Birding in the freezer

Hello

A particularly cold day and a night with temperatures set to plummet to -6C tonight makes it the most difficult period for small birds during the winter so far. Goldcrests and Long-tailed Tits are feeding at low levels and close to the ground in an effort to find sufficient food and sadly some won't find sufficient food to make it through the night. If they can hang on there is hope with milder conditions this week-end when insects and similar fare should be available for them.

A female Ring-necked Duck at Stanwick Pits was today's best find, a species we have been fortunate to see quite a bit of in the county during the last few years. Other birds on-site included a Cattle Egret, a Ruff and sixteen Redpolls. At Earls Barton Pits there was a Peregrine, a Green Sandpiper and a Stonechat at Quarry Walk with birds on the Summer Leys LNR including a couple of Siskins, a Great White Egret, two Common Snipe and three Dunlin.

In the Brampton Valley there were still two Green Sandpipers and a pair of Stonechats below Hanging Houghton and below Brixworth this afternoon the valley attracted a hunting male Merlin, a Grey Wagtail, a Chiffchaff and a pair of Stonechats. A male Blackcap visited our Hanging Houghton garden again today amongst the throng of hungry birds and was watched feeding on particles of Sunflower Hearts.

At Pitsford Reservoir the Great Northern Diver was seen between the Pintail Bay and The Narrows and later in the area of Catwalk Bay. Other birds included a Stonechat, a Chiffchaff, two Ravens, two Whooper Swans flying south over the dam and three Yellow-legged Gulls in the afternoon roost. Two Bramblings and over fifty Chaffinches were at the Old Scaldwell Road Feeding station where a ringing session provided fifty-two captures including a Chiffchaff, three Fieldfares, two Linnets, a Goldfinch, four Greenfinches and two Reed Buntings.

A first winter drake Scaup was at Ravensthorpe Reservoir this morning but by lunchtime possibly the same bird was at Hollowell Reservoir together with the long-staying Pink-footed Goose, the even longer-staying female Ruddy Shelduck, a Jack Snipe, six Common Snipe and three Stonechats.

The local Waxwings again included the four still at Priors Hall, Corby and now two at Lambrook Drive, East Hunsbury, Northampton.

At Stanford Reservoir the second winter Mediterranean Gull turned up again and other birds included twenty-one Goosanders, a Great White Egret and a Cetti's Warbler.

Regards

Neil M

Female Siskin.

Long-tailed Tit.

Reed Bunting.

All images courtesy
of Tony Stanford.