A blend of summer and winter migrants

Hello

Despite the very dry conditions on-site Harrington Airfield attracted passage migrants this morning with a male Common Redstart which was unusually confiding, a male Ring Ouzel and three Wheatears.

A little later and another male Common Redstart was at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell and other birds were a Wheatear and twelve Fieldfares.

At Lilbourne Water Meadows nine Pink-footed Geese flew over moving east and birds on-site included a pair of Shelduck, two or four Redshanks, a pair of Oystercatchers, two Common Snipe, two Little Ringed Plovers, a singing Lesser Whitethroat and seven Fieldfares.

Birds at Stanford Reservoir were a Pink-footed Goose, a Common Sandpiper, two Oystercatchers, two Great White Egrets and a Barn Owl. At Hollowell Reservoir there was a Jack Snipe, a Common Snipe, three Common Sandpipers and a Redwing. Two Arctic Terns flew through Eyebrook Reservoir and a Caspian Gull remained there.

In the Nene Valley there were two Common Terns at Thrapston Pits, a Common Sandpiper and three Fieldfares were at Lower Barnwell Lock and Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows attracted a Mandarin Duck, a Garden Warbler and a Reed Warbler. Summer Leys LNR provided sightings of the Glossy Ibis, two Marsh Harriers, a Dunlin, a Common Sandpiper, four Redshanks, five Common Snipe, a Little Ringed Plover, an Oystercatcher and a Great White Egret with a Grasshopper Warbler 'reeling' in the car park meadow.

The Whiston Wetlands area provided two Garganey, two Egyptian Geese, a Pink-footed Goose, one Great White Egret, two Oystercatchers, eight Little Ringed Plovers, a Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper, two Green Sandpipers, a Grey Wagtail, two Wheatears and a Lesser Whitethroat.

Regards

Neil M

Male Common Redstart
at Harrington Airfield today
courtesy of David Arden.

Cowslips - not looking at their
best due to a cold night, a ground
frost and lack of rain!

Lapwing courtesy of
Jonathan Pitt.

Redshank courtesy of
Jonathan Pitt.

Hen Pheasant courtesy
of Tony Stanford.