Week-end summary

Hello

A very warm week-end and it looks like the beginning of the week may be the same.

No outstanding birds in the county during the last couple of days but with a Roseate Tern just over the county border at Eyebrook Reservoir today and a Paddyfield Warbler trapped and ringed in Staffordshire also today you never know what may be straying on to your local patch!

Yesterday (Saturday) saw the long-staying female Ruddy Shelduck and an Osprey at Stanford Reservoir plus a Mandarin Duck, three hawking Hobbies, two Common Sandpipers, a Kingfisher and a Cetti's Warbler. Reed Warblers were processed by the ringers on-site and three of the birds were bearing rings from elsewhere, one of them from Belgium. Over two hundred birds were newly-ringed during ringing operations during the day.

A Black-tailed Godwit was at Summer Leys LNR yesterday with a Greenshank and two Green Sandpipers on the nearby New Workings.

A family party of Spotted Flycatchers were at Beck Dairy, Cottesbrooke yesterday morning and four Green Sandpipers were on pools in the Brampton Valley below Brixworth with two Ravens there later. Lamport Hall hosted another family of Spotted Flycatchers plus a Hobby and two Ravens, and a Whinchat remained at Hollowell Reservoir. The two male Common Redstarts remained at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell.

Lilbourne Water Meadows provided a Great White Egret, two Ravens, two Common Snipe, a Green Sandpiper and a Common Sandpiper and a Marsh Harrier was lingering at Harrington Airfield in the evening.

Today (Sunday) and Stanford Reservoir yielded the Ruddy Shelduck again plus an Osprey and a Marsh Harrier plus a Hobby, two Common Sandpipers and a Kingfisher.

An Osprey was perched up at Pitsford Reservoir this morning for about half an a hour in the Scaldwell Bay and a fresh brood of Tufted Ducks was made up of nine ducklings. A Spotted Flycatcher was also seen.

Two or three Common Redstarts were at Lilbourne Water Meadows today and a Marsh Harrier was seen flying west there this evening. Two Spotted Flycatchers were at Woodford Halse LNR this morning.

A Common Redstart and a family of Spotted Flycatchers were at Lamport Hall again this afternoon.

Regards

Neil M

A Barn Owl nestling
out of the nest box and
roaming around in a barn.

Greenfinch courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Migrant Hawker courtesy of
Robin Gossage. These small hawkers
 are now on the wing.

Gatekeeper.

A 'wonky' Southern Hawker.
Insects that undertake metamorphosis
as a natural process run the risk of not
always being able to to make the perfect
transition. This hawker was still able to
fly but whether it was capable of producing
the next generation I really don't know.