This morning a guided walk at The Wildlife Trust's new Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows reserve coincided with some pleasant winter sunshine. The water levels remain high on-site and the flooding attracted geese and gulls. A vocal Chiffchaff was probably the scarcest bird seen and a couple of calling Cetti's Warblers remained hidden. A Treecreeper delighted the group as it crept around hedgerow hawthorn and ash and a calling Water Rail preferred the cover of some reeds rather than showing itself!
The gull roost at Pitsford Res this afternoon attracted a stunning adult hybrid gull which appeared to be a Yellow-legged x Lesser Black-backed, and also a near-adult Yellow-legged Gull.
Local birder Martin Dove found a dead Coal Tit at Pitsford Res yesterday bearing a ring. Records indicate that this bird was first ringed at Pitsford on 21st June 2009 when it was aged as a juvenile (hatched that year). It was re-trapped again at Pitsford on 5th October 2009, 7th October 2012 and finally on 26th May 2013. Four and a half years is long-lived for a Coal Tit and it would be easy to speculate that this bird lived its whole life associated with habitat around the reservoir.
John Woollett and his company of ringers at Stortons Gravel Pits this morning caught some eighty birds which included a re-trap Water Rail and a male Bearded Tit first ringed at Stortons late last year, suggesting that the pair have been present throughout.
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