A little bit of Storm Darcy

Hello

It seems as if the county has remained on the edge of the latest winter storms with some snow but not the amount we perhaps feared.

The drake Ring-necked Duck was back on Big Lake at Ditchford Pits this afternoon and further east at Stanwick Pits Steve found the Ferruginous Duck hybrid again on the western section of Main Lake and twenty-nine White-fronted Geese and three Cattle Egrets at the north-east end of the complex.

Eight Goosanders were on a small pool at Northampton County Golf Course and a Barn Owl emerged to hunt the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton late this afternoon.

The weather seemed to cause the Golden Plovers and Lapwings to flee the fields at Harrington Airfield but there were new flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings on-site - no doubt pushed here from more extreme weather elsewhere. Four Bramblings remained with the other finches and were quite mobile.

At Pitsford Reservoir today the Great Northern Diver was fishing off the Sailing Club and a procession of birds were seen moving south west over the reservoir which included twenty Golden Plovers, a Dunlin, thirty-six Fieldfares, five Skylarks and four Meadow Pipits. A Stonechat and two Snipe were visible in the Scaldwell Bay and yesterday there was a male Stonechat and over two hundred Fieldfares at Chase Park Farm, Yardley Chase.

The weather caused two Mistle Thrushes to reclaim Chris Payne's garden at Greens Norton and our garden welcomed three Reed Buntings and one or two Fieldfare among the regular attendees.

Regards

Neil M

Fieldfare.

Common Buzzard
courtesy of Jacob.

Rook.