Very dry at home
But the upland reservoirs are still brim full
x9 Little rings on local reserve pool 2nite is more than usual
Scraping stone flicking & sitting in scrapes, display flights & interactions
#S1
Hidden behind a single Ivy leaf
Another tiny little Goldcrest 🪺
This one shares its Ivy clad Ash trunk with a Chaffinch 2m above
Still waiting for a local Firecrest to pipe up 🤞
Nowt but bother
Started on these in 1989, confirmed c200 territories in VC66
Everyone’s an expert nowadays
LOTTI
c16 !
That’s quite a Lot
Long tailed Tit with at least x16 eggs
#NestRecordScheme
Cracking local patch Whinchat on our travels today in NZ24, Durham City.
Can’t remember the last Spring migrant Whinchat I saw 🧐
#NEBirding
Cracking account & footage ⬇️ from East London
Here’s a Fish pass image of one of our local pairs taken by BrianH & in this week’s regional newspaper
The Queen looks huge in comparison 🧐
🤴🎣
Yaffle still chipping away !
& what a mess he’s making
The amount of wood chip is unbelievable & there’s no other excavation going on in the tree.
We have a long reach pole & endoscope for this one ☝️
#NestRecordScheme
Tit 😁
Cowboy builder 🤠👷🏼♂️🔨🪺
Thrush in a Rush ! (Pic1)
compared with one that’s adhered to building regulations 😄 (pic2)
This is very untidy & missing its mud/wood pulp cup, despite being alongside perfect muddy ground.
It may have been constructed in a hurry after an earlier loss.
#NestRecordScheme
LOTTI
Another pair have embellished their nest with lots of pieces of Polystyrene 😄
We saw this last year, similar industrial type site with waste & litter strewn around
A very open nest but so far so good
#NestRecordScheme
Woodcock
1/3
The regular breeding range of Scolopax in Old Durham VC66
This information stems from countless sessions & 100’s of observers over several decades, 5 in some cases !
Grey Wagtail
First chicks expected to be hatching tomorrow 18th April
A tad late on some recent years
Lots of flying insects & off duty birds feeding avidly today
C10 or is it an 11 ??
🤞👍🏻
Our first Dippers out of the nest this week & begging loudly !
A nice natural #NestRecordScheme site 18’ up underneath roots at top a rock face
@durhambirdclub.bsky.social
Hi Matt, can’t read what Mr Broughton says because sadly he has us blocked.😕
What sort of numbers of nests are predated (or usurped) ??
Still very small here, vast majority of WT nest sites don’t hold GSW 🧐
Perfect timing
We discreetly checked another Kingfisher burrow & neither of the pair were in residence.
7 fresh eggs as white a brand new Turkey Teeth 😬😁
Further info suggests birds in a whole new Hectad right up the Dale, an amazing positive change in population & distribution
Very interesting Ben, a great bit of research 🎯👍🏻
We all put metal nest hole protection plates on standard tit boxes…. 🧐
Are there any nest contents are is the woodpecker just tapping rotten wood??
We’ve intervened in situations like this
Tacked a sheet of tin on the back of a fence board & this stopped the attack despite the GSW having already made a small hole into the nest chamber.
🤞
Very illuminating ! 😄
That should be illustrating 😊
Stonechat is another in a long list of species which have undergone a radical change in status since the 1990’s when they were barely established as a breeding bird. 👍🏻🎯
Stonechat
x4 adjacent moorland territories checked & 4 nests found & inspected for NRS in c5Ha.
The nests on average were just 150metres apart illuminating a decent population density
The distance between the 2 furthest apart being 415m
#Stonechat26
#BirdingNE
Here’s our favourite image of a Tree Mouse in a natural nest site 😍
Eurasian Treecreeper or common Treecreeper is a small, delightful woodland bird scientifically named Certhia familiaris.
That one is nesting inside a Tree Guard.
The nest of a TreeGuardCreeper 😄
Kingfisher
Work on excavating this year’s new burrow has come to a halt (hit a root) & the birds have moved back into the dirty old hole next door
The remnants of last years nest contents (fish bones etc) can be seen on the left, alongside the clean spoil of the 2026 excavation.
S1 inspection
Mild winters have helped Kingfisher to increase numbers & range over recent years
This is one of 8 nests we are observing this season
13/4/26
Mandarin
Egg dumping, also known as intraspecific brood parasitism or dump nesting, is a common reproductive behavior in Mandarin Ducks (Aix galericulata).
A female lays one or more eggs in another female’s nest, leaving the host to incubate and raise the offspring.
