Ragwort

Hello

Ragwort, a great-looking plant and the bright yellow flowers are particularly noticeable in summer into autumn. The plant can be hazardous to livestock, particularly horses, so it is perhaps little surprise that it is often pulled from the earth where such animals may come in to contact with it, and expunged from hay crops too. The toxin attacks the liver of horses in particular.

Ragwort though is a great plant for insects, particularly nectar-loving insects as well as the foodplant for Cinnabar moths and others. David Arden has been photographing insects at Spratton attracted to the golden almost feathery flowers.

A couple of ringing sessions took place locally in ideal conditions for mist nets. At Stortons Pits John Woollett and John Boland caught forty-one birds which included four Common Whitethroats, three Garden Warblers, seven Blackcaps, eleven Reed Warblers, a Cetti's Warbler and small numbers of Goldfinch, Robin, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Great Tit, Dunnock and Wren. One of the Garden Warblers was first encountered in June 2017 and was caught twice again in 2019 so presumably is a local breeding bird and possibly on the Stortons Pits reserve itself.

The other ringing operation was at Brixworth Water Treatment Works which yielded seventy-one birds of twenty-two species. This total included five Magpies which are very common on-site, six Common Whitethroats, a Lesser Whitethroat, six Blackcaps, a Reed Warbler, seven Sedge Warblers, five Chiffchaffs, two Willow Warblers, a Yellow Wagtail, two Grey Wagtails and eight Pied Wagtails. A Hobby and a Little Egret were seen there too.

Birds located elsewhere in the county today included three Common Redstarts and three Wheatears at Harrington Airfield, two Common Redstarts at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell and two Spotted Flycatchers at Lamport Hall. A juvenile Marsh Harrier was at Hollowell Reservoir this morning and at Lilborurne Meadows and the A5 pools birds included a Common Redstart, a Green Sandpiper, a Little Ringed Plover, two Curlews, an adult Caspian Gull and ten Yellow-legged Gulls.

Stanwick Pits again attracted a near-adult Caspian Gull plus six Yellow-legged Gulls, a Cattle Egret and a Garganey.

Regards

Neil M

Small Copper butterfly.

Brown Argus butterfly.

Brown Argus butterfly.

Gatekeeper butterfly.

Gatekeeper butterfly
and Cinnabar moth caterpillars.

All Ragwort images courtesy
of David Arden.

First year Yellow
Wagtail courtesy of
Lewis Aaron.