Holmebrook Valley 1st to 8th of April

During this week I have managed to get down to Holmebrook Valley every day apart from on Monday. It has been an interesting week and migrant birds are slowly making a comeback for the summer.
Some birds on the lake have started nesting now like the Coots, Moorhens, Mute Swans and the Great Crested Grebes. There are at least 4 Coots nests but as of today only one nest had a bird sat on it.

Coot pair with nest

I have only seen one Moorhen pair on a nest but they seem to have moved off it now and possibly abandoned it.
The Mute Swans have their nest at the top of the lake and had at least one egg by the 5th and for the past few days the male bird (089) has been sat on the nest whilst the female bird is on the lake, usually chasing last years cygnet away. As far as I know they could have up to 4 eggs now as it usually takes a Mute Swan up to a week to lay a full clutch of eggs which is usually 5 to 7 eggs.

089 (male) on nest

The Swans nest has been fenced off by the council to stop dogs and people from getting to the nest. Last year dogs attacked two of the three cygnets and one got killed. You can still get a good view but don't go past the fence as the male swan could be quite aggressive.

There has been a single Great Crested Grebe on the lake since February and it disappeared on Friday so when I got news from my Uncle yesterday morning that it was back displaying with another grebe on the lake I had to go get some photos. I went down and got great view of both birds as they displayed to each other yesterday and they were still at it today. They also seemed to be looking for a nesting sight as they were looking round the banks of the lake.

Grebes displaying

If you would like to see my videos of them displaying then either click HERE or HERE. The first video includes there weed dance.

There has been a number of geese round during the last week with up to 4 Greylag Geese on the 7th and 13 Canada Geese on the 3rd which is my highest record for not only Canada Geese but just geese in general on the lake. On other days there have been 2s or 3s of both Greylags and Canadas.

All 13 Canada Geese on the 3rd

Other birds of interest during the week...
On the 5th two Mandarin Ducks (Male and Female) landed on the lake for 10 minutes. This was also my first male Mandarin Duck that has landed on the lake. On the 8th I found two Reed Buntings in the bushes at the bottom end of the lake. This was my 2nd site record for this species at the site. Also there have been around 5 Chiffchaffs singing all week around the lake but I have not heard a Willow Warbler yet.

One last bird to add to my year list was Swallow which I saw flying north at The Gate Pub above Cutthorpe on the 7th.

Walton Dam Mute Swans 27/03/18

Last Tuesday I cycled along Walton Dam in Chesterfield with a friend to look for some ringed Mute Swans that are present there. We found two Mute Swans easily near the dam. The birds were 460Y and 462Y. These birds were ringed at Walton Dam back in September 2016 with a 3rd bird 461Y which was not there today.

460Y

462Y

The swan 462Y has pale legs instead of black legs which means its a "Polish" Mute Swan which is a morph which causes them to have light legs and white cygnets instead of the normal dark cygnets. Also present on the lake were a couple of Canada Geese and with it was a Hybrid Goose which has been seen at Linacre Reservoirs since 2006.

Hybrid goose at Walton Dam

Hybrid Duck at Linacre Res March 2013

Photo by Peter Stoppard

It was nice to relocate the Hybrid Goose. Now I just have to wait till it turns up at Holmebrook Valley.

Holmebrook Valley 24th - 30th of March. Sping is coming!

Because its the Easter holidays I have managed to get to Holmebrook Valley 5 times this week. During the week there has been quite a few geese on the lake and finally a few signs of spring.

On the 24th I had my first Chiffchaffs of 2018 calling with about 3 birds around the site. On the lake there were now 4 Greylag Geese (Highest HBV record) and 2 Canada Geese. The Greylag Geese seemed to be two pairs and were very territorial towards each other. One of the pairs flew south but returned 10 minutes later and then 3 of the Greylags and both Canada Geese left at 15:30 and didn't return. 

All 4 Greylag Geese

 Other birds on the lake were 7 Tufted Ducks, 1 Cormorant, 20 Black-Headed Gulls and the Great Crested Grebe. I also found my first 2018 frogspawn at the bottom end of the lake. This week it is meant to get colder but hopefully it will survive.

Frogspawn

On the 25th there was not much difference but the Chiffchaffs were still calling and both Canada Geese had returned to the lake and were with the 1 remaining Greylag Goose. Also there were only 2 Black-Headed Gulls, 5 Tufted Ducks and I found a Coot already on a nest. I couldn't find the Great Crested Grebe though. 

