Bird List

Baslow, Bubnell and Chatsworth

Discovering Birds on Your Doorstep

You may think there are very few birds to be seen in your garden or in and around the village these days. You are right that both the number and the variety of birds are decreasing at a worrying rate, due to pollution, disturbance, climate change, and perhaps to increasing numbers of predators including cats, hawks and magpies.

However you would be surprised how many can be seen at various times of the year and in various habitats. We are especially lucky to have sand martins, dippers, and mandarin ducks which all make the River Derwent their home, and also to have the moors and edges within a short walk.

In total there are 94 birds listed here.

In gardens all year (30)

Mallard
Pheasant
Collared Dove
Woodpigeon
Stock Dove
Tawny Owl (can count if heard)
Sparrowhawk
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Coal Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Goldcrest
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
Wren
Starling (if not in gardens, look in winter for flocks in fields, or small parties flying towards the roost in Stoney Middleton)

Bullfinches are regular visitors to the village - male (left), female (right)

Mistle Thrush (only a handful left)
Song Thrush (only a handful left)
Blackbird
Robin
Dunnock
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Greenfinch (variable numbers, suffers from trichomonosis)
Goldfinch

Around the village - within 2 miles of the church (13)

Barn Owl (even harder, but both are here)
Little Owl (hard to see)
Green Woodpecker
Merlin (in Chatsworth or on the moors)
Jay
Rook
Raven (e.g. soaring over Yeld Wood)
Skylark
Stonechat (on Baslow, Curbar and Froggatt Edges)
Pied Wagtail
Meadow Pipit
Linnet (now fairly rare)
Yellowhammer

A meadow pipit - can be seen around Baslow Edge

By the river (13)

Mandarin Duck (and right overhead in spring when looking for nesting holes)
Goosander
Tufted Duck
Little Grebe (also called Dabchick)
Coot
Moorhen
Cormorant
Oystercatcher (recent addition in Chatsworth Park)
Little Egret (ditto)
Dipper (try the weir above the Old Bridge)
Grey Wagtail (despite its name, the yellow belly is often obvious)
Redpoll
Kingfisher (here but hard to see, just a blue flash!)

Dipper - often seen down on the River Derwent

Summer visitors (16)

Common Sandpiper (on river bank)
Cuckoo (up on the Edges)
Swift (are there any breeding pairs left?)
Hobby
Sand Martin
Barn Swallow
House Martin
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
Garden Warbler
Blackcap
Whitethroat (fairly hard to find)
Pied Flycatcher
Redstart (on the Edges and Wheatlands Lane)
Wheatear
Tree Pipit

Chiffchaff - very common from April to September

Winter visitors (5)

Waxwing (only irrupt from Scandinavia about every 10 years and came in large numbers in winter 23/24, so may not be here 24/25)
Redwing
Fieldfare
Brambling ( at bird tables when snowy, otherwise rare around mature Beech Trees)
Siskin ( some may now stay over summer at bird feeders)

Redwing - flocks visit the area during the winter

Overhead (16)

Mute Swan
Canada Goose (now split into lots of similar species)
Greylag Goose
Pink-footed Goose (in skeins/ v formation high overhead October to April)
Teal
Curlew (can count if you only hear it)
Woodcock (rare and declining , at dusk in April /June, used to be common, now mainly winter visitor and harder to see)
Black-headed Gull (also on river)
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Grey Heron (or in your garden if you have a goldfish pond)
Goshawk
Red Kite
Common Buzzard
Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Ringed-necked Parakeet (now breeds in Sheffield, always noisy)

Buzzard - can be spotted soaring above the village

Rarities

One of the joys of bird watching is that you can never be sure what will turn up.

Some are residents in other parts of UK, some are just migrating through, some are just lost or blown off course - birders call these vagrants - and finally some escape from captivity (for example there was a splendid African Turaco in village gardens in Autumn 2023). Rarities that I and others have seen over the past few years include:

Common Crane
Short-eared Owl (up on the moors)
Osprey (actually probably flies over on migration every year, sometimes stops over)
Hen Harrier (up on the moors)
White-tailed Eagle
Rough-legged Buzzard
Hoopoe
Red-footed Falcon
Black-throated Thrush

Osprey - look up to the skies, you never know!

Birds now gone from around the village in the last 20 years

Nightjar
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (still seen but very rare in Chatsworth
Red-backed Shrike (common 100 years ago)
Spotted Flycatcher?( common 20 years ago)
Wood Warbler
Hawfinch
Twite

Spotted flycatcher sat on a branch with an insect in its beak.

Spotted Flycatcher - hopefully on their way back to Chatsworth

Ian Johnston FRSPB

List validated with Ron Blagden, Phil Broughton and others.

March 2026

Bird News & WhatsApp Group

Village residents are invited to join the free Baslow and Bubnell Bird WhatsApp group for news about rarities and arrivals. Please send an email to admin@bepl.org.uk.