Nene Valley birding

Hello

Very mild today but some short snappy showers kept me looking up!

During the spring the Nene Valley with its succession of gravel pits, wet meadows and remnant river system tends to dominate the county in providing the most interesting birds and the reservoirs (often with high water levels) struggle to compete.

An immature male Merlin was the best bird seen at Harrington Airfield this morning as it hunted over the top fields - the singing Skylarks well above it ignored it completely! Other birds included a flock of about one hundred and thirty-two Golden Plovers, a pair of Grey Partridge and a Raven. Two Green Sandpipers remain in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton. The repetitive phrases of a singing Blackcap in the village sounds unlike a British breeder and reminds me of the birds I've heard singing in the Pyrenees and south France.

An Osprey and a 'redhead' Smew were at Eyebrook Reservoir today and five Sand Martins were feeding over the feeder stream end of Hollowell Reservoir.

Summer Leys LNR provided views of two Cattle Egrets, two Black-tailed Godwits, a Pintail and a fly-through Peregrine with a Little Ringed Plover and three Green Sandpipers at Earls Barton New Workings and a Barn Owl at Mary's Lake. Over at Ditchford Pits the female Ring-necked Duck was still at Higham Lake/Main Pit at lunchtime and a Marsh Harrier flew south west through Stanwick Pits early this morning.

Thrapston Pits including the Titchmarsh reserve held plenty of birds with initial sightings of a Ruff and two Redshanks and two Sand Martins on Titchmarsh by Nick and followed up by Eleanor who pretty much walked the whole complex in the afternoon with two adult Little Gulls on Town Lake, two Cattle Egrets with a mass of birds on flooded meadows between Thorpe Waterville and Aldwincle, four Great White Egrets, four Egyptian Geese, at least two Oystercatchers, four Cetti's Warblers and at least six Chiffchaffs.

Nine Waxwings were reported at Priors Hall Walk, Corby today in much the same place where birds were showing so well earlier in the year. A few Siskins were again at Scotland Wood and Kelmarsh Hall.

Regards

Neil M

Great Spotted Woodpecker
with a height advantage
 courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Common Buzzard courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Goldfinch courtesy
 of John Tilly.

Brown Hare at
Harrington Airfield.