Birds of Easter Monday

Hello

Some really rather aggressive weather out there today with rain for much of the morning and some very strong gusts and hefty showers in the afternoon, but also some fabulous sunshine too.

Pitsford Reservoir finally woke up this spring with some interesting passage birds, some of which probably only stayed for short periods before moving on. Passerines around the dam area included a Wheatear, twenty-five Yellow Wagtails, three hundred Sand Martins, twenty Swallows and up to four House Martins. This evening two male Red-breasted Mergansers put in a brief appearance between Pintail Bay and The Pines and a little later there was an excellent find of a summer plumage Black-necked Grebe south of the causeway near the Gorse Bushes.

Clifford Hill Pits also attracted the birds today with a Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper, two Dunlin, a Little Ringed Plover, two Common Terns, a Goosander, a Common Whitethroat, seventy Swallows and fifty Sand Martins. Two Wheatears were located in the Nene Valley 500m downriver from Wollaston Lock.

An early morning adult Kittiwake at Stanford Reservoir was found at 7.30am and disappeared just after 8am. Other birds noted included two Common Terns, four House Martins, five Yellow Wagtails, a Sedge Warbler, a hundred Sand Martins, forty Swallows, four Blackcaps, four Willow Warblers, two Cetti's Warblers and two Shelducks.

Two Shelducks, a Water Rail and a Sedge Warbler were in the Brampton Valley below Brixworth this morning, a Barn Owl was at Lamport Hall this evening and Harrington Airfield hosted a Wheatear, a pair of Grey Partridge, a Swallow and two or three Willow Warblers. Over at Barnwell Country Park there were three Mandarin Ducks, a Grey Wagtail and singing Blackcaps and a Willow Warbler.

Regards

Neil M

Female Mallard on a nest, and this excellent mother-to-be
refused to move despite a fisherman being just feet from her
and a dog sniffing her out!

Drake Mandarin Duck.

Another example of a Pied Wagtail without a
foot. This family of birds suffers from hair
 tangling around their toes and feet and
cutting off the circulation and thus losing
 toes and in extreme cases the whole foot.

Female Blackbird in today's
lovely periods of sunshine.