Northamptonshire Birding: Ditchford WeBS count

Hello

With night-time temperatures dropping to minus seven degrees Centigrade in the county last night it was a busy day of squeezing in feeding stations and also completing a WeBS count. A pre-dawn circuit at Harrington Airfield ensured the birds there had some food to wake up to and many of the early-risers had already found it before I left.

After two lots of garden feeding it was then onto Pitsford Reservoir (where much of the reserve was covered in ice) and where a bag of peanuts was left with the warden team for delivery to Christies Copse in the Walgrave Bay. I drove on to Ditchford Pits to complete the December WeBS count. The clear conditions from last night, no wind and cold temperatures ensured that the pits were variably 90 - 100% ice-bound, with plenty of birds in the breaks of the ice on some of the pits.

West of Ditchford Lane and the highlights were a Great White Egret in flight, two Peregrines, three Stonechats, four Egyptian Geese, four Water Rails, four Common Snipe, at least three Cetti's Warblers, two Goosanders, a Lesser Redpoll and a couple of Siskins. East of Ditchford Lane and the scarcer birds included a Green Sandpiper, two Woodcock, the mostly white Carrion Crow still, a solitary Kingfisher, two Great White Egrets, a Grey Wagtail, three Cetti's Warblers, three Chiffchaffs and a Siskin or two.

I then had just enough time to whizz back to Pitsford Reservoir and fill up the feeders and broadcast some food at The Old Scaldwell Road Feeding Station in readiness for the next couple of days before the cold weather breaks.

Over at Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston Pits, Nick today located a pair of Smew swimming around in a break in the ice. A Blackcap was seen in a garden at Woodford Halse today and another has been in a Weston Favell garden in recent days. Graham witnessed a small skein of eight Pink-footed Geese flying east just south of Hartwell this morning.

A Short-eared Owl flew over Daventry Country Park in a WNW direction late this morning and yesterday both an Egyptian Goose and a Ruddy Shelduck were at Stanford Reservoir.

Regards

Neil M