It's tough being a Blue Tit...

The hard-working
Blue Tit...

Hello

Jacob Spinks was at Pitsford Reservoir this morning and saw an Osprey and a Raven. Checking of the small boxes there as used by tits revealed plenty of dead chicks unfortunately, sometimes of complete broods. The cold temperatures, heavy rain and consequent lack of food seems to be a regular phenomenon faced by birds in the UK every spring now and is clearly having an affect on the number of juvenile birds able to fledge in good condition. Some of the nest-boxes and contents fared better than others however and it isn't a total loss. With the warm weather and sunshine predicted for the next five days or so, the survivors should progress nicely.

It was a similar story this afternoon at Scotland Wood on the Kelmarsh Estate, the Blue Tit nestlings in particular not surviving in some boxes. It seems likely that the very earliest broods and now the later broods might have timed it better.

A warbler summering and holding territory at Scotland Wood this year sings a perfect Willow Warbler song but appears to be a Chiffchaff. About every third rendition of the Willow Warbler song is concluded with some Chiffchaff song. I haven't heard it's call note yet and it may not have a mate, and in fact may not have one because it is one confused bird giving out confusing messages! It's not unusual to find such birds, and in my experience they tend to be Chiffchaffs which have the Willow Warbler song imprinted and affecting their repertoire. I don't think I have ever come across one though where the Willow Warbler song is so dominant.

Other birds in the wood this afternoon included Spotted Flycatcher and just-fledged Blackcaps.

Debbie and Eric Graham continued their patchwork birding at Titchmarsh Reserve this morning and again found a male Cuckoo, which of course is now beginning to change his tune! There were still plenty of busy warblers on show plus a pair of Oystercatcher and several species of odonata on the wing.

This evening there were two singing Grasshopper Warblers in The Hill field at Blueberry Farm.

Regards

Neil M

Marsh Fritillary butterfly

Sainfoin, a member
of the vetch family.

Above images taken recently
in Gloucestershire courtesy
of Sarah Gibbs.

A day out in Northamptonshire

Hello

Yesterday afternoon (Friday) saw the Ruddy Shelduck still in the grounds of the Sailing Club at Pitsford Reservoir and the singing Grasshopper Warbler was still 'reeling' in The Hill field at Blueberry Farm.

A modest ringing session at Brixworth this morning (Saturday) resulted in the capture of fifteen Starlings, three Yellow Wagtails, eight Pied Wagtails, a Grey Wagtail, a Reed Bunting and singles of Magpie and Moorhen.

This afternoon further efforts were made to check the larger nest-boxes on the reserve at Pitsford Reservoir and a further Tawny Owl nestling was located and ringed. Other birds noted included at least one Hobby and a Raven and the square pond in the Walgrave Bay was home to at least four Broad-bodied Chaser dragonflies.

One of the fishing wardens at Pitsford Reservoir found a freshly-dead Cormorant afloat south of the causeway today, and lodged in its gape was a particularly large and dead Brown Trout. It seems that for some reason the head and perhaps gills of the fish had somehow become stuck in the mouth of the Cormorant resulting in the deaths of them both...

A Barn Owl was hunting in the most southern field of the Blueberry Farm complex this evening.

Regards

Neil M

The Flying Scotsman paid
Northamptonshire a visit today
on it's journey up to York.

This image taken by Robin Gossage
at Irchester.

Garganey (and Little Egret)
Summer Leys NR today courtesy
of  Robin Gossage.

Goldfinch nest and clutch of eggs
nine feet up in an ornamental
 conifer in Greens Norton.

Image courtesy of
Chris Payne.

Tawny Owl nestling
at Pitsford Reservoir.

Courtesy of Neil Hasdell.

Blisworth rail interchange

Hello

The residents of the villages of Blisworth and Milton Malsor directly to the south of Northampton are engaging in a battle to prevent arable land between the two villages being swallowed up in the production of a rail interlink site. This includes the construction of yet more giant warehouses on the Northamptonshire landscape and vast areas of concrete which in total size has been equated to 125 football pitches.

The action group would welcome experienced naturalists to complete surveys of the affected land but don't feel confident in their abilities to properly assess the local bird life. Should you be able to assist or provide some tuition to members of the group they would be most grateful and we have contact details accordingly.

For more general details please visit:-

www.norailinterchange.co.uk

Regards

Neil M

Flaming June it isn't...

Hello

Birds of specific interest today were reduced to a hunting Barn Owl braving the cold wind at Blueberry Farm and the injured but bright Ruddy Shelduck joining the non-breeding goose flock in the grounds of the Sailing Club at Pitsford Reservoir this evening.

