Quail, Garganey and Merlin.

Hello

Some welcome rain today but also periods of sunshine and a lovely evening.

Birds for Pitsford Reservoir north of the causeway today included a Black Tern, eight Great White Egrets, four Greenshanks, a Green Sandpiper, a Common Sandpiper, three Ruff, an adult Yellow-legged Gull and two Spotted Flycatchers.

Naseby Reservoir continued to provide for the adult Caspian Gull, female Ruddy Shelduck, a Greenshank, three Green Sandpipers and four Common Sandpipers.

A Curlew Sandpiper and a Caspian Gull were at Eyebrook Reservoir and Hollowell Reservoir hung on to the juvenile Stonechat plus two Common Sandpipers, a Ringed Plover and a Little Ringed Plover.

In the Nene Valley at Summer Leys LNR there was a Garganey, a female Red-crested Pochard, a Ruff, a Greenshank, three Common Sandpipers and two Great White Egrets. The New Workings/Whiston Wetlands yielded four Greenshanks, two Little Ringed Plovers, a Common Sandpiper, a Hobby and a Whinchat. A Bittern flew across the layby pit at Stanwick Pits this afternoon and Clifford Hill Pits was quiet with a Ringed Plover and five Common Sandpipers with a Black-tailed Godwit over early morning and a Raven.

It was pleasing to locate an adult Little Owl in Hanging Houghton village with two full-grown owlets and a Barn Owl (noticeable by their recent absence) was in the valley below the village.

Migrants in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton included an unexpected Quail feeding out in the open this evening plus the usual chats in the shape of a Wheatear, ten Whinchats and a Common Redstart. Two male Common Redstarts were showing nicely at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell this evening.

A male Merlin was recorded at Farthingstone and birds at Stanford Reservoir were a Yellow-legged Gull, two Common Sandpipers, six Ravens and two Cetti's Warblers.

Regards

Neil M

Kingfisher from the Goosander Hide
at Pitsford Reservoir courtesy of
Tony Stanford.

Spotted Flycatcher at Pitsford Reservoir
courtesy of Tony Stanford.

In a good year for the species, Clifden Nonpareil
has been found by many moth-ers locally, this
image courtesy of Jim Dunkley.

Juvenile Common Buzzard
courtesy of Jim Dunkley.