Birds of the cooling rain

Hello

At Pitsford Reservoir today there was a huge juvenile female Peregrine in the Walgrave Bay plus a Raven with five Pintail noted in the Scaldwell Bay and a Stonechat and an adult Yellow-legged Gull near the Maytrees Hide. The American Wigeon wasn't picked out today but is presumably still lurking there somewhere amongst the many hundreds of Eurasian Wigeon (with many of them roosting in waterside bushes and providing difficult viewing).  A check of the rather wet gull roost this evening produced two adult Caspian Gulls, three Yellow-legged Gulls, four hundred and sixty-five Lesser Black-backed Gulls and sixty-three Herring Gulls (including the first 'argentatus' race birds of the autumn).

At Stanford Reservoir the four Red-crested Pochards remained and there was also a Great White Egret and a Stonechat.

Summer Leys birds included a Cattle Egret, a first winter Mediterranean Gull, about thirty-five Golden Plovers flying over, two House Martins and still the colour-ringed Great White Egret.

A/the Short-eared Owl put in another appearance in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton and again near 'shrike hedge' this afternoon and two Stonechats were present too. A Raven and a Grey Wagtail were in Hanging Houghton village.

With over five thousand new Blackcaps caught and ringed in the county this year (the majority by members of the Stanford Reservoir Ringing Group) it perhaps isn't surprising that a few recoveries have been reported. One of those was a first year male ringed at Greens Norton on 8th September 2023 which was caught again at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory, Kent on 22nd September 2023. In those fourteen days this young bird had travelled 192km heading ESE and had gained 2.2 grammes ready for the next migration hop.

Regards

Neil M

A black bird against a grey
sky but the call and shape
of the Raven over Pitsford
Reservoir is distinctive and 
these days a regular event.

Jaeger, an observant and attentive
 member of the Pitsford WeBS team!