Birding before the big soak!

Hello

I spent much of the day in the west of the county in the Daventry area, with a brief look at Ravensthorpe Reservoir on the way through. Three hours at Borough Hill Country Park and there was no sign of the Wryneck or many other passage migrants. I went over to Lilbourne Meadows and the A5 pools between the reserve and the edge of the DIRFT complex and saw the Temminck's Stint at range. It was being bullied by the Common Sandpipers on the A5 pools but had a quieter time of it on the reserve flooded meadows. Other birds there included two Dunlin, a Little Ringed Plover and a Shelduck and a Caspian Gull was noted there earlier.

I also visited Drayton Reservoir, Daventry Country Park, Kentle Wood and Badby Wood without bumping into anything much out of the ordinary (a few Redpolls and Ravens in Badby Woods).

An immature Cattle Egret at Pitsford Reservoir today was a nice surprise, spending much of its time in the sloping grass field between the Old Scalwell Road and the causeway but also venturing in the sheep field on the other side of the causeway and the meadow between the causeway and Maytrees Hide.

A Spotted Flycatcher was seen in the small oak copse along the Brampton Valley Way below Hanging Houghton and fresh birds in at Harrington Airfield were a pair of Common Redstarts, a male Whinchat, a male Wheatear, a Cuckoo and a Hobby.

Thrapston Pits provided views of an adult Little Gull on Town Lake, four Hobbies, a Great White Egret, a Whimbrel, a Common Sandpiper, three Cuckoos (one female), two Kingfishers and a singing Nightingale.

Summer Leys LNR continued to be attractive for a Ruff, two Black-tailed Godwits, two Spotted Redshanks, a Greenshank, a Dunlin, at least ten Hobbies and a Grass Snake was on show near to Pioneer Hide.

Clifford Hill Pits today corralled eight Whimbrel, two Dunlin, two Hobbies, two White Wagtails and a Wheatear and an Osprey was seen over the A45 between Earls Barton and Ecton with another at Hollowell Reservoir. A Black Tern was noted at Stanford Reservoir today.

A ringing session at Stortons Pits this morning processed two Wrens, two Chiffchaffs, four Sedge Warblers, three Reed Warblers, two Garden Warblers, three Blackcaps and a Blackbird. However the main prize was a Cuckoo (see pics below)!

Regards

Neil M

The Bluebells of
Badby Wood.

The Cuckoo at Stortons
Pits this morning, courtesy
of Chris Payne.