Migrant catchup

I was abroad for a month from late March so have spent the 10 days since I got home catching up on the common migrants that have arrived during my absence.

Migrants generally seem to be in good numbers with Blackcaps, Willow and Garden Warblers singing in all the usual locations. Pied Flycatchers were seen in Halldale Wood in the middle of April but then seem to have moved on but are easily found on the other side of the valley.

Pied Flycatcher - male

I usually see Wood Warbler between the 20th and 24th April but there was no sign by the end of April but finally there was a singing male this morning in Halldale Wood.

Wood Warbler

Common Whitethroats also seem plentiful and I've heard a single Lesser Whitethroat several times at Middleton Moor.

I've not been to Elton Common yet but a pair of Yellow Wagtail have been seen there.

I saw my first Cuckoo last weekend, but birds were reported around the 12th April, and I heard Grasshopper Warbler but I've yet to see Whinchat or Hobby but both have been seen in the Beeley Triangle area this week.

Middleton Moor has provided both Sedge and Reed Warblers and a few waders, the best of which were two Wood Sandpiper on 29th April but I saw both Ringed and Little Ringed Plover together there on 1st May.

Wood Sandpiper

Ringed Plover (foreground) and Little Ringed Plover

My first Common Swifts were over Darley Dale on the 30th and Swallow, Sand and House Martins are back at their usual nesting locations.

I've yet to see Spotted Flycatcher but a bird was reported from Hellbank Plantation today, and the Nightjars have yet to arrive.

 So still plenty of the regular migrants to look for and there's always the chance of something rarer.

Wood Warbler - Stanton Moor

 My first Wood Warbler of the year, calling in the woodland on the edge of Stanton Moor. Several times over the years I've noted that the first Wood Warblers are calling rather than singing males and I wonder if this is something they do before they actually establish a territory?

There were two male Pied Flycatchers in the same area which I think is a reflection on the quality of this ancient wooded area.

I usually expect the first Wood Warbler in the 'twenties' rather than 'teens' of April but the dates, as with other migrants are definitley getting earlier.

Wood Warbler

Pied Flycatcher back in Darley Dale

 The first Pied Flycatcher of the year was found yesterday by Alan Stewardson in Hall Dale Wood. It was still there this morning in better weather conditions singing its delightfull, albeit somewhat repetitive, song. Definitely one of my favourites and great to have them back on a fairly typical return date.

Pied Flycatcher - male

The elusive Golden Plover flock were back on Syda Lane today and I counted at least 24 birds but there could have been more as they were quite difficult to pick out when sat down in the grass.

Golden Plover

Dunlin - Harthill Pond (New Dam) Youlgrave

 A couple of interesting records today, the first a Pied Flycatcher in a mixed tit and warbler flock on the edge of Alport. This is the latest date I've recorded Pied Flycatcher locally, my previously latest date was mid-June so this is significantly later! Pied Flycatchers leave the woodlands where they have bred in early June and I've often wondered where they go. Departing migrants are not normally encountered on the coast before early August and it may be that the post breeding birds are dispersed around our river valley before they depart which is supported by todays record but I would have thought they would be more frequently reported in July if that were the case?

The second record is of an adult Dunlin at Harthill Pond, Youlgrave, it was very distant and I thought it was going to be a Snipe on my initial view so was very pleased to see that it was an adult Dunlin still retaining its black belly. Although they breed in small numbers on the moors of north Derbyshire and regularly occur at Carsington and Ogston on passage its a very scarce bird locally.

Dunlin - adult

I went out last night, ahead of the heavy rain forecast for today, and was pleased to see and hear several Nightjar still giving their distinctive churring song. Their breeding season must be almost over so it's surprising that they continue churring in to August.

Scanning the drystone walls on the edge of the moor one stone looked very oval and proved to be a Little Owl which are very easy to overlook given the number of dry stone walls!

Little Owl - second rock from the left!

Pied Flycatcher using hole excavated by Great Spotted Woodpecker

 I've been abroad for several weeks so today I was keen to catch up on the progress some of our breeding birds have made. The Pied Flycatcher on my last post, on the 19th May was using a natural nest hole and I was particularly interested to see if they were still around as most of the local Pied Flycatchers use nest boxes, some of which I put up with Alan Stewardson more than a dozen years ago but they are still in use!

The Pied Flycatcher incubates its eggs for around 15 days and it takes a further 15 days for the young to fledge, its 26 days since I last saw the male so if they had just started egg laying the young birds could still be in the nest.

