Pitsford CBC

Hello

An induction ringing session for two new potential ringers was organised for Stortons Pits yesterday under the guidance of Chris Payne, John Boland, Helen Franklin and Nick Wood. During the course of this sixty-six birds were processed of fifteen species, the vast majority juveniles and newly-ringed. Warblers included seven Chiffchaffs, ten Reed Warblers, four Sedge Warblers, four Common Whitethroats, six Blackcaps and a Garden Warbler. A re-trap Long-tailed Tit had been ringed initially in December 2021 as far away as Astcote south-west of Northampton in John Woollett's garden.

A careful extraction was a Lunar Hornet Clearwing moth from one of the nets and interestingly the ringers at Stanford Reservoir encountered exactly the same thing yesterday and also carefully released an individual of the same species.

I completed one of the last Common Bird Census surveys of the year at Pitsford Reservoir today, starting just before 5am and finally concluded at 12.45pm when of course there wasn't much singing anyway. Whilst completing these surveys I try and keep an eye out for other wildlife too. The first half of the walk was cloudy and warm but insects and birds were at a minimum but of course there were plenty of Muntjacs, a Red Fox and Brown Hares out and about.

When the sun came out so did the insects with plenty of butterflies of about sixteen species including a couple of Purple Hairstreaks. A Giant Woodwasp is not a species I see regularly and is an impressive insect. Brief views of a large dragonfly in front of Willow Hide suggested a female Vagrant Emperor but the views were insufficient to identify.

Six Great White Egrets were on-site plus two Green Sandpipers, two Common Sandpipers, four Kingfishers, a female Tufted Duck with four ducklings and an early return with a Wigeon befriending the summering flock of Gadwall which number over two hundred. A 'reeling' Grasshopper Warbler was in scrubby bushes on farmland to the east of the Walgrave Bay and singing Sedge Warblers in the Scaldwell Meadow are clearly intent on second broods. Two Yellow-legged Gulls were an adult and a third calendar year bird.

Elsewhere and a Barnacle Goose and two Little Ringed Plovers were at Clifford Hill Pits and an Osprey and two Little Ringed Plovers were at Hollowell Reservoir. A Spotted Flycatcher was at Bucknell Woods and butterflies on offer there were White Admiral, Purple Emperor and Purple Hairstreak. Spotted Flycatchers were vocal in Hanging Houghton village today.

Regards

Neil M

Giant Woodwasp.

Lapwing.

Otter. 

At one point the three Otters swam within 
touching distance of a very large Common
Carp wallowing in the shallows and they
completely ignored it! I know they have a
liking for small 'silver fish' and they were
moving fast and Carp seemingly wasn't on
 the menu!

Large White.

Blue Emperor.

Sunday ringing

Hello

Another warm day but plenty of cloud cover and much softer winds made it much more bearable.

A hot and sticky ringing session at Linford Lakes, Milton Keynes provided 151 processed birds of nineteen species and like last week a nice variety too! The most common bird encountered was Greenfinch with lots of youngsters bringing the day total to twenty-eight and Chiffchaff was the second most common encounter with twenty-six of them hitting the mist nets. There were also nineteen Blackcaps, sixteen Great Tits, eleven Blue Tits, nine Garden Warblers, eight Reed Warblers and eight Common Whitethroats.

Quality captures included two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a juvenile Green Woodpecker, three juvenile Lesser Whitethroats and two recently-fledged Cetti's Warblers. A Goldfinch and a Treecreeper added further variety.

Birds noted on-site included a Cuckoo and two Oystercatchers.

A parallel ringing session was also managed at Pitsford Reservoir today yielding eighty-nine birds of fourteen species, the majority being newly-ringed birds. Here the most prevalent species was Blue Tit with twenty-eight birds and Sand Martin with twenty-seven birds, the latter total including nestlings too. Other birds included a re-trap Reed Warbler first ringed in 2020, an adult Lesser Whitethroat, six Sedge Warblers and singles of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Reed Bunting and Goldfinch.

Birds on-site included two Great White Egrets and a Green Sandpiper.

Five Black-tailed Godwits were found at Clifford Hill Pits this morning and at Bucknell Woods there were two Spotted Flycatchers and the butterflies included Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak and Silver-washed Fritillary.

Four juvenile Grey Partridges were noted in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton today and a Little Owl was vocal in the village during the early hours.

Regards

Neil M

Lesser Whitethroat.

Common Whitethroat.

Green Woodpecker.

