Wednesday 15 August 2018

Birds of Frampton.

Hello

This morning a ringing session was undertaken around the Old Scaldwell Road Feeding Station at Pitsford Reservoir. Initially it seemed really quiet and it took us some time to catch anything - but then a fresh momentum kept the birds coming until lunch time.

We encountered fifteen different species, the majority of birds being new and hatched this year. The 107 captures were made up of a Blackbird, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, four Dunnocks, two Robins, 19 Great Tits, 19 Blue Tits, two Long-tailed Tits, singles of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat, four Whitethroats, 49 Tree Sparrows, a Chaffinch and a Sand Martin.

All the Tree Sparrows with the exception of a single adult were youngsters hatched this year, and many of these youngsters were very young indicating that they were the result of third or even fourth brood efforts. The Sand Martin was a nice surprise and an infrequent capture at Pitsford.

With all these small birds in and around the bushes, it isn't surprising that they were buzzed regularly by at least two different Sparrowhawks.

The summering Marsh Harrier put in a couple of appearances again today, initially seen before 6am when it was watched flying across the reservoir and resting on one of the tree stumps by the shoreline between the Maytrees and Bird Club hides. An adult Yellow-legged Gull was about as usual and Neil H saw a juvenile Mediterranean Gull in the Scaldwell Bay.

The gull roost off the Sailing Club this evening was disrupted due to sailboards but it was possible to count nine Yellow-legged Gulls before dispersal.

Regards

Neil M



Ruff.



Little Ringed Plover.

Black-tailed Godwit.

Peregrine.

All images taken by John
Tilly on a recent outing to
Frampton Marsh.

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