Sunday 12 January 2020

Ditchford WeBs Count

Hello

Today I completed the WeBs count which covers a proportion of the Ditchford Pits complex (Chris Green kindly completes the remainder). It took me seven hours toiling in the mud to complete my section, and even the two collies I had with me were tired in the end!

Breezy but with some sunshine too, it was mild out and quite a few insects were active.

Birds today included a Cattle Egret flying west over Ditchford Lane at about 9.30am, and a Little Egret and a Great White Egret were west of Ditchford Lane this afternoon. An adult female Peregrine was on pylons west of Ditchford Lane and thirty-one Snipe and a Jack Snipe were on flooded meadows south of Big Lake. Goosanders numbered thirteen but otherwise it was quiet with a Water Rail, six Egyptian Geese, two Grey Wagtails, no Kingfishers detected, only about four Cetti's Warblers and a pair of Stonechat. Chris recorded twenty Golden Plovers, five hundred Lapwings, a Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail on his section.

Elsewhere Summer Leys hosted two Great White Egrets and a drake Red-crested Pochard still, a Great White Egret and a pair of Pintail were at Clifford Hill Pits and Pitsford Reservoir sported a female Scaup, a Great White Egret and a Stonechat north of the causeway.

The Siberian Chiffchaff remained at Ecton SF together with seven Chiffchaffs, a fly-over Great White Egret, a Kingfisher and a Peregrine. Two Goosanders and several Ring-necked Parakeets were at Abington Park, Northampton and Thrapston Pits held on to a Great White Egret, a Little Egret and a pair of Stonechat with a Barn Owl hunting there two afternoons ago.

Regards

Neil M


Common Gull.

Cormorant. There are birds
on the nest at Ditchford already!


Drake Goosander.

All images courtesy
of Robin Gossage.

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