Peregrine!

Hello

Further birds seen at Pitsford Reservoir yesterday (Thursday) included five or six Red-crested Pochard, five Pintail (three drakes), three Stonechats, a Kingfisher and a Peregrine and the mammals included Stoat (all seen by Wendy and Robin Gossage).

This morning's (Friday) weather was pretty abysmal but it didn't stop migration with a number of birds on the move in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton. Mostly it was finches with several Siskins and Redpolls and twenty-five Bramblings, but also winter thrushes, Meadow Pipits and Starlings.

Ruth Ward saw a Marsh Harrier over-flying Summer Leys this afternoon heading west and a Great White Egret was seen later, and John Hunt located a perched Peregrine on Oundle church spire. 

There was no sign of the harrier at Harrington Airfield this afternoon but birds on view included Red Kites, Common Buzzards, a perched immature male Merlin and an adult male Peregrine. There were also at least four Bramblings on site and 2-3 in our garden this afternoon. An adult Mediterranean Gull (he/she is still kicking) was again in the gull roost at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon.

John Woollett and John Boland completed a little ringing at Stortons Pits today with two nets catching 41 birds made up of 22 Blue Tits, 15 Great Tits, 2 Long-tailed Tits, a Wren and a Magpie. Four of the Blue Tits were birds first ringed as nestlings in the nest boxes at Stortons and have clearly remained site faithful!

Regards

Neil M

Peregrine!

Always an exciting bird to see,
particularly when in flight and in
hunting mode. The top image was
taken at Pitsford and the lower images
are from Summer Leys where a pair
act in concert to hunt down quarry.

Images courtesy of Robin Gossage.