A day of rares!

Hello

Our intention to ring at Harrington Airfield today was cancelled due to the weather, which ended up being quite fortuitous for me! On an amazing day for county birding, I heard a Bee-eater flying south over our garden at Hanging Houghton at 9.10am. The bird must have been low because it called loudly but wasn't obvious to view and the subsequent calls were much further away. Frustrating that it wasn't a viewing, but the bird I've been waiting to record in the county for many years. An amazing day inasmuch that a White-winged Black Tern was seen at Stanwick Lakes early this morning and then a Bittern was also seen on a couple of occasions and waders included three Little Stints. In addition, a flock of Avocet were found at Clifford Hill GP.

Eleanor was up at Blueberry Farm this morning and spotted an unidentified stork sp flying high overhead. Whether to watch the bird or photograph it is always a dilemma on a rarity fly-through; as it was Eleanor tried to find it using her camera, couldn't locate it in the viewfinder and lost the bird at the same time too. That's the trouble with rare birds, they're always frustrating! On this occasion the specific identification of the stork wasn't clinched.

In the meantime Jacob Spinks was birding in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir this morning and located a couple of Ruddy Shelduck, four Black-tailed Godwits and a Little Egret.

Swifts were very much on the move today, perhaps the last big push of the season and Siskins were moving in good numbers early this morning and again this evening. An adult Red Kite is no longer an unusual sight at Hanging Houghton, but the accompanying begging juvenile was far more interesting and more than suggestive of successful local breeding. Two or three Kingfishers in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this afternoon were probably part of a family group.

At Pitsford Reservoir this evening, I visited the Sailing Club area but the autumn gull roost has yet to materialise with no more than 40 gulls present which did include a Common Gull and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. At 9.10pm a flock of ten summer plumage Black-tailed Godwits arrived and flew around slowly with exquisite grace typical of this species, and were last seen heading off towards the causeway. Also present was at least one Oystercatcher, a female Tufted Duck with 7 ducklings, a juvenile Shelduck and a hunting Barn Owl.

Regards

Neil M

Pitsford CBC

Hello

A stunning day's weather at Pitsford Reservoir today, and just perfect to complete the last Common Bird Census of the season.

An Osprey was north of the causeway at 6am and waders taking advantage of the muddy edges included three very smart Black-tailed Godwits, at least one Redshank and two Green Sandpipers.

Several Siskins were flying around the reserve, the drake Red-crested Pochard was still in the Walgrave Bay as were two early returning Wigeon. Plenty of passage gulls were evident today, mostly being Black-headeds on the move. Also a couple of Common Gulls have been overflying the last couple of days and big gulls on the reserve this morning included Great Black-backed and two adult Yellow-legged.

The bushes sheltered juvenile warblers including fledged Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff. Willow Tit was seen at two points on the reserve and Marsh Tit at several. A Little Egret in breeding plumage was espied and the female Gadwall was still chaperoning five growing ducklings. 

Insects were good with a Beautiful Demoiselle on show in the Holcot Bay, and Emperor Dragonfly, Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Four Spotted Chaser and Common Darter all on the wing. A good range of common butterflies included Marbled Whites still in the Scaldwell meadow and an unidentified fritillary. Roesel's Bush-crickets were simply everywhere!

Marbled White butterflies are common at Blueberry Farm (Maidwell) this year and this evening an atmospheric big hatch there of Ghost Moths just before dusk was impressive.

Regards

Neil M

Red Kite

Beautiful Demoiselle. Seemingly
 an immature male.

Muntjac Deer

Emperor Dragonfly

Flowering Rush

Four Spotted Chaser Dragonfly

Roesel's Bush-cricket

Meadow Brown butterfly

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Comma butterfly

Pied Wagtails -  Male feeding juvenile.

Black-tailed Skimmer dragonfly

Black-tailed Godwit

All images at Pitsford Reservoir today...

Harrington Airfield

Hello

Time was spent at Harrington Airfield today in an effort to make it ready for some bird ringing this autumn. Some of the original rides have been made net friendly and the first session of the season may be as early as Sunday morning (although a change in the weather forecast may compromise this or make us start much later). As such the old airstrip and bunker areas will effectively be out of bounds during the ringing session, but anyone who would like to come along and observe the activities is welcome to join us providing you have communicated with me beforehand - email -

birdingallthetime@gmail.com.

A small tit flock present there today included some common warblers and a Willow Tit. Butterflies included Marbled White and there were plenty of day-flying moths too. The Bee Orchids have gone over now and the Common Spotted Orchids are also past their best...

