A red morning beginning

Hello

Hopefully our last cold day for a while but still a day of feed station maintenance locally.

Birds in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton included three Grey Partridges, a Raven, a Golden Plover and one or two Barn Owl(s).

Stanford Reservoir hosted a drake Pintail, seven Goosanders, a Great White Egret, a Stonechat, a Water Rail, a Golden Plover, a Kingfisher and a Chiffchaff.

Birds at Pitsford Reservoir included the now long-staying Great Northern Diver, three or four Stonechats and a Barn Owl. At Ravensthorpe Reservoir the two White-fronted Geese were still present and a drake Smew was present in the ice hole. Up to five Smew and a Scaup were still at Eyebrook Reservoir.

A late afternoon visit to Harrington Airfield yielded sightings of a Short-eared Owl, a Barn Owl and a Woodcock.

At Titchmarsh reserve today there was a Great White Egret, a Goosander, four drake Pintail and a couple of Common Snipe. Blackcaps turned up in gardens at Wellingborough and Oundle today and Fieldfares were reported in several gardens too.

Deene Lake provided some good birding with a Jack Snipe, two Whooper Swans in flight, a Great White Egret, ten Shelducks, three Black Swans, two Egyptian Geese, a pair of Stonechats and a Redpoll.

Two Peregrines were in Northampton today, two Redpolls were at Kelmarsh and a Siskin was at Hanging Houghton.

Regards

Neil M

A very red morning in the
Brampton Valley.

Muntjac.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Ring-necked Parakeet courtesy
of Robin Gossage.