'Tis the nesting season!

Hello

Many of our birds are now ardently building nests, laying eggs and the early starters have young too! Checking nest boxes might seem quite mundane but local naturalists have come across a couple of surprises...

This tit nest as photographed
by Chris Payne indicates that
the builders have an attraction
to the material covering a yellow/
green tennis ball!

This tit nest as photographed
by Nick Wood contains 13
or 14 eggs! They may not all
be from the same female as
sometimes females will dump
eggs in other nests!

Mischa Cross at Pitsford Reservoir
had a surprise when she checked a
tit box on the reserve and found a
Nuthatch sitting tight! Assuming there
are eggs underneath her, this is the
first proven instance of breeding
on the reserve...

Yesterday (Thursday) and Dave Francis and Lynne Barnett checked the tern rafts at Pitsford Reservoir in the Scaldwell Bay. The terns had begun to scrape a few 'nests', the pair of Oystercatcher have three eggs and both Canada and Greylag Geese are at the egg stage on the rafts too...

Coot nest with eggs.

Oystercatcher eggs.

And the Cormorants nests have
plenty of sizable young in them
already...

Above three images courtesy of
Lynne Barnett.

And finally modern digital photography and a skilled user behind the lens is making quite an impact in relation to our understanding of wildlife these days... the below images by local naturalist Dave Jackson of a Pied Wagtail watched feeding on the dam at Pitsford Reservoir provide us with an opportunity of ageing it as a first year male. Dave managed to record enough data on the metal ring (probably S984323) to suggest that this bird was an individual caught and ringed at Brixworth Water Treatment Works on 5th February 2018. Well done Dave!

Pied Wagtail
courtesy of Dave Jackson.

Regards

Neil M