Sand Martins in numbers at last

Hello

Plenty of gusty and at times cool conditions today with rain and brief snarls of hail thrown in for good measure!

Pitsford Reservoir was quite inhospitable at times, particularly south of the causeway in the late morning rain. Birds appeared though in the shape of a second calendar year Peregrine, the drake Scaup and hybrid female, a Kingfisher, a Great White Egret, at least eighty Sand Martins including a flock of sixty-two in the Scaldwell Bay this afternoon and a mobile flock of about three hundred Golden Plovers over in the direction of Sywell Airfield.

Harrington Airfield this afternoon hosted at least four Bramblings and five Grey Partridges and Desborough Airfield was good for another flock of three hundred Golden Plovers and a flock of fifty Meadow Pipits on sodden stubble.

Clifford Hill Pits attracted a Wheatear, a Little Ringed Plover and a Sand Martin and there were at least fifty Sand Martins over the new workings at Earls Barton Pits.

An Avocet was a good find at Otter Lake on the Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows reserve at Ditchford Pits, and the Dark-bellied Brent Goose was reported from there too.

Birds at Thrapston Pits included the Glossy Ibis in the horse field again, a Common Tern on Town Lake and a Swallow and about fifty Sand Martins around Islip Water Treatment Works. Another Swallow was in Hollowell village today.

Roadkill mammals included a Polecat on the road between Brixworth and the Pitsford causeway with what may have been a Ferret/Polecat cross dead yesterday at the side of the A508 between Pitsford and Boughton villages. 

Regards

Neil M

Sand Martin courtesy
of Robin Gossage.

Dunnock at Harrington
Airfield courtesy of 
Paul Crotty.

Male Yellowhammer at
Harrington Airfield courtesy
of Paul Crotty.

Nesting Rooks at Sywell
courtesy of Jim Dunkley.

Ring-necked Parakeets at 
Abington Park today courtesy
of Jim Dunkley. Apparently the
Otter was on show there at 7.30am
 this morning.