Birds of a cool, grey November day.

Hello

I've just returned from a two week stint visiting Islay and Mull in Scotland - it definitely feels cooler down here!

The north-easterly airflow certainly provided an influx of birds in the county today with a Black-necked Grebe at Summer Leys LNR, a first year drake Scaup at Ravensthorpe Reservoir and a Great Skua that may have roosted overnight at Stanford Reservoir. Single White-fronted Geese popped up at Clifford Hill Pits and Boddington Reservoir.

A flock of forty-nine female/immature Common Scoters greeted me at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon, spending much of their time in open water between the Pintail Bay and the Sailing Club. I was there to count the gull roost and this also proved interesting with two Caspian Gulls, at least four Yellow-legged Gulls, a Mediterranean Gull and fifteen hundred Common Gulls together with three thousand Black-headeds, fifty Herring Gulls, thirty Lesser Black-backed Gulls and four/five Great Black-backs. Other birds at this end of the reservoir were twelve Dunlin only seen in flight, two Great White Egrets, a Grey Wagtail and six Bramblings over. North of the causeway there was a Shelduck, several Pintail, a pair of Stonechats, a Grey Wagtail, at least two Great White Egrets and at least one Raven.

A Raven and ten Redpoll were in Hanging Houghton village and birds in the Brampton Valley below the village this afternoon amounted to six Stonechats, the female Hen Harrier and a Barn Owl.

An adult Mediterranean Gull was in a field next to the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits late this morning, with a Scaup on Town Lake.

Other birds at Clifford Hill Pits were five Shelduck, eight Golden Plovers, a Dunlin, a Jack Snipe, a  Yellow-legged Gull and two Stonechats, and a Redshank was noted at Hollowell Reservoir.

Also at Stanford Reservoir there was a record site total of thirty-six Great White Egrets, three Pintail and seven Goosanders.

Regards

Neil M

Kestrels courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Goosanders.