Regards

Neil M

Pitsford birds and insects

Hello

Yesterday evening (Wednesday 15th) and a scan from the dam at Pitsford Reservoir produced just a solitary adult Yellow-legged Gull.

This afternoon (Thursday 16th), and active insects in the Scaldwell Meadow at Pitsford Res near to the Maytrees Hide included still several Marbled White butterflies, which seem to be becoming more common in the county in recent years. Birds on show included a Common Sandpiper in the Scaldwell Bay and the eclipse drake Red-crested Pochard still on show in the mouth of the Walgrave Bay.

Moths caught at Pitsford during the last couple of days include Garden Tiger, Scarlet Tiger (once a very scarce moth but with several local records this year) and the scarce migrant Small Mottled Willow.

Regards

Neil M

An unusual image of interaction between a Lapwing
and Mute Swans! Taken by Jacob Spinks two days ago
at Pitsford Res.

Pitsford update and Sule images

Hello

A visit to the Old Scaldwell Road Feeding Station at Pitsford Reservoir with a 'scope this evening provided a few sightings of interest. An eclipse drake Red-crested Pochard was in the mouth of the Walgrave Bay surrounded by hundreds of Gadwall. A Goldeneye and a Little Egret were in the Scaldwell Bay and an adult Yellow-legged Gull was mobile. In addition a Barn Owl was hunting in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton village.

As promised, below are some more images from my excursion to Sule Skerry last week...

Regards

Neil M

Common Crossbills.

Razorbill chick

The stunning adult Razorbill

Northern Gannet

Adult Kittiwake with chick

Pitsford and bits

Hello

This morning Neil H explored the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir and espied singles of Common and Green Sandpiper. There are some interesting muddy margins currently so the early autumn wader passage might produce some interesting records...
Yesterday (Sunday 12th July), Jacob Spinks noted a Common Sandpiper, a Shelduck and 3+ Little Egrets all in the Scaldwell Bay.

At 1.50pm this afternoon, a flock of eight Crossbills passed south west over Brixworth Country Park, possibly having emerged from the trees in the Pintail Bay at the reservoir. Despite the moist conditions, plenty of Roesel's Bush-crickets were whirring away in the grassy areas in the country park. A single adult Yellow-legged Gull was on a buoy near to the Sailing Club and a Grey Wagtail was noted at nearby Brixworth Sewer Works.

In the meantime, Eleanor was over at Staverton near Daventry and again witnessed the family party of Ravens there, seemingly four juveniles successfully fledging but staying with the adults and forming a mobile family group.

Local naturalist Jean Dunn lives in Boughton near to the outskirts of Northampton and has found a large roost of what appear to be Common Pipistrelle bats in her house. On warm evenings, as many as 95 have emerged to fly around after insects.

Finally, a captive female African Grey Parrot escaped locally in June and has been seen in the West Hunsbury area of Northampton this month. The owner Karen Wright would dearly love to be reunited with her family pet and has issued a reward for the safe re-capture and return. Should you have any news on this bird since 10th July, please email Karen on:  kazky1gmail.com

Regards

Neil M

Hummingbird Hawk-moth
courtesy of Jean Dunn

Privet Hawk-moth
courtesy of Cathy Ryden.

Buff-tip Moth
courtesy of Cathy Ryden.

Nestling Red Kite
courtesy of Cathy Ryden and
Jacob Spinks.

Leopard Moth
courtesy of Jean Dunn

Sule Skerry

Hello

I have just returned from a week on Sule Skerry, a very small island off the Caithness coastline, 25 miles out to sea and technically included within the Orkney group.

Together with eleven others, we endeavoured to ring sea-birds breeding on the low-lying skerry, the initial week of a three week expedition mounted by the British Trust for Ornithology.

Sule Skerry is only visited every couple of years as it is very isolated (six hour boat trip from Scrabster) and there are no available facilities, so it was a case of camping out and spending most of the time in the open air. Like most of Scotland recently the weather was often wet and windy but we enjoyed a successful week catching birds in this sea-bird city.

Puffins dominated with tens of thousands nesting in burrows, and this was by far the most common birds caught and ringed (over 3,000 in seven days). The only breeding passerine is Rock Pipit and a couple of pairs of Starling. The only other passerine we saw were a couple of migrant Crossbills.

Please find some Puffin images below, hopefully with further images of birds photographed on the island tomorrow...

Regards

Neil M

The charismatic Atlantic Puffin!

