You’ve spotted many different feathered friends over the last few weeks both in your gardens and out and about, including one of our winter visitors, the brambling, at our Avenue Washlands reserve near Chesterfield. Other finches were recorded further south near Derby including the chaffinch, the UK can be home to over 6 million breeding pairs in the summer as well as the bullfinch which is easily identified by their thick bill, red breast and black cap. Another distinctive species was also seen in the area with their long crests and broad, round wingtips, the lapwing is a familiar sight on farmland and wetland.

Nearby some of our species of tit were seen such as the blue tit, whose blue crowns glow brightly under UV light, their larger cousins the great tit, a species in which the can be distinguished from the females by their wider black stripe on their bellies. Also spotted was the long-tailed tit named after its tail, which is longer than its body. The coal tit was spotted, which can be told apart from the similar looking willow and marsh tits by the white patch on the back of its head and white bars on its wings.

We are looking forward to reading about your wildlife sightings across Derbyshire. To submit your own sighting and be featured in a future blog go to www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/record-sighting.

Thank you to Sonia Ward, Joseph Lambert, Nicola, Alex, Tracey Pendleton and Laura Obrien for submitting their wildlife sightings.