I had to wait a little while but first the male, then the female turned up at the nest to feed the youngsters which must now be very close to fledging.

The nest hole in a Silver Birch looks to have been excavated by a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

I also made a visit t Youlgrave and a Common Quail calling close to Harthill Pond was unexpected and the first time I have heard one there.

Pied flycatcher -male

Whinchat - last of our breeding migrants arrives

 Having seen my first Nightjars a couple of days ago a Whinchat this afternoon on Beeley Moor completes the arrivals of our breeding migrants, a superb male I'm hoping it will stay to breed. As the Whinchat is just arriving the first young Stonechats have fledged this week.

Whinchat - male

Had lovely views of a singing male Pied Flycatcher a few days ago. Usually most of the Pied Flycatchers I see are on the west side of the Derwent River but this year I have encountered 7 singing males on the east side of the although two birds were in Alders on the river bank so could have been either side, hopefully they will also stay to breed.

Pied Flycatcher - male

No signs of any Short-eared Owls this month but a Long-eared hunting over a clear fell area at dusk is a positive sign and a pair of Little Owls close to Bakewell are always nice to see.

Little Owl - pair

More migrant arrivals

 Despite the rather cool temperatures there has been a steady arrival of migrants in to the area over the past week. Hopefully, warmer weather forecast for the end of the week will see an increase in the number of migrant birds arriving;

Willow Warbler - 4th April in Farley Plantation and now fairly widespread in the woodlands close to the moor.

Blackcap - several singing birds recorded from 7th April and again can be heard in many wooded areas now. Impossible to distinguish true migrants from overwintering birds although the latter tend not to do much singing.

Common Redstart - 8th April a male singing by the river at Rowsley is my only record so far.

House Martin - 10th April over Darley Dale

Tree Pipit - 10th April at Flash Dam and several reported at Whitesprings Plantation this morning/

Pied Flycatcher - 11th April, singing males reported singing in woodland on both sides of Darley Dale

Merlin - a female on Beeley Moor this afternoon is the only record of the Spring so far and there was only an odd record over the winter. This former breeding bird appears to be just a scarce passage migrant now.

Pied Flycatcher - a male gave a few short bursts of song this morning

A chance Long-eared Owl

 Following my last post I did hear Common Quail calling at Elton Common on 26th May, so that's all our potential breeding birds back.

In early June I was lucky to see an adult Long-eared Owl, this bird had two fledged youngsters. The Long-eared Owl is one of the hardest birds to find locally as they are almost entirely nocturnal. The only time they are likely to be seen before dusk is when they are feeding young.

Long-eared Owl

I'm still not sure whether they are resident on the moors but it seems likely that they remain in some years as a bird was photographed on Beeley Triangle in November a few years ago. It probably depends on how severe the winter is.

The breeding season is now well underway with parties of juvenile Stonechat and Meadow Pipits on the moors and I've seen both Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher feeding young today.

Wood Warbler

It looks like the Mute Swans have had a better year with 6 cygnets at Caudwells Mill and 4 in Bakewell.

Mute Swan

The Cuckoo have been very active on the moor and I had an interesting encounter a few days ago. Both the male and female were using the fence posts, the male to hunt for caterpillars and the female to locate Meadow Pipit nests. The male caught a large caterpillar, either a Fox or Northern Eggar I think, then the female took the caterpillar from the male although it took her three attempts to grab it.

Common Cuckoo - male and female

I received some exciting news a few days ago of a female Hawfinch feeding a youngster in the Darley Dale area last Saturday (11th). Although there have been occasional sightings in the breeding season this is the first confirmed breeding record for many years.

Spotted Flycatcher - last of the migrants

 I saw my first Spotted Flycatchers today, with a pair in Clough Wood. Although they've been back for a week at Carsington I think the 3rd week in May is a fairly typical arrival date locally. Whilst watching them I also had a male Pied Flycatcher singing. So a nice combination with both flycatchers together.

Spotted Flycatcher

Pied flycatcher - male

With the arrival of the Spotted Flycatcher that's all our migrant breeding birds accounted for, although there is still a chance of a Quail and the possibility of a scarcer migrant.

Spring has sprung - first Pied Flycatchers, Tree Pipits, Willow Warblers and Redstart today

 I was abroad during March and thought I had timed my return to coincide with the start of the spring migration. However, the first week of April felt more like winter than spring and the birds clearly felt the same as there was little evidence of any migrant arrivals. 

