Migrants lurking in the bushes

Hello

Many of the Robins are back in full song now, a combination of surviving adults that have recovered from the breeding season and undergone a full moult, and the youngsters that have mostly completed their body moult and are striving for territories. I wonder how many adults are usurped by their own young!

It's this time of the year when many small migrants pass almost unnoticed through the county. Ringing has shown us that as birdwatchers wandering around with optics we see a small fraction of the birds in the foliage and bushes. Large numbers of Blackcaps traditionally move through the middle of the UK, not bouncing off the coastlines like many rarer birds. Ringers at Stanford Reservoir can expect to catch and ring a few thousand of these birds every year.

A ringing session at Stortons Pits was a good example this morning with a selection of nets barely covering a couple of hectares successfully catching over eighty Blackcaps. Other birds included two each of Garden Warbler and Common Whitethroat, singles of Sedge Warbler and Cetti's Warbler, six Reed Warblers and twenty-three Chiffchaffs. Bigger birds included two Song Thrushes, a Blackbird, a Green Woodpecker and a Magpie. A Ring-necked Parakeet and a male Peregrine overflew the site.

Birds north of the causeway at Pitsford Reservoir today were a Spotted Redshank, two Greenshanks, a Green Sandpiper, two Black-tailed Godwits, three Ruff, two Common Snipe, a Garganey, four Pintail, four Shelducks, one thousand, one hundred and thirty Tufted Ducks, an adult Yellow-legged Gull, a Hobby and eight Great White Egrets.

A Wood Sandpiper was still at Ravensthorpe Reservoir plus two Green Sandpipers, a Common Sandpiper and three Common Snipe.

A list of birds noted at Daventry Country Park included two Ringed Plovers, two Green Sandpipers, two Common Sandpipers, four Shelducks, three Swifts and a Hobby.

A Bittern and a Ruff were at Summer Leys LNR this morning and a Hobby and a Great White Egret were at Kinewell Lake, Ringstead Pits. The Little Stint was reported from Clifford Hill Pits and a Garganey was at the north end of the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits.

A Hobby and a Raven were near Kelmarsh and a Common Redstart and eight Spotted Flycatchers were at Lamport Hall this evening.

Regards

Neil M

Cetti's Warbler courtesy of
Jane Neill.

First year Magpie courtesy
of Chris Payne.

First year female Green Woodpecker
courtesy of Chris Payne.