been reported on Birdguides.

The birds (c.12) were located just above Howden Reservoir  a couple of weeks ago, and I managed to catch up with them feeding in trees. The beaks were much larger than the accompanying Common Crossbills.  I managed some reasonable views through the scope and got a photo of one of the males.

Parrot Crossbill

Year List update:
198: Common Crossbill
199: Parrot Crossbill

Linacre WeBS - 16th December 2017

This month's WeBS walk should have been last weekend, but I couldn't get down, so instead, I went down yesterday morning. It was just 1 degree when I arrived and I spent one and a half hours on site recording the following waterbirds: Mallard (81, the 2nd highest count of the year), Mandarin Duck (25), Tufted Duck (20), Teal (1 flew up the top reservoir), Black-headed Gull (24), Moorhen (17), Coot (2), Great-crested Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (1) and Pied Wagtail (1 - my first Linacre record since April 2015!!)

Pied Wagtail

The woods were quite quiet, but the resident tits (Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed) were all seen, along with Jay, Crow, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Dunnock, Buzzard, Goldcrest, Blackbird, Redwing, Siskin, Wren and Robin.

Enjoying some free seed

Frozen Leaves

Year List Update - 3rd December 2017

The year is coming to a close, but I'm still managing to add a few more species to the Year List. As you'll see below, I'm up to 197 species, so hopefully, I should manage to top the 200 mark this year, especially as I'll be visiting Norfolk before the end of the year.

The new additions are: Marsh Tit, Hawfinch, Bewick Swan and European White-fronted Goose.

The first two species were seen at The Yorkshire Arboretum last weekend, whilst the latter two species were seen today at WWT Slimbridge. Here are a few photos.

Hawfinch (female)

Hawfinch (male)

Hawfinch

Bewick Swan and White-fronted Goose

Year List update:
194: Marsh Tit
195: Hawfinch
196: Bewick Swan
197: White-fronted Goose (European)

Linacre Ringing - 25th November 2017

Last Saturday saw 5 members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group down at Linacre for a ringing session. The weather was a bit blustery, with a few rain/sleet showers and a temperature of just 4 degrees, so, as you can guess, the ringing was slow. After 3 hours we'd caught just 9 birds of 5 species, namely (new/retrap): Blue Tit (3/1), Great Tit (1/0), Coal Tit (1/0), Goldcrest (2/0) and Dunnock (0/1).

Other birds recorded on the ringing site were: Redwing (20+ over), Fieldfare (12, the first of the winter), Long-tailed Tit, Bullfinch (heard), Chaffinch, Jay (2 seen), Magpie (1), Blackbird, Song Thrush (1 seen) and Kestrel ( 1 hunting over the site).

Whilst there, my nephew, Luke had a quick walk around the bottom and middle reservoirs were he recorded: c.20 Black-headed Gulls, 12 Mandarin Ducks, Mallard, 1 Great-crested Grebe and 2 Cormorants.