Black-tailed Godwits.

Hello

Black-tailed Godwits were the birds of the moment today when a fabulous flock of about one hundred and sixty-three turned up at Summer Leys LNR this morning and stayed all day, moving around the reserve. Likely to be Iceland-bound these birds appeared on a strong southerly wind today and may have roosted overnight.

Other birds at Summer Leys today included the long-staying female Red-crested Pochard, two Great White Egrets, six Common Snipe, six Redshank, two Oystercatchers, a Little Ringed Plover and a Chiffchaff. An adult male Sparrowhawk had a go at catching Snipe and Redshank but failed - perhaps the same bird photographed so well last year carrying a Common Snipe?

A Common Bird Census was completed around the reserve section of Pitsford Reservoir today, the early surveys are always valuable in assessing the strength in numbers of resident birds before they are swallowed up in the foliage later in the spring. With seventy-four singing Wrens and fifty-two singing Robins I think we can assume that these two species wintered successfully. Over thirty Chiffchaffs were noted on the reserve - they have really moved in during the last few days - and sixteen pairs of Long-tailed Tits were probably a significant underestimate. Fifteen Goldcrests (twelve singing) and eighteen Treecreepers (seven singing) suggest that most small birds on-site suffered minimal mortality during the cold months.

Three Kingfishers were seen, a Raven was noisy in the Walgrave Bay, there were a couple of small groups of Siskins probably numbering no more than half a dozen individuals and waders included an Oystercatcher, a Common Snipe and three Black-tailed Godwits. I saw at least thirteen Muntjac on my walk around the reserve and there were plenty of Redwings foraging in the leaf litter or sub-singing in trees.

A Yellow Wagtail and a hundred Fieldfares were in a field near Lamport Hall late this morning. Another flock of over a hundred Fieldfares were in fields between Showsley and Stoke Bruerne. A Wheatear and a Green Sandpiper were in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton early this afternoon. Blackcaps were in gardens at Overstone Park and Scaldwell yesterday.

Ospreys were noted at three locations in the county today.

Jacob did well to photograph a ringed female Chaffinch in a Scaldwell garden back on 10th February 2023 and this has been confirmed as a Belgium-ringed individual first ringed as a first year bird on 10th November 2020 at Berendrecht, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Regards

Neil M

Map depicting locations of
Chaffinch first ringed in Belgium
and subsequently photographed in
Scaldwell. Map courtesy of Nick Wood.

Chaffinch courtesy of
John Tilly.

Male Sparrowhawk at Summer Leys
LNR today courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Black-tailed Godwits at Summer Leys
LNR today courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Black-tailed Godwits at Summer Leys LNR
today courtesy of Jim Dunkley.