My first migrants were the expected Chiffchaffs which I have seen, or heard daily since 1st April. Surprisingly I had two Swallow over Beeley Moor on the 2nd but didn't see any Sand Martin until the 8th when I had six birds at Chatsworth where I also saw my first Blackcap.

The weather finally changed this week when the wind moved round to the south for a period and the day time temperature rose by several degrees. The effects were soon apparent with migrant numbers rapidly increasing. Today I had my first Willow Warbler, not just one though, I counted at least 14 today. I also recorded my first Pied Flycatchers of the year as well as Common Redstart and several Tree Pipit. 

Pied Flycatcher - always a welcome sight

Although the wind has moved round to the west maximum day time temperatures are around 16˚C to 17˚C so hopefully birds will continue to move north.

Although I haven't seen Wheatear yet on the moor I did see 9 (6 males, 3 females) in Long Dale, Hartington at the weekend. The males were singing and giving occasional song flights. It's amazing that migrant Wheatears are only just starting to appear locally but they are already establishing breeding territories just 12km from Darley Dale.

There have been several sightings of Osprey nearby with birds at Wyver Lane, Belper, Baslow, Carsington and Ogston so there must be a decent chance of one locally.

There are plenty of Mandarin back on the river and I got a nice photo of a pair mating yesterday. The males take some beating for their colour and ornate feathers.

Mandarin mating

Osprey at Chatsworth

 Fantastic views of an Osprey fishing below the first weir at Chatsworth this morning, it took two dives to catch a fairly small fish which it carried off towards Beeley Moor to eat. There have been several reports of Osprey at Chatsworth during the past week and they presumably relate to the same bird. It looks much more worn than the bird seen at Ogston recently.

Osprey

Also had the Dipper feeding young, one of the youngsters looked like he'd taken his first dip and spent too long in the water! When I returned 30 minutes later he was looking much drier fortunately.

Dipper feeding juvenile

Dipper - wet juvenile

I also saw my first Juvenile Pied Flycatcher of the summer. They leave the woods where they have hatched soon after fledging and I'm not sure where they go, perhaps just moving around along the river edges. This bird was still being fed by the female which bore a metal BTO type ring.

Pied Flycatcher juvenile

Pied Flycatcher female

An unexpected Hawfinch

 Walking through Halldale Wood this morning I noticed a movement in the very top of an Ash tree, i though it would be a Great Spotted Woodpecker which I could hear calling and was very surprised when it finally showed enough of itself to see that it was a male Hawfinch.

In the late 1990's when I first moved to Darley Dale Hawfinch sightings were fairly regular and I even saw them from the garden several times flying across the woods below Hallmoor Road, Gradually the frequency of sightings decreased until by 2010 they appeared to be lost as a breeding bird in the area.

In the winter small numbers are still recorded at Cromford but numbers have also declined there with just one or two birds present the last couple of winters.

In December 2017 there was an influx of Hawfinch in to Britain from the Continent and a single bird was found in the Whitworth Park in December which increased to 7 by the end of the year. In the New Year birds were seen at St Helens Church which were present in to March with a peak count of 51 birds. Hopes were high that some of these birds would stay to breed but all departed during the early Spring of 2018.

This mornings record of a male is therefore very interesting and is hopefully an indication that there is still at least one breeding pair in the area. Fingers crossed anyway.

Hawfinch flying in the tree canopy - not a great photo but good enough as a record

Whilst in Halldale I photographed a female Pied Flycatcher bearing a metal BTO type ring. It looks like it's a British ring as the middle line of the ring looks to contain 'SW7' and the upper line presumably is 'British Museum'. I've never seen any ringing in Halldale so I'm fairly confident it wasn't rung there so it would be interesting to know where it has come from.

Pied Flycatcher female, I've inverted the ring in the inset image

First of the returning Pied Flycatchers

 I have been looking for the first of the returning Pied Flycatchers for the past week and finally got lucky this morning. As many of our resident birds have already started nest building I have often wondered how the migrant birds were able to secure their favoured sites and this morning I witnessed something of how this is achieved.

A male Pied Flycatcher was calling repeatedly close to an area where they sometimes breed. The bird was giving a repeated, Wren like 'tec' call not the usual metallic 'pic' and was repeatedly flicking it's wings. I saw it enter a nest hole several times and then after it moved away a Great Tit entered the same hole. As the Great Tit left the hole and moved in to near by trees the Pied Flycatcher swooped down and chased it away. It then sat infant of the nest hole calling and flicking its wings and occasionally giving short bursts of song. 