Coot on nest

On the 26th there were 3 Canada Geese, 9 Tufted Ducks, 1 Great Crested Grebe and still only 1 Greylag Goose but I did find the male Mute Swan (089) on last years nest. I presume its to early for them to breed yet and he was probably just sitting there because its comfortable.

089 on old nest

On the 27th 3 Greylag Geese, 2 Canada Geese and 10 Tufted Ducks (New highest Tuftie count) were on the lake. 

Greylag Geese

On the 30th there were no Greylag Geese or Tufted Ducks but the 2 Canada Geese were still present and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming below the lake. 

Holmebrook Valley 18/03/18

Between the 17th and 18th it snowed again and I decided to head of to Holmebrook Valley with my uncle despite it being very cold. There was not much difference on the lake but we did record 6 Common Gull (My highest site record!), 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Tufted Ducks, 2 Canada Geese and about 5 Meadow Pipits flying around the lake which was odd.

2 of at least 5 Meadow Pipits on raft on lake

Sleepy Mute Swans

Apart from that there was just the normal Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, Mute Swans and 50+ Black-Headed Gulls.

Iceland Gull at Edgbaston Reservoir 17/03/18

Yesterday I had a day in Birmingham with family and on the way home we popped into the nearby Edgbaston Reservoir to check out an Iceland Gull that had been reported of Birdguides earlier in the day. We parked in the carpark at the end of Reservoir Road and within 5 minutes I had located the bird which was about 20 meters out on the reservoir.

2nd Winter Iceland Gull

These are my best views I have had of an Iceland Gull before as I have only seen one flying away at North Shields in Newcastle back at the start of 2017. Other birds seen on site were Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Coot and Mute Swan.

Edgbaston Reservoir

Holmebrook Valley 10 - 11/03/18

Last weekend I went down to Holmebrook Valley for nearly 3 hours as it wasn't as cold and all the snow had gone.

On the 10th I cycled down and round the park for about 1hr and 20mins. On the playing fields by the main carpark there were about 200 Black-Headed Gull which is my highest record for the site. I scanned through the flock but only managed to pick out 1 Common Gull and no ringed gulls.

Playing field full of BH Gulls

On the lake there was 2 Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose, all 3 Mute Swans and the Great Crested Grebe. Unfortunately there were no Tufted Ducks even though the lake had no ice on it.

Mute Swan

Other birds seen around the site were a Goldcrest by the river and a Bullfinch.

On the 11th I went down for an hour round the lake. The only change from the day before was that there were now 4 Canada Geese (2 extra), 2 Tufted Ducks were on the lake. Also 2 Mandarin Ducks flew over and a Kingfisher was heard on the lake.

Greylag Goose on raft

Holmebrook Valley 28/02/18 - 01 - 02/03/18

Over night from the 27th to the 28th of March it snowed a lot in Chesterfield and when I woke up I found myself off school which meant I could go down to Holmebrook Valley to do a bit of birding. Despite it being -5° I went down for about two hours during the day.

The lake was almost completely frozen over but there were still 2 Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose, all 3 Mute Swans, 3 Tufted Ducks and the Great Crested Grebe.

Mute Swan

On the frozen lake there were about 40 Black-Headed Gulls, 2 Lesser Black-Backed Gulls and at least 4 Common Gulls throughout the day (new sight record). Other birds seen around the site were Redwing, Fieldfare and about 7 Bullfinch which spent all of the morning feeding in the bushes on the east side of the lake.

Frozen lake on the 1st of March

On the 1st of March I was off school again and I spent the day walking round Chesterfield getting some nice pictures in the snow. Whilst in Chesterfield I had a look on the lake in Queens Park and was happy to find 1 Common Gull, 4 Lesser Back-Backed Gulls and about 40 Black-Headed Gulls.

Common Gull with BH Gulls

When I returned home I popped down to Holmebrook Valley for about 20 minutes. Nothing had change much but there were only 2 Common Gulls today and 4 Canada Geese including 2 new birds that landed whilst I was there. I was also told by my uncle that the Mute Swans were not on the lake earlier in the day as it was completely frozen over, but they had returned and all 3 birds were on the lake. They had most likely gone to Linacre Reservoirs or Walton Dam as they are both about a 2 minute flight from Holmebrook.

All 3 Mute Swans in a small gap in the ice

Common Gull

The Greylag Goose and the Tufted Ducks weren't there but there were at least 10 Bullfinches still in the bushes on the east side of the lake.
On the 2nd of March it was the same as on the 1st with 2 Common Gull but only about 5 Bullfinches and still no Greylag Goose or Tufted Ducks.

1 of 4 Canada Geese