Ringing at Harrington Airfield

Hello

Some bird ringing at Harrington Airfield kept a few of us occupied this morning and in ideal conditions we processed some seventy-nine birds of thirteen species. The three dominant species number-wise were Dunnock (16), Goldfinch (21) and Yellowhammer (19) and the catch included a Chiffchaff, two Song Thrushes, six Reed Buntings and to round the session off a rather resplendent male Green Woodpecker.

A House Martin flew through going west, a Great White Egret flew over heading south and a female Wheatear was at the end of Bunker Two. Plenty of Brown Hares are always good to see, a dog Fox being a much scarcer sighting up there but more frequently since the Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges were put down in such large numbers.

The  Black-necked Grebe continued to grace Clifford Hill Pits even if it does keep it's distance and other birds were the Cattle Egret still, a Wheatear, two Little Ringed Plovers and five Sand Martins.

The Whiston Wetlands area continued to host two Avocets today plus three Green Sandpipers, an Oystercatcher, two Grey Wagtails and two Cetti's Warblers.

An Osprey caught a fish at Hollowell Reservoir late morning and at Stanford Reservoir there was a Great White Egret, a Water Rail, three Common Snipe, two Kingfishers and a Cetti's Warbler.

A Brambling and at least four Reed Buntings were in our small garden at Hanging Houghton this morning and two Peregrines were in Market Harborough town centre.

Regards

Neil M

Comma courtesy of
Jonathan Pitt.

Lapwing courtesy of
Jonathan Pitt.

Peregrines at Market Harborough
today courtesy of Tony Stanford.

The below video clip was of the Green Woodpecker
being released today at Harrington Airfield courtesy
of Claire Nuttall.