The pair of Great Tits returned and the Pied Flycatcher repeatedly drove them away, given that there were two Great Tits and that on average they are about 20% larger and 20% heavier this is quite surprising. This process was repeated several times with the Pied Flycatcher going in and out of the nest hole but the Great Tits did not manage to re-enter it and I can only assume that they had been evicted.

Pied Flycatcher male - upper photos showing threat display

Lockdown day 49 - Gadwall at Chatsworth

Walked over the moors to Chatsworth yesterday, it was probably 5°C but felt colder with a strong northerly wind. The Stonechats were still feeding their young and I flushed a recently fledged Skylark. Stopped at the top end of the old Deer Park for Redstart and Pied Flycatcher. 
The lake at Swiss Cottage is still dry but Emperor Lake held 4 Tufted Duck and a single drake Gadwall which is new for the lockdown list. A drake at this time of year could indicate possible breeding so worth checking again later.

Gadwall - drake

Pied Flycatcher - male

 The pair of Little Grebe were still there and presumably breeding, this is the only pair I've found in the area although they were present at Conksbury in the late winter so there could be a pair there also but it's a little far to walk! 
A single Common Sandpiper on the river whilst personnel from Chatsworth House were clearing all the debris from the river bank including some of the large tree trunks. I saw the Oystercatchers but fear their nest may have been a casualty of the clean-up operation. Presumably Chatsworth will be re-opening their car parks shortly with changes to the lockdown restrictions taking effect on Wednesday. 
A single Red Kite flew across the skyline as I left the park for Beeley.
This Lesser Black-backed Gull was a sad sight, caught by a length of rope and it will be very lucky to survive.

Lesser Black-backed Gull caught with rope

Lockdown day 40 - the breeding season moves on

Amazing how quickly the breeding season progresses, I've already seen Mallard and Moorhen chicks at the Whitworth and Coot at Caudwells Mill but even the recently arrived migrants are already nest building. I managed some nice photos of the Wood Warblers doing just that and some poorer photos of a female Pied Flycatcher looking rather 'whiskered' as she carried nesting material.

Wood Warbler nest building

Pied Flycatcher female

Up on the moor the Stonechats are already feeding their first brood.

Stonechat - male with food for young

Meanwhile migrants such as the Spotted Flycatcher and Nightjar have still to arrive in the area. I'm interested in seeing the Spotted Flycatchers (which I failed to find locally last year) so please let me know if you see any in the Darley Dale area.

Lockdown day 15 - Red Kite and Pied Flycatcher

A Red Kite drifting slowly down the valley this evening was my 57th species for the garden  since lockdown, after adding a flyover Grey Wagtail yesterday but the star bird was undoubtedly a male Pied Flycatcher that I found close to Darley Dale during my morning walk.
The first record for Derbyshire this year I think and not far behind the earliest ever record which was 3rd April in 1999.
I heard and saw my first Willow Warblers in the Whitworth Park this morning and records of Swallow, Sand Martin and House Martin are fairly widespread now and the first Redstart was reported near Kelstedge this morning and an Osprey was seen over Beeley Triangle yesterday, so the warm weather is certainly assisting migrant birds as they head north.

Pied Flycatcher - male

Pied Flycatchers are back!

Several male Pied Flycatchers seen today in the Darley Dale area. The first bird was reported on the 13th April but these are the first I've seen. The males, like most migrant birds, arrive first and establish territories with the females expected in a few days time. Great to hear them singing in the woods again.

Pied Flycatcher - male

Pied Flycatcher threat display

I've observed Pied Flycatchers doing their territorial threat display several times before but never managed to get any photos but I managed some yesterday.
Two males were singing but separated by perhaps 50m whilst I was roughly in the gap between them. I then noticed one of the birds looking agitated and starting to flick one wing to a vertical position whilst its white body feathers were puffed up. I then saw that the second bird was now much closer. The first bird continued to flick one wing and then it flicked both wings with its tail lowered at which point the intruding bird made a hasty retreat.
The male looks quite comical in the upper photo and good for a caption competition!

Pied Flycatcher threat display

Pied Flycatcher returns to Clough Wood

I went looking for Pied Flycatcher in Clough Wood last week, rather optimistically, on the back of reports of early returning migrants but without success. This morning however I was greeted by the males simple song and had smashing views of a male feeding and singing in the oaks. This is still several days earlier than I have recorded them previously.

Pied Flycatcher - male