Greenland White-fronted Goose and Bitterns.

Hello

My reward for visiting Harrington Airfield to feed the birds and complete a litter pick was to see a smart male Brambling and flushing a Woodcock!

The Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton was still busy with birds and included two hundred Fieldfares, two hundred and fifty Starlings, four Song Thrushes, fifty Redwings, eighty Linnets, fifteen Skylarks and twenty-five Reed Buntings. One of the Stonechat pair popped up and a Barn Owl was hunting first thing. Four Redpolls and a Nuthatch were brief garden visitors.

Some good birds located in the county today with local patch birding leading to an excellent find of an adult Greenland White-fronted Goose with the Greylag flock at Wicksteed Park, Kettering courtesy of Nick Parker. This race of the species is a rare visitor to Northants, most birds that fly from Greenland and the Canadian east coast travel no further than Ireland and the west coast of the UK with a bias to the north. The largest concentration away from Ireland is on the north-west mainland and islands of Scotland with Islay and Dumfries and Galloway housing the majority. It seems odd that this individual should stray to middle England just as we are experiencing a significant invasion of Eurasian or Russian White-fronted Geese from the east. Nevertheless this handsome goose is most welcome!

The other excellent find today was courtesy of Ken Prouse who saw first one and then two Bitterns fly to roost into a reedbed at Stortons Pits this afternoon - excellent stuff!

Harlestone Heath today was home to eight Crossbills in larches near to the sawmills, ca40 Siskins, two Grey Wagtails (including a singing male) and two very vocal Ravens with two pairs of Stonechats on the rough fields between the plantations and Kings Heath.

At Pitsford Reservoir there were two Great White Egrets north of the causeway and a Chiffchaff and a Kingfisher in Yacht Bay. The hides on the reserve are now closed and we await a decision as to whether the site will remain open (Rutland Water and all facilities closed today).

Stanwick Pits today still hung on to at least twenty-one White-fronted Geese, a Cattle Egret, a drake Goosander and a Chiffchaff and the Summer Leys LNR was good for two Great White Egrets, three Goosanders and a distant Cattle Egret in a sheep field next to the river. A Great White Egret was on the A605 floods at Lower Barnwell Lock.

Regards

Neil M

Greenland White-fronted Goose
at Wicksteed Park courtesy of
Nick Parker.

Kestrel courtesy
of Robin Gossage.

Grey Wagtail courtesy
of Robin Gossage.