Summer heat

Hello

With temperatures locally at almost thirty degrees Celsius and cloud bubbling up with summery gusts this evening, it was another hot one!

More post-breeding waders passing through the county will probably be a theme of this new month and today there were single Common Sandpipers at Stanford Reservoir and Summer Leys LNR.

Early morning encounters at Clifford Hill Pits included a female Common Scoter and at one stage twelve Black-tailed Godwits.

A Bittern was reported from the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits today, there were four Grey Wagtails in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton and still Spotted Flycatchers in the village itself.

Hollowell Reservoir attracted a first summer (second calendar year) Mediterranean Gull, an Osprey and two Common Sandpipers plus a splendid Green-eyed Hawker around the main feeder stream, a first for this site.

Birds at Ravensthorpe Reservoir amounted to a Raven, at least six Grey Wagtails and more audible Spotted Flycatchers all from the dam area. Large numbers of Common Blue Damselflies carpeted the water and lots of Blue Emperors and Black-tailed Skimmers were busy along the shoreline. Butterflies included Purple Hairstreak, Marbled White and Small Copper.

Evening birds in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir were an Osprey and up to twenty-five mobile Black-tailed Godwits.

Singles of Crossbill and Siskin were recorded at Bucknell Wood, both species recorded on the move through the county in small numbers since early June.

A Purple Hairstreak visited a garden in Thrapston this afternoon, four or five Lesser Emperors were active at Stanwick Pits and a female Vagrant Emperor (potentially a first for the county) was seen and photographed ovipositing there. 

Butterflies catalogued at Bucknell Wood included a Wood White, five Silver-washed Fritillaries and two Purple Hairstreaks.

Regards

Neil M

A recently-fledged juvenile Kestrel.

Grey Heron.

Tystie is developing into a 
mischievous young dog from the
 naughty puppy he was!

Looking from the Brampton Valley Way towards
 the villages of Lamport and Hanging Houghton.