Thursday 13 July 2017

July birds and butterflies

Hello

This morning a single Turtle Dove and some summering Sedge Warblers was about the best of the birds at Harrington Airfield but Jacob and friend George were at Pitsford Reservoir completing the last Common Bird Census of the year. Among the more typical birds for Pitsford the highlights were an eclipse drake Garganey, a Yellow-legged Gull, a Redshank, a Common Sandpiper, a Siskin and a juvenile Wheatear. Butterflies there during the last couple of days have included a hatch of Purple Hairstreaks and yesterday White-letter Hairstreak too.

Some recent ringing recoveries/sightings are as follows:-

A juvenile Reed Warbler was caught and ringed at Stanwick Gravel Pits on 5th August 2016 and on 24th June this year was caught again by the Sorby Brek Ringing Group, this time near Blackburn Meadows in South Yorkshire when it was considered a female. The distance between the two sites is 132km, a total of 323 days elapsing between the initial ringing date and being caught again;

A Black-headed Gull chick was ringed at Pitsford Reservoir on 26th July 2011 using ring EL29337.
A sharp-eyed observer read the ring in the field on a fit and healthy bird at Rutland Water on the Eggleton reserve (40km to the north) on 11th April this year;

Neil Hasdell saw a colour-ringed Coot at Summer Leys Nature Reserve on 2nd and 6th June this year, the bird exhibiting a white ring on the left leg depicting the letters 'CRD'. This bird was ringed at Blunham, Bedfordshire on 24th February 2015 when considered to be a male and hatched in 2014. These sightings represent the first reports of this bird since initial ringing.

Regards

Neil M



White-letter Hairstreak.

Reed Warbler.

Black-headed Gulls.

Coot.

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