This weather is sadly producing many avian casualties including several Swifts flying low and colliding with moving traffic on the road causeway at Pitsford, and many nestlings will be succumbing to cold and hunger in these conditions as many parents struggle to find sufficient insect and caterpillar food. It is likely that tits which are nesting in or close to bird-feeding gardens stand a better chance of keeping their nestlings alive by supplementing insects with fat, peanut granules and similar. This sustenance tends to lack the nutrition to aid healthy growth but may keep them alive long enough for a hopeful reprieve in the weather and natural food availability by the week-end.

Dave Francis was out checking the tern rafts at Pitsford Reservoir today on what must have felt almost like the high seas and counted 32 Common Tern nests which is good news. All are at the egg stage so this weather won't affect them unless the adults allow the eggs to chill.

News has come through of the original ringing details of the dead Barn Owl found near Walgrave on 6th May 2016. This bird didn't live long enough to breed - it was ringed as a nestling at Yelvertoft on 31st July 2015, some 23km to the west, meeting it's peril following a traffic collision 280 days later...

Checking ring numbers of Swallows processed during the ringing session at Brixworth yesterday, we realise now that one of the controls was actually of a nestling ringed by Chris Payne in a Greens Norton nest on 23rd June last year. Looks like it might have changed its post code address but not by much!

If anyone would like to be inspired by what I consider to a very good blog-site, I would recommend visiting The Skokholm Blog which successfully records the trials and tribulations of a significant bird and tiny human community on the little island of Skokholm off the Pembrokeshire coast...

https://www.skokholm.blogspot.co.uk

Regards

Neil M

When the water is this rough at Pitsford
you never know what might turn up!
Luckily Dave Francis had his camera with him today...

...but sadly took this photograph somewhere in
the South Atlantic a few years ago!

The image depicts a Black-browed Albatross, the
mostly likely species to be espied in Western Europe.
Very relevant following our presentation by David
Ogombar at the Northants Bird Club last night
entitled 'Hooked on Albatrosses'.

Ringing at Brixworth

Hello

A small band of us pitched up at the Anglian Water treatment works near Brixworth today and carried out some ringing in rather grey and breezy conditions. We were able to process 88 birds which thankfully included quite a few juvenile birds hatched this year.

It was a little wet at times and Swallows dominated with 45 birds being caught which included three early fledged juveniles. Nine birds were re-traps, some from 2014 and 2015 and two were birds ringed elsewhere (known as controls).

Other birds included three House Martins, eleven Pied Wagtails (including recently fledged juveniles), two Grey Wagtails, a single Yellow Wagtail, a couple of Reed Buntings plus singles of Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Whitethroat and Magpie. Sixteen Starlings were made up of adults and juveniles.

A Reed Warbler was singing in the hedge border but we didn't see anything else of note...

Regards

Neil M

Male Linnet.

Male Yellow Wagtail.

Images courtesy of Chris Payne.

Update on Fineshade Wood

From Friends of Fineshade website...

Just a quick email to let you know that on Friday afternoon our MP Tom Pursglove will be visiting Fineshade to talk to residents, to have a walk in the wood and then to meet other Friends of Fineshade and visitors. If you live locally and are able to be here at 3.30pm it would be very helpful indeed. The meeting place will be in front of the Top Lodge Visitor Centre, just outside the courtyard, looking out over the fields.

Tom objected to the previous Forest Holidays application and is on record as saying "Should the application be re-submitted, and local concern persists, I will of course be objecting again in the strongest possible terms – Fineshade Wood is a beautiful spot and it must be preserved." Please help us make it clear that local concern does persist!

In fact we will be asking Tom to help us persuade the Forestry Commission that they should remove the continuing threat to Fineshade's biodiversity and tranquillity once and for all.  The uncertainty and threat has gone on long enough and we want the FC to begin celebrating the wildlife richness and tranquillity of the woodland that they are supposed to be managing for us. They should be proud of the dormice, adders, bats, birds, butterflies and plants that are here.

Even if you can't manage to be here on Friday afternoon please try to join in on Facebook and Twitter during the evening. Once again the message is "FC should remove the threat to Fineshade once and for all".

Thanks once again for supporting Fineshade Wood.

Friends of Fineshade.

Adder

Silver-washed Fritillary.

Both species are seen regularly
at Fineshade Wood.

Ladies behind the lens!

Song Thrush

Tree Sparrow

Osprey.

Images courtesy of
Cathy Ryden.

