Autumn Wood Warbler and supporting cast

Hello

Sadly it seems like the good birds from yesterday vacated Summer Leys LNR overnight and birders today have spread their wings to try more locations to find something a little out of the ordinary.

The Ferruginous Duck was reported from Stanford Reservoir again and it's Day One of 'Stanstock' where the regular Stanford Ringing Group ringers spend a week on-site in an effort to record and process as many migrants as they can. Both a Common Redstart and a Grasshopper Warbler were caught and ringed today (following two Common Redstarts ringed there yesterday). Other birds noted around the reservoir were four Common Sandpipers, five Pochard, four hundred and twenty Tufted Ducks, twenty Yellow Wagtails, two Hobby and two Ravens.

The best find of the day in the county was an autumn Wood Warbler at Wicken Wood, a tricky bird to find in the spring and particularly difficult in the autumn as they are usually silent. It's likely that very few of these birds move through the county each year so I consider this an excellent find and congratulations to Tyler the finder.

Potentially another new bird was a Glossy Ibis which was located at Titchmarsh LNR (Thrapston Pits) by Adrian - it's unclear whether this is the bird that was at Summer Leys LNR yesterday. Other birds at Titchmarsh were an adult Yellow-legged Gull, a Garganey, a Wood Sandpiper, a Greenshank, three Green Sandpipers, a Common Sandpiper, three Common Snipe and a Marsh Harrier (which latterly flushed the ibis).

At Pitsford Reservoir today there were four Greenshanks north of the causeway plus a Green Sandpiper, a juvenile Shelduck, four Great White Egrets, four Spotted Flycatchers and a Common Redstart, all in the Scaldwell Bay. Four Yellow-legged Gulls and a Dunlin were at the dam area this evening.

A Tree Pipit was at Hollowell Reservoir this morning plus two Greenshank and two Dunlin. A Common Redstart was found in a field hedgerow just east of Boughton this morning and another was south-west of Great Brington. Three more Common Redstarts were at Harrington Airfield this morning, two betweeen the chippings compound and Bunker One and a single at Bunker Two. Another Common Redstart was at Lamport Hall where also eight or so Spotted Flycatchers.

Summer Leys LNR attracted two Cattle Egrets and two Marsh Harriers this morning. A Barn Owl was hunting in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this evening.

Regards

Neil M

Wood Warbler at Wicken Wood today
courtesy of Tyler Atkinson.

Spotted Flycatcher.

Common Redstart courtesy of
Tyler Atkinson.

Juvenile Red Kite.