Tawny Owls

Hello

We finished off checking and clearing out the owl boxes on the reserve at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon, finding two singleton Tawny Owls in boxes. On both occasions the owl was with a large prey item, one a Blackbird and the other a Brown Rat. Both prey items were half eaten and it seems the boxes provided the perfect place to store and guard their respective prey. A bee nest from last year was found in one nest box and there was even combs of honey!

The ice at Pitsford on the reserve side was extensive and much of the wildfowl was absent. Birds noted on the reserve included a Woodcock, at least one Kingfisher, three Common Snipe and several Siskins.

Birds on the fields in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton today included six Golden Plovers, one hundred and fifty Lapwings and two Common Snipe with a Brambling in the same area this morning. A pair of Grey Partridge were the only notable birds seen at Harrington Airfield this morning and the cold weather still kept the Fieldfares and ridiculous numbers of Blackbirds in our garden wolfing down the apples.

Some garden ringing on the north-east edge of Northampton provided some nice captures which included fourteen Goldfinches, a Siskin, nine Blue Tits, one Great Tit, a Long-tailed Tit, six Blackbirds, a Fieldfare, a Nuthatch, a Robin, a Starling, a Woodpigeon and a particularly feisty female Sparrowhawk!

At least five Smew were at Eyebrook Reservoir today and birds at Stanford Reservoir included a Caspian Gull in the roost, a Red-crested Pochard and ten Goosanders.

Regards

Neil M

Sunset and Lapwings
at Pitsford Reservoir
this afternoon.

Tawny Owl.

Images courtesy
of Jane Neill.