Hello
Being comparatively close, I couldn't resist going to see the male Blue Rock Thrush at Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire this morning. Four of us rolled up in cold conditions and luckily connected with this vagrant nice and quickly as it perched up in trees and on roof-tops in a small housing estate. A local palliative care charity was quite rightly taking advantage of the influx of visiting birders, providing hot drinks, food and toilet facilities and a nice warm room. In return generous birdwatchers and photographers were depositing notes and coins into collecting boxes and this small community charity has already collected £1,200 in just a few days.
The charismatic thrush generally showed well but occasionally disappeared in to gardens, and I hope it was finding sufficient food to keep it going during this winter weather.
Pitsford Reservoir has had a slow start to the new birding year, but Jacob is again attempting to year list at the site. Today he located a drake Red-crested Pochard, two Green Sandpipers and a Redshank but the gull roost failed to attract anything of note. A Barn Owl was hunting along roadside hedgerows at Scaldwell this afternoon.
Birds visible from the causeway at Ravensthorpe Reservoir early this afternoon included three Great White Egrets, a pair of Red-crested Pochard x Mallard hybrids (but different birds to those seen at Pitsford in the latter part of 2016), a Green Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and at least seven Siskins.
Harrington Airfield hosted an adult female Peregrine, about two hundred Golden Plovers and a Brambling feeding on the seed on the concrete track.
Ken Spriggs watched the Bittern on the Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston Gravel Pits today, on this occasion seeing it from the Kirby Hide looking north towards the artificial Sand Martin wall. Other birds included a Great White Egret, ten Little Egrets and a Raven eating a dead Mute Swan on Long Island.
Regards
Neil M
Being comparatively close, I couldn't resist going to see the male Blue Rock Thrush at Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire this morning. Four of us rolled up in cold conditions and luckily connected with this vagrant nice and quickly as it perched up in trees and on roof-tops in a small housing estate. A local palliative care charity was quite rightly taking advantage of the influx of visiting birders, providing hot drinks, food and toilet facilities and a nice warm room. In return generous birdwatchers and photographers were depositing notes and coins into collecting boxes and this small community charity has already collected £1,200 in just a few days.
The charismatic thrush generally showed well but occasionally disappeared in to gardens, and I hope it was finding sufficient food to keep it going during this winter weather.
Pitsford Reservoir has had a slow start to the new birding year, but Jacob is again attempting to year list at the site. Today he located a drake Red-crested Pochard, two Green Sandpipers and a Redshank but the gull roost failed to attract anything of note. A Barn Owl was hunting along roadside hedgerows at Scaldwell this afternoon.
Birds visible from the causeway at Ravensthorpe Reservoir early this afternoon included three Great White Egrets, a pair of Red-crested Pochard x Mallard hybrids (but different birds to those seen at Pitsford in the latter part of 2016), a Green Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and at least seven Siskins.
Harrington Airfield hosted an adult female Peregrine, about two hundred Golden Plovers and a Brambling feeding on the seed on the concrete track.
Ken Spriggs watched the Bittern on the Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston Gravel Pits today, on this occasion seeing it from the Kirby Hide looking north towards the artificial Sand Martin wall. Other birds included a Great White Egret, ten Little Egrets and a Raven eating a dead Mute Swan on Long Island.
Regards
Neil M
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| Blue Rock Thrush |
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| Velvet Shank Fungi Image courtesy of Philip Davies. |
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| Grey Wagtail. |
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| Stonechat. Above three images taken recently at Pitsford Reservoir by Robin Gossage. |
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