The secret life of the Water Rail

Hello

The Northants Ringing Group project in the Nene Valley to better understand the breeding habits of Water Rails, one of our more secretive and poorly-known birds, has faced many challenges which have been mostly overcome by the project leader. Today the dedicated team were successful in catching five Water Rails, four of which were new to the project. They and a Moorhen that was also caught were ringed and colour-ringed so that their habits and behaviour as monitored by cameras can be assessed without the need to catch them again. These birds will soon contemplate breeding and every effort has been made to successfully gender and age the ringed birds with a view to witnessing the pairings and subsequent outcomes. Images of some of these birds from today are depicted below.

New birds sighted in the county today were rather restricted but a Bittern perched up in trees at Daventry Country Park was not anticipated and an excellent local record away from the Nene Valley. A female Red-crested Pochard was also present.

Combining bird feeding and birding is a daily thing for us and a visit to Harrington Airfield this afternoon to feed the birds also provided sightings of the Short-eared Owl with the distinctive patch on the wing, a Barn Owl, two Woodcock, seven Grey Partridges, two Ravens and twenty-five Golden Plovers. Earlier a 'ringtail' Hen Harrier flew from the Blueberry Farm area near Maidwell towards Cottesbrooke.

At Summer Leys LNR today the Glossy Ibis again put in an appearance as did a Snipe, a Great White Egret, a fly-over Curlew, three Oystercatchers and a Grey Wagtail.

Further west and the valley below Cogenhoe provided for seven White-fronted Geese, a Pink-footed Goose and a Siberian Chiffchaff (by overflow bridge K121).

Hollowell Reservoir today yielded three Jack Snipe, six Common Snipe and three Stonechats.

A Raven was at Hanging Houghton, the Marsh Harrier was still at the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits and a Grey Wagtail, three Lesser Redpolls and a couple of Siskins were in the Brampton Valley below Brixworth.

Neil Hasdell has kindly updated the map for Pitsford Reservoir reflecting the recent changes on-site and the new map has been added to the Birdwatching Sites tab/page.

Regards

Neil M

Water Rails.

Moorhen.

 Above images
courtesy of Chris Payne.

Kestrel with an aerial
view courtesy of Jim Dunkley.

A second calendar year
male Sparrowhawk caught
and ringed today.