Linacre- WeBS Walk 17th July 2011

After being postponed yesterday because of the bad weather, I popped out this morning to carry out this month's Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS).  Good numbers of Mallard and Mandarin Duck were about and the first sign of winter was evident in the shape of 2 Cormorants!

Cormorant

Summer migrants that were still around were 2 singing Chiffchaffs, Swallow and 8 House Martins recorded. Counts for this month's WeBS walk were: Mallard (60), Tufted Duck (24), Little Grebe (2 adults, no sign of any juveniles), Coot (8), Moorhen (9), Mandarin Duck (20), Pied Wagtail (1), Grey Wagtail (2),

Linacre - 10th July 2011 Sandpipers Galore!!

A quiet walk this morning with the highlight being 2 Common Sandpipers that were flying around the middle reservoir. We had several sightings at the end of April, so these birds could be the same ones that have been around all summer. More likley though, is that these two are passage birds that have been attracted in by the abundance of mud available at the moment. Whatever the case, they are a great record and really nice to see. No photos of these birds, but here's one from earlier.

Common Sandpiper

Apart from these two birds, the reservoirs were pretty quiet with just Mallard (59), Tufted Duck (24), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (5), Swift (1), Mandarin (18), Coot (4) and Moorhen (5) recorded.

Maintenance work had begun on the middle reservoir, so here's an exciting photo of a building site!



Linacre - 2nd July 2011 Work begins and a male Pochard!!

The first visit of July provided a nice surprise when a male Pochard was found feeding on the middle reservoir with 23 Tufted Ducks.

Pochard (male)

This is my first ever summer record  at Linacre and in fact the first site record since  March 2009!! Not sure where it's come from, but its always great to add new birds to the list. The 2 juvenile  Little Grebes were still on the bottom reservoir, 2 Grey Herons were seen, including 1 on the nest(?), an amazing total of 7 Grey Wagtails were on the middle reservoir (my highest ever count), and Mallard numbers were quite high with 45 adults and 18 ducklings scattered around the site. There were also 2 broods of Mandarin Duck (6 and 3) and 2 female birds, but unfortunately, no sign of last week's baby Moorhens.

Away from the water 1 Meadow Brown was flying around and a Small Tortoiseshell was found warming up on the boardwalk.

Small Tortoiseshell

Smaller birds were present in good numbers with 8 Swallows, 2 juvenile Robins, Jay, singing Song Thrush and Wren, and a female Blackcap all being seen around the reservoirs.

As regular readers will know, the water levels in all three reservoirs have been dropped over the last few months to allow for essential maintenance work to be carried out. Well, it appears the work has now  begun with a new access road being built by the bottom reservoir. Here's the first pictures- lovely!!