Wales - 15th - 22nd April 2022

 Jayne and I have just spent a week in Llanbedrog, North Wales. Although primarily a family break, we did manage to do some birding, and added 10 species to the "Year List".

The first new bird was a very nice surprise, a drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (129), that was heard  from our bed!! Unfortunately, we couldn't see it, but we heard it for three mornings on the trot (at 6:30am!). The next two additions were Gannet (130) and Whitethroat (131), which were both seen in Aberdaron. The 132nd species seen was Osprey. We saw 2 pairs of birds at the Glaslyn Osprey Centre, near Porthmadog. 

Yesterday, we had a trip to Cemlyn Lagoon and RSPB South Stack. Cemlyn was very busy with 100+ Sandwich Terns (133) coming and going, along with a similar amount of Black-headed Gulls. We popped in to the old harbour at Holyhead and managed to see three Black Guillemots (134), before heading across to RSPB South Stack, where we added Razorbill (135), Kittiwake (136), Puffin (137) and House Martin (138) to the list. 

Other species seen here included: Chough, Raven, Guillemot, Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Swallow, Lesser, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Linnet. 

Year List Update - 14th April 2022

 It's been a while since I last added an update for the Year List. Since then, I have managed to add quite a few new species, taking the current total to 126 species.

Birds seen are:

107 - Chiffchaff, 108 - Lesser Redpoll, 109 - Red-necked Grebe, 110 - Pintail, 111 - Tree Sparrow, 

112 - Grey Partridge, 113 - Black-necked Grebe, 114 - Yellowhammer, 115 - Peregrine Falcon

116 - Meadow Pipit, 117 - Red Grouse, 118 - Blackcap, 119 - Willow Tit,,120 - Little Ringed Plover

121 - Marsh Harrier, 122 - Sand Martin, 123 - Swallow, 124 - Barn Owl, 125 - Tawny Owl,

126 - Wheatear and 127 - Common Sandpiper, 128 - Willow Warbler

Summer Migrants Arrive

 The sun was out at Linacre this morning and so were the birds!

Between 8am and 10.30am I walked around all three Reservoirs and recorded 12 Chiffchaffs, 4 Blackcaps, 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Swallow and 1 Common Sandpiper.

Common Sandpiper (heavily cropped!)

I also had  my first April record of Herring Gull ( 1 adult - most likely from the increasing breeding population in Chesterfield), 3 Grey Wagtails, 1 Pied Wagtail, the first Mallard ducklings of the year (5 on the bottom reservoir), 1 Common Buzzard, 10 Canada Geese (highest count of the year), 6 Great-crested Grebes, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 30 Tufted Duck, 17 Coot, 13 Mandarin Duck and 7 Moorhens, including the first nest of the year. 

Rufford Gulls

 I've had a couple of visits to Rufford recently, on the 12th March and today.

The visit on 12th had just 50 Black-headed Gulls, but did include several colour-ringed birds, namely 258A, 277A, 284A, 294A and 202B.

Today's visit was much quieter with just 20 Black-headed Gulls present and just JO116 ( a Norwegian-ringed bird) seen.

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

Clumber and Rufford - 24th February 2022

On Thursday, in between the wind and snow showers (!), I had a walk around Clumber and Rufford looking for Black-headed Gulls.

Clumber had approximately 400 gulls, but, unfortunately, only about 50 or so were interested in my food offerings. Of these bird, only one had a darvic ring, number 295A. This is one of the Center Parcs birds, and this sighting was my first away from Rufford. There were two metal-ringed birds, but I only managed to get one number, VAO171, a Danish bird, that I've seen several times before. It was originally ringed  in June 2015. 

The Mute Swans at Clumber were very friendly, and I managed to read a few rings; Y204, Y677, Y358, 929Y and W47133. Y204 was ringed in Pontefract Park in August 2019 and was first seen at Clumber in November 2020. Y677 was ringed on 14th October 2020, as a 3, a bird born in that year. Y358 had been ringed on 6th September 2019, just 13km away, and had been seen at Clumber since August 2021. 929Y was ringed in August 2018, and had been seen at Clumber in August 2021. W47133 had also been ringed in August 2018, as a 5, born in 2017. I recorded this bird at Clumber in August 2021.

When I arrived at Rufford, one of the first gulls I saw was.... 295A!! Other ringed birds seen were: 258A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, JO116 and V77K.

Rufford - 21st February 2022

 After the wet and very windy weekend I went down to Rufford yesterday afternoon. There were about 100 Black-headed Gulls (and 1 Common Gull).

Ringed birds seen were: 281A, 289A, 293A, 294A, 295A, 297A, 207B and JO116 (Norwegian bird). In addition, there were 12 Mute Swans (9 adults, including W17328, and 3 juveniles - born last year). 

289A and 207B were new birds. 289A was originally ringed on 8th December 2021, at Center Parcs, 2km away, whilst 207B was ringed at the same site on 8th January 2022. Both birds had been born in 2021, and yesterday's sightings were the first since ringing.

289A

207B

In addition to these sightings, news came through last week of Black-headed Gull 237A. This bird was ringed at Center Parcs on 20th November 2019, as a 1st winter bird, born in 2019. It was a regularly seen bird during the winters of 2019 and 2020, with the last UK sighting in January 2021. Last week's news was a report from may 2021, when it was seen, over 2000km away, in Novgorod, Russia!