Sunday's stuff!

Hello

Northants Ringing Group ringers were out doing their stuff today at Stortons Pits and Linford Lakes.

The session at Stortons started with the whoosh of three thousand Starlings zapping past as they left their night-time roost and birds caught amounted to 37 individuals made up mostly of Blue and Great Tits but also a Redwing. The Linford ringers caught 39 birds with quality catches in the shape of 2 Blackcaps, a Chiffchaff, 10 Redwings, a Cetti's Warbler, 2 Meadow Pipits and a Jay.

A visit to Pitsford Reservoir today provided views of the eleven Whooper Swans still in the Scaldwell Bay, five Great White Egrets, an influx of Little Egrets, just three visible Red-crested Pochards and a handful of Pintail.

The Great White Egret count at Ravensthorpe Reservoir went up to two and the Ravens at Staverton increased to four today.

Regards

Neil M

Meadow Pipit wing covert
variation. The upper bird's
borders to the coverts are
the same colour and tone
throughout indicating either
an adult bird or a first year
that has moulted all the feathers
it left the nest with. The variation
in the covert borders of the lower
 bird indicates that this bird was
hatched in 2018.

The upperside of the tails of
two Redwings. The left hand bird
is exhibiting relatively broad
individual feathers and broad tips
with minimal wear all suggestive
of an adult. The narrower feathers
  with pointed and worn tips of the
right hand bird indicate that this bird
is in it's first year of life.
These instructive images courtesy
 of Kenny Cramer.

First year Common Gull.

An image of an acrobatic
 Pine Marten from the August trip
 to the Ardnamurchan Peninsular
in the West Highlands of Scotland
(and definitely one of the stars of
the show)!