Pitsford WeBs count

Hello

Most of the day was spent completing the Pitsford Reservoir WeBs count in rather pleasant weather conditions!

An Osprey was fishing near the dam at about 9am this morning and it or another was fishing in the Walgrave Bay this afternoon. Four or five Great White Egrets were north of the causeway and ducks included five Red-crested Pochards and four Pintail with waders comprising of five Green Sandpipers, four Common Sandpipers and nine Common Snipe. Three Yellow-legged Gulls and forty Common Terns later attracted three Black Terns. Five Kingfishers were busy around the margins as were four Grey Wagtails and two Ravens were foraging along the shoreline. Other birds noted included a Hobby or two and the adult male Common Redstart was still in the hedgeline opposite the Paul Britten bench in the Scaldwell Bay.

The Ferruginous Duck was again seen at Daventry Country Park today as was a Black-tailed Godwit and a Pink-footed Goose. Birds at Stanford Reservoir today included a Great White Egret, a Common Sandpiper, two Green Sandpipers, a Peregrine and a Hobby and the ringing there provided over two hundred new captures which included a Spotted Flycatcher and three Common Redstarts.

Three Black-tailed Godwits and a Greenshank were at Summer Leys LNR this morning and a male Stonechat was seen at Titchmarsh Reserve, Thrapston Pits.

This morning a Common Redstart, four Whinchats, a Wheatear and a Marsh Harrier were all in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton. A male Common Redstart remains at Harrington Airfield - present between Bunker One and the Chipping Compound.

Brown Argus butterflies were on the wing at Salcey Forest today and Hummingbird Hawk-moths still seem to be widespread.

Regards

Neil M

Female Southern Hawker
which today was watched laying eggs
 in soil, moss and reed stems (in the
second image she is ovipositing
into a reed stem).

Evening sky at Harrington Airfield.