A cold lockdown.

Hello

Another cold day but not as severe as yesterday with a light fall of snow for some in the county.

Birders local to Pitsford Reservoir today saw the Great Northern Diver and an adult Yellow-legged Gull off the Sailing Club plus a Pintail, sixteen Snipe, six Stonechats, a Raven and two Siskins.

In the garden at Hanging Houghton the cold conditions pushed in two Redwings and a Fieldfare and a Nuthatch. The Redwings were eating a variety of food including apples, the Fieldfare was eating apple and the berries of guelder rose. A Raven flew over the village and one pair of Stonechat and a Barn Owl were in the Brampton Valley below the village.

Elsewhere and there was a Jack Snipe and a pair of Stonechats at Wicksteed Park, ten Crossbills at Hollowell Reservoir, two Bearded Tits at Stortons Pits, six Crossbills at Harlestone Heath (showing just inside the A428 entrance on the left hand side) and the mega flock of thirty-three White-fronted Geese remaining at Stanwick Pits.

Some more ringing recoveries have come back from the BTO Ringing Unit as follows:-

1. A Mallard duckling was ringed at Pitsford Reservoir on 29th July 2020 and subsequently shot as a full grown female at Lamport on 18th December 2020;

2. A first year female Goldfinch was caught and ringed at Pen-y-Groeslon, Bryncroes, Gwynedd on 12th October 2020 and caught again in a mist net at Astcote, Towcester on 31st December 2020. During this period of the eighty days this bird travelled 257km in a ESE direction;

3. A second calendar year Blue Tit was caught and ringed at Market Harborough on 14th February 2018 and then caught again 1051 days later 14km south at Hanging Houghton on 31st December 2020.

Regards

Neil M

Female Mallard 
and ducklings.

Goldfinch courtesy of
John Tilly.

Blue Tit courtesy
of Robin Gossage.