Above images courtesy of
Kenny Cramer.

Sand Martin ringing courtesy
of Jane Neill.

Still hot and windy

Four-spotted Chaser.

Hello

Another windy and hot day, great for Butterflies but hard work birding!

Sadly it seems that all the Avocets have now gone from Earls Barton New Workings/Whiston Wetlands.

Plenty of geese at Clifford Hill pits amounted to 670 Canadas, 270 Greylags and a single Barnacle Goose. Large numbers of geese can be found at Pitsford and Sulby Reservoirs - gathering together in post-breeding flocks to moult.

A Hobby was seen at Summer Leys LNR.

Birds north of the causeway at Pitsford Reservoir this evening included an Osprey, a Great White Egret, a Black-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel.

The current weather conditions have provided a large scale immigration of moths and butterflies from the continent and moth traps up and down the country have been enjoying large numbers of both local and migrant moths. Coastal watchers have recorded waves of butterflies coming in off the east coast with Small White dominating. Angus recorded an Olive Crescent moth in his Pitsford village garden trap this morning, possibly only the second county record and Vicki saw White Admiral and Purple Emperor butterflies at Bucknell Wood this afternoon. Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreaks and Silver-washed Fritillaries were the pick of the butterflies at Fermyn Wood.

Willow Emerald Damselfly was noted at Whiston Locks this morning, a recently arrived but now quite widespread damselfly in Northamptonshire.

Regards

Neil M

Willow Emerald Damselfly.

Purple Emperor courtesy
of Kerry Massey.

Hobby courtesy of
Robin Gossage.

Meagre pickings

Hello

Some overnight showers made it nice and damp first thing but this moisture was soon cancelled out with strong, dry winds and warm sunshine with high temperatures.

Meagre pickings today with a Common Sandpiper at Summer Leys LNR, a Barnacle Goose at Clifford Hill Pits and two Cattle Egrets on the Roadside Pit at Stanwick Pits this morning with a Curlew flying over going south-west.

Regards

Neil M

Little Egret courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Muntjac swimming the width of
the Holcot Bay, Pitsford Reservoir
today courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Comma courtesy of
Tony Stanford.

Marbled White courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Black-tailed Skimmer.

Windy and warm (still)!

Hello

A very windy day and again warm this afternoon.

A visit to Welford/Sulby Reservoirs provided at least seven Little Egrets, two family parties of Great Crested Grebes, a family of four fledged juvenile Kestrels, two Grey Wagtails and a juvenile Little Ringed Plover.

A Little Tern spent the day at Eyebrook Reservoir and Hollowell Reservoir hosted a Green Sandpiper, three Common Sandpipers and three Little Ringed Plovers.

A Hummingbird Hawk-moth was noted at Wollaston and two White-letter Hairstreak butterflies were a good find at Easton on the Hill.

Regards

Neil M

Spotted Flycatcher.

Grey Wagtail.

Large Skipper.

Above images courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Common Buzzard.

Little Ringed Plover
courtesy of Robin Gossage.

The dry weather continues

Hello

A calmer day with less wind but still dry and warm in the afternoon.

Pitsford Reservoir hosted three Common Sandpipers on the causeway and a Yellow-legged Gull and two Great White Egrets north of the causeway this morning. The Scaldwell Meadow was alive with butterflies with a profusion of Marbled Whites. This afternoon there were two Yellow-legged Gulls off the dam and a glimpse of what is believed to be the only successful pair of Mute Swans on the whole reservoir showing off five cygnets.

A Grey Partridge was at Harrington Airfield this morning and there were numerous Marbled Whites there too. In such arid conditions the Common Spotted Orchids are going over already.

Two Cattle Egrets in summer plumage were at Titchmarsh reserve, Thrapston Pits early this afternoon.

A Green-eyed Hawker was seen again at Toad Pond at Summer Leys LNR.

Regards

Neil M

Common Blue Damselflies.

Large Red-eyed Damselfly.

Common Centaur.

Juvenile Robin courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Nuthatch courtesy of
Tony Stanford.

Another gusty June day

Hello

Yet more strong gusts, still no rain and warm this afternoon.

At Hanging Houghton there was a family party of Spotted Flycatchers and five Ravens in the village.

A Caspian Gull was reported from Eyebrook Reservoir and three Great White Egrets were again in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir.

Two Cattle Egrets flew south-west over Stanwick Pits early this morning and a Grasshopper Warbler was reported from Ring Haw, Old Sulehay.

