A date in the diary placed a small team of us at Kelmarsh Hall today to begin the installation of a Swift breeding tower. Working with Matt and Carl from the Kelmarsh Hall Trust staff we completed the first phase and hope to complete the work in a week's time. A couple of Swift boxes were also sited on the main building. With work completed it was time for a quick walk to appreciate the wildlife around the lake which included several species of butterfly. A couple of Blackcaps and a Treecreeper were watched in lakeside vegetation and a small bird flew into the alders and proved to be a male Pied Flycatcher! We watched it for a few minutes before it flew on to the other side of the lake. Singles of Redpoll and Siskin were fly-overs.
Lamport Hall have also allowed us to invest in providing nest sites for Swifts and a dozen boxes have been put up this spring ready for their impending arrival!
Harrington Airfield seemed to be quiet for birds at lunchtime and Eleanor's walks in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton secured sightings of two Wheatears but little else.
It was the Nene Valley that attracted all the interest this morning with a Bar-tailed Godwit, two Green Sandpipers and a Swift at Stanwick Pits, another two Swifts near Kislingbury and an excellent array of migrants at Summer Leys LNR which included the Spotted Redshank still, a Mediterranean Gull and an arrival of Little Gulls culminating in about nineteen by 3pm. A Pied Flycatcher was reported next to Mary's Lake during the early afternoon.
A flock of about twenty-five Little Gulls flew north-east at Stanwick Pits this evening.
Clifford Hill Pits attracted up to about twenty-six Little Gulls and two Bar-tailed Godwits, a Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper.
Thrapston Pits also attracted a couple of Little Gulls and a few Arctic Terns on Town Lake this afternoon.
Following a message from Jon Cooke about Little Gulls present at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon, Eleanor and I popped down to the causeway and subsequently met up with Robin and Wendy Gossage and David Arden, keeping socially distanced of course! The Little Gulls were spectacular and numbers grew as fresh birds kept arriving, reaching about seventy-five by 5pm. All three ages were on show but the majority were adults and the accompanying Common Terns included an Arctic Tern. Earlier David had seen the pair of Garganey and a Great White Egret in the Scaldwell Bay.
A calling Spotted Redshank was a surprise as it called and flew in over the causeway before heading off towards the Scaldwell Bay. But the best was yet to come...
At about 4.20pm the Little Gulls gathered together and rose up, a classic response to a predator! On looking up a Red Kite was obvious and assumed to be the reason but there was a Lesser Black-backed Gull chasing another pale bird which proved to be a remarkably pale grey male harrier! The gull quickly gave up and the harrier cruised away and eventually disappearing in a south-easterly direction. It was small, long-winged and remarkably pale grey on the upperside and white on the underside. The only black on the upperwing was restricted to a couple of primaries but not viewable on the underside at all. All the features pointed to an adult male Pallid Harrier - it is regrettable that the view was so brief and only three of us managed a view at all!
Other birds reported in the county today included five Little Gulls at Stanford Reservoir this afternoon and a White-fronted Goose in the morning. The hotspot at Lilbourne today yielded a Caspian Gull and a Bar-tailed Godwit and the Shag remained at Daventry Country Park.
Regards
Neil M
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| Swift courtesy of Dave Jackson. |
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| Chris Payne and Swift nest box courtesy of Lynne Barnett! |
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| Snake's Head Fritillaries and other flowers at Kelmarsh Hall courtesy of Lynne Barnett. |
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| Another photo of a stunning male Yellow Wagtail courtesy of Nathan Jones. |
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