Thursday 7 May 2020

Birds, butterflies and damselflies

Hello

A fine gentle day with little in the way of wind and plenty of sunshine but with mist and a sharp ground frost first thing.

Pitsford Reservoir continues to host a Great White Egret and a single Little Egret and there were two Common Sandpipers on the causeway. The first Cootlets were out in force and there were both Canada and Greylag goslings on show as well as a couple of broods of Mallard. Other birds on-site included a drake Pochard, Cetti's Warbler and Raven and plenty of insects included a big hatch of damselflies. Sadly there was also an adult Grey Heron with fishing line and a Pike lure wrapped around it's bill.

The Wood Sandpiper was again at Lower Barnwell flooded field and later in the day one was discovered at Summer Leys reserve by Hugh Matthews. Also present was a Common Sandpiper, a Barnacle Goose, a Cuckoo plus a Hairy Dragonfly on Marigold Pond and Common Blue Damselflies.

Other birds reported today included two Ravens over the Nene Valley near Cogenhoe and two Common Sandpipers at Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows reserve.

Our May 'recorded from the garden list' went up by two today with the addition of little and large in the shape of a Goldcrest and a Grey Heron!

A butterfly survey completed at Harrington Airfield yesterday successfully located up to seven Dingy Skippers. The rough grassland that they and smaller numbers of the Grizzled Skippers like is rapidly being lost to scrub as the Hawthorn and Blackthorn advances from all sides.

Regards

Neil M

Great Crested Grebe lit up
in early morning sunshine.

Nine Cootlets counts
as a very large brood!

Green-veined Whites.

Red Kite. Now a familiar
sight in most parts of the county.

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