Two Ospreys spent some time at Hollowell Reservoir today and waders at Lilbourne Meadows reserve included Redshank, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper.

Old Sulehay butterflies included over twenty Silver-washed Fritillaries with plenty of Marbled Whites in the more open areas.

Regards

Neil M

Pyramidal Orchid at
Stortons Pits.

Large Skipper.

Grey Heron.

Great White Egret.

Above images courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Butterflies at Fermyn/Lady Wood

Hello

A visit to the Fermyn Wood and Country Park and adjacent Lady Wood ended up being blustery and initially cool but with some more regular sunshine as the day progressed. Fifteen species of butterfly were recorded with the best being several Silver-washed Fritillaries and a few White Admirals. I didn't see a confirmed Purple Emperor but other observers in Lady Wood did. Odonata included Blue Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer and Beautiful Demoiselles.

Wandering around the blocks of woodland blocks yielded Spotted Flycatchers at four locations, all likely to be defined territories. The feeding flocks included quite a few Marsh Tits and Nuthatches and a Siskin was in Lady Wood. Two juvenile Grey Wagtails were in Fermyn Wood CP.

Failed breeding birds and already on their way south were Common Sandpipers in the county today with singles at Pitsford Reservoir, Stanford Reservoir and five on the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits. A Cuckoo and an Oystercatcher were also noted at Stanford Reservoir. A Little Owl was vocal at Hanging Houghton this evening.

Gatekeeper butterflies and a Green-eyed Hawker were at Ditchford Pits today and a Purple Emperor was photographed between Mantle's Heath and High Wood. Southern Hawker dragonflies are just beginning to emerge in the county.

Regards

Neil M

Silver-washed Fritillary.

White Admiral.

Ringlets.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker
courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Juvenile Song Thrush
courtesy of Tony Stanford.

The long days of summer

Hello

A cooler and much windier day, seemingly similar to what we were experiencing earlier in the month.

Records of Osprey persist with singles at Hollowell and Pitsford Reservoirs today and over at Stanford Reservoir there was a Marsh Harrier, two Cuckoos including the rufous morph female and a Common Sandpiper.

Six Shelduck appeared at Pitsford Reservoir at lunchtime and an adult Yellow-legged Gull was at Wicksteed Park lake mid-afternoon. A Hobby, a Cuckoo and seventy Common Swifts were at Summer Leys LNR today

Scarlet Tiger moths seem to be spiraling around everywhere at the moment and Green-eyed Hawkers were found at Toad Pond, Summer Leys LNR and again at Wicksteed Park lake where also a Variable Damselfly. Marbled Whites continue their excellent summer with a fresh hatch at Eydon today.

Regards

Neil M

Bee Orchid at
Harrington Airfield.

Privet Hawk-moth.

Tree Bumble-bee
courtesy of John Tilly.

Mallard with ducklings.

Red Kite.

Summer Solstice

Hello

The summer solstice and the longest day of the year was as hot as predicted but with some cloud and breeze and even some light afternoon showers for a bit of heat relief.

A ringing session at Linford Lakes on the edge of Milton Keynes was good for both numbers and variety. Juveniles of small passerines dominated proceedings but bigger birds included a Jay, a Woodpigeon, a Carrion Crow and two newly-ringed Cuckoos. Glamour came in the shape of two Kingfishers and a Great Spotted Woodpecker and variation was enhanced with a couple of Treecreepers, Cetti's Warblers, Garden Warblers, a couple of Sedge Warblers and a Common Whitethroat. An adult Toad was seen and some of this year's Toadlets too. 

At Stanford Reservoir there was an Osprey fishing this morning and other birds included three Oystercatchers and three Cuckoos.

An Osprey was again in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir this morning plus an Oystercatcher and three Great White Egrets. A Spotted Flycatcher and a Little Owl were in Hanging Houghton village and another Spotted Flycatcher was in the Brampton Valley below the village by the brook and small wood. Moth-trapping from overnight at Brixworth yielded a haul of no less than twenty-eight Elephant Hawk-moths!

Regards

Neil M

Adult and juvenile Little Grebes
outside the Bird Club hide at
Pitsford Reservoir today courtesy
of Neil Hasdell.

This formidable-looking corvid
resembles a Raven, particularly
with the shape and size of the bill,
but the biometrics indicate it was
a large Carrion Crow! Image courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.

Woodpigeon.

Cuckoo.

Jay.

Reed Warbler courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.

Sedge Warbler courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.