Then he was gone! But...

Hello

Most of the people looking for the White-tailed Eagle in the Pitsford Reservoir area today were unlucky and didn't manage to connect with the huge raptor. It was certainly north of the reservoir in the morning but then went missing for a time before Mark Williams picked it up circling south of the dam at 1.45pm. It then went further south circling with a Peregrine between the villages of Pitsford and Chapel Brampton and there are no known subsequent sightings.

Satellite tracking indicates that he went south west and has roosted near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

Amazingly, a second bird has been tracked into Northamptonshire today - G318 a female, flew south into Northamptonshire from the Lincolnshire Wolds, passing west of Corby at 1.10pm and continuing south at a height of 452 metres. She could have possibly seen the male just south of the dam at Pitsford but they didn't connect. G318 is roosting in woodland in central Northants and not far from Pitsford Reservoir. So if you see a White-tailed Eagle tomorrow it will almost certainly be a different individual! Talk about buses!

Other birds seen in the area by would-be observers included a Chiffchaff, a female Stonechat and two Ravens seen from the footpath between Old and Walgrave. At Pitsford Reservoir 553 Fieldfares and a staggering 7,200 Jackdaws roosted in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon and that scarce bird the Little Owl was heard calling between Scaldwell village and the reservoir.

A male Blackcap was briefly in a Scaldwell garden, there were two Grey Wagtails at the Draughton Crossing section of the Brampton Valley Way and Harrington Airfield provided views of at least four Bramblings and a rather paltry six Golden Plovers.

Seven Goosanders were at Abington Park Lake this morning and birds on-site at Stanwick Pits today included about thirty White-fronted Geese, three Great White Egrets and three Cattle Egrets (access from Ringstead-end is recommended).

A Barn Owl was at Buckby Wharf today and two were seen near the turbine on the hill above Boddington Reservoir this afternoon.

Regards

Neil M

Red Kite near Old
courtesy of Jim Dunkley.

Drake Goldeneye at
Pitsford Reservoir
courtesy of Bethan Clyne.

Lesser Black-backed Gull
at Pitsford Reservoir courtesy
of Jacob. It's not just ducks and
geese that come close next to the
public car park off the causeway!