Iceland - 4th - 8th March 2022

Sunday, 5 April 2020

Sunny Sunday

Hello

As promised today was a pleasant warm day here in sunny Northamptonshire and altogether very spring-like! Plenty of common butterflies on the wing which included a couple of male Orange-tips at Hanging Houghton and with one through the garden.

Eleanor went for a run with Tor, Rouzel and Jaeger and came across a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the belt of trees next to Beck Dairy just outside Cottesbrooke village plus singing Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers in general along the run route. There is a great deal of farming activity at the moment and the fields are busy with tractors. A couple of 'scuffled' fields in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton hosted hundreds of Fieldfares this morning.

My exercise regime took me to New Covert at Kelmarsh where I haven't been for some time. Lots of singing Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and the usual woodland birds including a singing Marsh Tit. At least one Crossbill was in the wood briefly late morning.

Much of the remainder of the day has been spent in the garden, doing a couple of little jobs but mostly relaxing. The 'birds seen from the garden' list was smaller today as I didn't start until 12 noon and ended up recording 36 species. Four of those species were different to yesterday's effort so a total of 45 species over the weekend. Sadly still no Song or Mistle Thrush though - they must be on the other side of the village this year!

Regards

Neil M


Fieldfare.

Ring-necked Parakeet. A small
population now breeds in Northamptonshire.

There was evidence that some
of our breeding Swallows are already
back on territory at a few sites in
rural locations.

All images courtesy of Robin Gossage.



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