Purple Emperors

Yesterday (Thursday) saw me visiting the Fermyn/Souther/Lady Wood complex near Corby, an annual pilgrimage to view a stunning local speciality, the Purple Emperor butterfly.
The weather was mostly sunny, if a little cool early on and an early tree top sighting promised better views to come. 
Plenty of other butterflies were on the wing including Comma, Large Skipper, Green-veined White Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood and a couple of high speed, completely unidentifiable Hairstreak's zooming about the Oak canopy.
Two other butterflies I associate with this woodland complex, White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary, were also airborne, although the former was unusually difficult and elusive.
Back to the Purple Emperors. After the initial tree top sighting in Fermyn Wood a second was down on the track just before the open section by the footpath to Lyveden. it was extracting minerals from the track and was in no hurry to move on, even when a car came up the track, the driver having to wait until it was finished.
Into the Souther/Lady wood section and a superb Silver-washed Fritillary was feeding on brambles. A couple of others had been seen in flight, but this one was considerably more obliging, much to the delight of a gentleman trying to see all the UK butterflies this year. 
Multiple sightings of Purple Emperor's were enjoyed throughout this area and on the return walk.

                  Regards,
   
                            Neil H

Barn Owls

Chris Payne spent most of yesterday out with Paddy Jackson checking approximately a dozen Barn Owl boxes.
some of the boxes had not been used, some had been appropriated by Stock Doves and the remainder had a few owlets.

                                     Photos courtesy of Chris Payne
     Regards,

               Neil H

Pitsford CES

Another ringing session was conducted at the Scaldwell CES site on Sunday by Dave Francis. 78 birds were caught as follows:

Kingfisher 2

Long-tailed Tit 2

Blackcap 14

Blue Tit 6

Bullfinch 4

Chaffinch 2

ChiffChaff 4

Dunnock 1

Garden Warbler 3

Goldfinch 1

Blackbird 4

Wren 9

Marsh Tit 3

Reed Bunting 1

Reed Warbler 1

Robin 6

Song Thrush 1

Treecreeper 4

Whitethroat 2

Willow Tit 1

Willow Warbler 1

Great Tit 6

In addition 9 Mallard and a Canada Goose were caught in the duck trap at the Scaldwell Road feed station.

      Regards,

               Neil H.

Friday - Saturday

I took a walk down the Scaldwell bay on Friday morning in warm sunshine. A Marbled White was on the wing near to the Maytree's Hide. A little further on, a pair of well grown leverets were playing on the path, but loped off through the meadow as soon as they spotted me.
Lots of Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Skippers were also on the wing as well as a number of Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonflies.
After watching the tern rafts for a while from the Bird Club Hide a Green Sandpiper flew in and landed on the exposed mud to the left of the hide. It fed for a while on the mud before an opportunistic young Fox thought it would make a tasty lunch, incorrectly as it turned out.

On Saturday afternoon I walked around the reserve side of the reservoir with my partner Sarah, her first view of the whole reserve. Again Marbled White's were in evidence, at least 3 between the causeway and the Bird Club Hide and a further sighting beside Christie's Copse. My first Gatekeeper of the season was feeding in brambles near the feed station.
Three Red-crested Pochard drakes were spotted sitting quietly on the bund from the Scaldwell Hide, two well into eclipse.
Finally a single adult male Beautiful Demoiselle was on foliage besides the bridge over the Scaldwell Bay stream. This is the first time I have ever seen this species at Pitsford.

    Regards,

               Neil H.

Bee-eaters!

Hello

Below are some images of the Eurasian Bee-eater, surely one of the most beautiful and charismatic birds of the Mediterranean region. Robin Gossage took these images in Spain. For most birders operating in Northamptonshire, this species is a gap in their county list. There have been confirmed sightings in the last two decades, but on each occasion the birds didn't hang around long enough to be seen other than by the original observers.

The nature of the beast is that they are aerially mobile in pursuit of flying insects of all descriptions and sizes, and in a similar manner to Swallows and Swifts, are able to feed whilst on migration if there is plenty of flying food up there with them.

Surely we must now be overdue for a small flock or at least a couple of these birds to grace our land-locked county? News has come through of a Hoopoe which was well-watched in a Grendon garden last month, so it is still possible for a Mediterranean overshoot, particularly if this weather keeps up...

Keep looking up and listen out for the fabulous muffled buzzy fluting of the much sought-after Eurasian Bee-eater!

Regards

Neil M

Eurasian Bee-eater

Courtesy of Robin Gossage.