Cold start...Redstart!

Hello

A ringing session at Harrington Airfield today provided only thirty-five birds - the adverse weather conditions in stark contrast to the given forecast! A Hawfinch was heard calling from bushes just after dawn but wasn't subsequently seen and numbers of Bramblings present were estimated at about twenty-five birds, seven of which were caught and ringed. Linnets are there in good numbers and fourteen were caught and processed and an adult male Common Redstart also found a mist net and was duly ringed. A re-trap Willow Warbler was first ringed there in 2019.

Other birds on-site included two hundred and fifty Golden Plovers, a Common Whitethroat, a few Siskins and seventy-two Meadow Pipits headed north.

Over at Stanford Reservoir another Common Redstart was caught and ringed and a Common Whitethroat and Tree Pipit were seen and at Linford Lake ringers there processed forty-two birds which included a male Fieldfare, eleven Blackcaps (including three re-traps from 2019 and 2020), seven Reed Buntings (including one ringed as a fledgling in 2018), three Chiffchaffs and a pair of Bullfinches.

There was no sign of the Ring Ouzel at Blueberry Farm this afternoon but Fieldfares and Redwings were still present. A Wheatear was in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this morning and this afternoon a female-type Marsh Harrier flew south there towards Brixworth.

Hollowell Reservoir attracted an Osprey today plus a Common Sandpiper and a Crossbill and an Osprey was perched in a roadside tree alongside the A5199 near Chapel Brampton at 11.50am. Another Osprey with a fish was seen at Clifford Hill Pits this morning and the Ring-necked Duck was still present as was a Common Sandpiper, five Ringed and two Little Ringed Plovers, eighteen Yellow Wagtails, two White Wagtails and a Wheatear.

The day list for Stanwick Pits included the Glossy Ibis, four Cattle Egrets, a Great White Egret and a male Blue-headed Wagtail and birds in the Earls Barton Pits complex included a Blue-headed Wagtail with twenty-five Yellows and ten White Wagtails, a Mediterranean Gull, two Common Terns, Green and Common Sandpiper and at least one pair of Garganey.

Birds at Thrapston Pits included a drake Smew on Town Lake, a Goosander, three Great White Egrets and two Kingfishers.

Other sightings included an adult Mediterranean Gull in a sheep field at Chelveston Airfield plus four Wheatears and forty-two Yellowhammers coming to a snow-affected feed station at Woodford Halse.

Regards

Neil M

Linnet courtesy of
Lewis Aaron.

Male Brambling courtesy
of Lewis Aaron.

Male Brambling
courtesy of Jacob Spinks.

Adult male Common Redstart
courtesy of Lewis Aaron.