Saturday's highlights

Hello

With relatively low windspeeds and minimal precipitation it was a day when Northants Ringing Group members were active at Pitsford Reservoir and Linford Lakes. At Pitsford some 73 birds of seventeen species were processed with the highlights being five Common Snipe, two male Stonechats, four Meadow Pipits and three Lesser Redpolls plus small numbers of thrushes and other common birds. Birds noted on-site during the ringing included a Jack Snipe and three Dunlin in the Scaldwell Bay.

At Linford Lakes 76 birds were duly processed of fourteen species, 59 of which were newly-ringed. Small birds included four Chiffchaffs and seven Goldcrests and the team were particularly successful at catching thrushes with a haul of thirty-one Redwings, three Fieldfares, a Song Thrush and five Blackbirds. However the probable highlights were no less than two Green Woodpeckers and a feisty male Kestrel. A Long-tailed Duck was seen on-site.

Away from ringing and a male Bearded Tit was located at Stanwick Pits today, an elusive bird on the causeway between the two bridges closest to the iron house. A Cattle Egret was also on the Roadside Pit.

A Marsh Harrier was at Summer Leys LNR this morning and a male Merlin was in a sustained Skylark chase in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton also this morning and there were two Kingfishers at the Brampton Brook.

At Stanford Reservoir today there were still ten Red-crested Pochard, a Whooper Swan flew through in an easterly direction, two Great White Egrets, two Kingfishers, a Water Rail, two Yellow-legged Gulls, a Pintail, a Lesser Redpoll and a roost of about a thousand Starlings.

Regards

Neil M

Male Reed Bunting.

Lesser Redpoll.

Meadow Pipit.

Common Snipe.

Male Stonechat.

Kestrel courtesy of
Kenny Cramer.

Green Woodpecker
courtesy of Kenny Cramer.

Fieldfare courtesy of
Kenny Cramer.