Saturday 26 November 2016

Thrushes galore...

Hello

This morning four Stonechats and a Barn Owl were in the Brampton Valley again below Hanging Houghton and later in the morning Staverton hosted at least four Ravens. A wander around Borough Hill Country Park (Daventry) provided views of a high-flying Short-eared Owl being mobbed as it passed over the hill towards Daventry town and two Woodcock were flushed from a hedgerow there.

Chris Payne caught 34 Goldfinches in his Greens Norton garden today in addition to several common birds and watched a male Blackcap feeding on apples there. Chris has caught and ringed 410 Goldfinches this year, the majority coming to feeders in his garden.

More bird ringing at Harrington Airfield today provided 87 captures, the majority of them being thrushes, made up of 42 Redwings, 2 Song Thrushes, 14 Blackbirds and 8 Fieldfares. Two re-trap Green Woodpeckers added a splash of colour and a Woodcock was caught and ringed.

Other birds noted included three distant and unidentified 'wild' swans flying distantly to the north (Bewick's or Whoopers), two calling individuals of Waxwings flying south over the complex (at 8.40am and about an hour later), several small flocks of Golden Plovers probably amounting to over fifty birds, visible migration of big gulls and Woodpigeon flocks, a couple of Siskins and two Ravens.

At about 3pm this afternoon it was possible to see two Otters and two Great White Egrets (together) from the causeway at Ravensthorpe Reservoir.

Regards

Neil M


Fieldfare

Green Woodpecker
Courtesy of Cathy Ryden.


Woodcock
Courtesy of Cathy Ryden.

Birds caught and ringed
at Harrington Airfield today.

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