Hello
Spending the morning at home today provided an opportunity to see a few things that would have normally gone unnoticed! A cacophony of noises in the grass field behind the garden alerted me to the baying Jackdaws and Carrion Crows as they mobbed a Common Buzzard with a just-caught Rabbit. The raptor tried to fly off with it but was besieged by the black mob and dropped it. A little later and both Buzzard and Rabbit had gone so I guess he/she made a successful reclaim. A large shadow in the garden made me look up to see a Grey Heron very low circling the garden and eyeing up our garden ponds. It landed in trees nearby but with no fish in the ponds it may have come no closer. A couple of Red Admiral and Painted Lady butterflies whizzed through the garden, clearly on their way somewhere and a dark insect by one of the ponds proved to be a male Beautiful Demoiselle.
This afternoon I watched a fishing Osprey in the Walgrave Bay at Pitsford Reservoir and another was seen at Thrapston Pits today. A good sighting in the Nene Valley this morning was of a Spoonbill flying over Summer Leys Reserve, the bird being pushed higher by the gulls there until lost to view. A collection of 'wildfowl' at Clifford Hill Pits today included a Black Swan, a Barnacle Goose, two Bar-headed Geese, an Egyptian Goose and three Red-crested Pochard.
Eleanor saw about half a dozen Ravens at Staverton today and a walk at Kentle Wood near Daventry yielded a calling Quail in a small grass field there. It was only calling intermittently and later efforts to hear it this evening were unsuccessful.
Regards
Neil M
Spending the morning at home today provided an opportunity to see a few things that would have normally gone unnoticed! A cacophony of noises in the grass field behind the garden alerted me to the baying Jackdaws and Carrion Crows as they mobbed a Common Buzzard with a just-caught Rabbit. The raptor tried to fly off with it but was besieged by the black mob and dropped it. A little later and both Buzzard and Rabbit had gone so I guess he/she made a successful reclaim. A large shadow in the garden made me look up to see a Grey Heron very low circling the garden and eyeing up our garden ponds. It landed in trees nearby but with no fish in the ponds it may have come no closer. A couple of Red Admiral and Painted Lady butterflies whizzed through the garden, clearly on their way somewhere and a dark insect by one of the ponds proved to be a male Beautiful Demoiselle.
This afternoon I watched a fishing Osprey in the Walgrave Bay at Pitsford Reservoir and another was seen at Thrapston Pits today. A good sighting in the Nene Valley this morning was of a Spoonbill flying over Summer Leys Reserve, the bird being pushed higher by the gulls there until lost to view. A collection of 'wildfowl' at Clifford Hill Pits today included a Black Swan, a Barnacle Goose, two Bar-headed Geese, an Egyptian Goose and three Red-crested Pochard.
Eleanor saw about half a dozen Ravens at Staverton today and a walk at Kentle Wood near Daventry yielded a calling Quail in a small grass field there. It was only calling intermittently and later efforts to hear it this evening were unsuccessful.
Regards
Neil M
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| Osprey courtesy of Martin Swannell. |
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| Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow escort courtesy of Robin Gossage. |
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| Grey Heron. |
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