Monday 28 January 2019

Pitsford WeBS count

Hello

Today was all about trying to count the water birds at Pitsford Reservoir as part of our monthly WeBS count.

Headline birds were made up of the two Great Northern Divers, four or five Great White Egrets, twenty-three Red-crested Pochards, a pair of Pintail, a Redshank, a Green Sandpiper, two Jack Snipe and thirty-seven Snipe. Other birds included a pair of Raven, two Stonechats, six Siskins and two Grey Wagtails. Small groups of large gulls periodically passed over the reservoir heading in a westerly direction and the first encountered group contained a large first year Glaucous Gull.

Birds in the Brampton Valley between Cottesbrooke and Hanging Houghton today included the Great Grey Shrike, two Corn Buntings, several Bramblings and a Barn Owl. The Lapland Bunting was looked for this afternoon but not located.

A 'ringtail' Hen Harrier was again seen at Neville's Lodge, Finedon this afternoon and a Short-eared Owl was there too. Birds noted at Thrapston Pits today were the Whooper Swan still, two Great White Egrets, two male Goosanders and an excellent flock of 278 Pochard. Blatherwycke Lake was visited by Eric Graham today and he saw a pair of Black Swans, eight pairs of Mandarin Duck and a flock of over 200 Greylag Geese. Nearby birds at Deene Lake included another pair of Black Swans, nearly a hundred Teal, six Shelduck, two Snipe and two Green Sandpipers.

The Southfield Estate in South Northants attracted a large flock of finches to a sunflower wildlife plot today made up of 60+ Goldfinches, 20+ Linnets, 30+ Chaffinches, 12 Greenfinches and two Bramblings.

Regards

Neil McMahon




Red Kite in the
early morning light...


Cormorants are already
back on their nests at Pitsford!







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