Windy but sunny out there!

Hello

Good news from the Higham Ferrers church Peregrine nest yesterday was that the female has now laid her second egg! Yesterday evening two of my ringing colleagues went out to try and catch and ring Tawny Owls at a site in Milton Keynes and ended up catching a Woodcock instead!

At Summer Leys LNR there were still some Black-tailed Godwits on-site at dawn this morning but then seemed to leave the reserve with numbers dropping from fifty to thirty-five and it appears they had all left by 7.30am. However seventeen Black-tailed Godwits arrived on the reserve at about 9.20am and a couple of minutes later there were thirty birds. Two Oystercatchers were also present and the sunshine produced twelve Brimstones, a Peacock and a Red Admiral butterfly, a Bee Fly and a basking Grass Snake. Brimstones, Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks were on the wing in a variety of locations in the county today.

At least one Curlew and displaying Lapwings were present on the Lilbourne Meadows reserve this morning with a pair of Ringed Plovers on the muddy pools nearby off the A5 near the Pro Logis and Royal Mail warehouses.

A male Peregrine and about two hundred and fifty Fieldfares were the highlights to a visit to a very windy Honey Hill near Cold Ashby. The female Ring-necked Duck was back off the causeway at Ravensthorpe Reservoir today. A Brambling was in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this morning and a Water Rail was heard squealing at Spring Marsh in the Brampton Valley below Brixworth. A Barn Owl was the only noteworthy bird at Harrington Airfield this afternoon.

Birds at Stanford Reservoir today included three Goosanders, a Shelduck, a Kingfisher, an Oystercatcher plus ten Sand Martins and more than a dozen Chiffchaffs.

Regards

Neil M

Fieldfare courtesy of
Robin Gossage.

Mistle Thrush caught and
ringed recently.

Woodcock caught and ringed last
night, courtesy of Kenny Cramer.

Garden Stock Dove courtesy
of Jim Dunkley.