Hello

A visit to Pitsford Reservoir this evening was sufficient to confirm that the injured Ruddy Shelduck was still present around the grounds of the Sailing Club. A Hobby hurtled through large numbers of martins and Swifts trying to to find a tired or unsuspecting victim...

Regards

Neil M

Lesser Stag Beetle as found in a
Kingsthorpe garden at the week-end.
Images courtesy of Amanda Fraser.

Adders Tongue Fern

Calcareous grassland

Goats Beard

Fairy Fax

Merry's Meadow near Oakham.

Above five images courtesy
of Lynne Barnett.

More ringing recoveries...

Hello 

Eric Graham ventured out to the Titchmarsh Reserve once again this morning and enjoyed an aerial mass of Swifts hurtling around. Four Cuckoos together was a treat (one a female) and two Little Egrets were noted too.

Harrington Airfield seemed quiet today and a Hobby was the only thing of note at Blueberry Farm.

Some more interesting ringing recoveries have filtered through, two of course relating to those gorgeous little Siskins! These and Lesser Redpolls seem to provide some excellent recovery opportunities and certainly standard ringing procedures are able to provide some pretty comprehensive tracking data.

S122558 was a first year female Siskin ringed at Astcote by John Woollett on 15th March this year and she was re-trapped 22 days later at Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth. She was tracking ENE and one wonders if she was heading for the continent.

S122569 was an adult female Siskin ringed at Astcote one day later on 16th March 2016. Just six days later, on 22nd March, she was re-trapped at Zwolle, Overijssel, the Netherlands, travelling 485km in that time and very much in an easterly direction. Surely she was heading for a North European breeding ground?

John comments that his garden was busy during this period with good numbers of Siskins and from the plethora of ringing recoveries it seems that the flock was made up of different populations of Siskins, some heading up to Scotland to breed with others bound for much further north and east...

D820672 relates to a first year Lesser Redpoll first ringed on 6th September 2015 at Kilnsea, near Spurn on the East Yorkshire coast. Chris Payne captured this bird at Greens Norton on 17th April 2016, some 224 days later. This suggests that this bird wintered in Southern Britain or even further south and was feeding up in Chris's garden for an onward northerly journey, perhaps to the continent too...

Ring Y662784 was placed on a young male Blackcap at Rye Meads, Hertfordshire on 1st September 2013. On 10th April this year, this bird was re-trapped at Kelmarsh Hall north of Northampton, some 952 days later. Although this is only some 95km from where it was originally ringed, there can be little doubt that this warbler has accumulated many hours of flight during that time, probably wintering in Iberia or even Africa during the intervening three winters.

Regards

Neil M

Adult Starlings.

Juvenile Starling.

Male Bullfinch.

Adult Long-tailed Tit.

All images courtesy of
Cathy Ryden.

Many Starlings now have fledged
young and the moist spring and the
apparent abundance of food in these
conditions appears to have suited Starlings
and probably Rooks too.

The image of the Bullfinch and Long-tailed
Tit are from the ringing session at Pitsford
Reservoir on Saturday.

Ringing at Stortons GP

Hello

John Woollett and his merry team of ringers were active at Stortons Gravel Pits this morning, netting about 27 birds the majority of which were new. An adult male Green Woodpecker was a pleasant change and other birds included seven Reed Warblers, five Sedge Warblers, two Garden Warblers, a Bullfinch and a Song Thrush. A re-trap Whitethroat was interesting inasmuch that it was first captured on-site in 2011 and subsequently in 2012 and 2014. An excellent example of site fidelity from a bird that spends its winter south of the Sahara!

The Cuckoo from last week was still about and a couple of broods of tits in the boxes were old enough to ring (Blue Tits and Great Tits).

A Spotted Flycatcher was at Scotland Wood this afternoon, Blueberry Farm hosted a singing Grasshopper Warbler and a Hobby and birds in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton amounted to a Kingfisher and a Barn Owl.

Regards

Neil M

Male Green Woodpecker.

Reed Warbler nest and eggs.

Images courtesy of Chris Payne.

Northants Bird Club indoor meeting 1st June

Hello

The next indoor meeting of the Northants Bird Club will be on this coming Wednesday (1st June) at the usual venue of the Fishing Lodge at Pitsford Reservoir (NN6 9SJ).

Our speaker will be David Ogombar from the British Trust for Ornithology who will present  'Hooked on Albatrosses'. The presentation will revolve around the fortunes of these fantastic ocean-going birds from the southern hemisphere and what has been accomplished in trying to reduce deaths associated with commercial long-line fishing.

As usual the meeting will open at 7.30pm will a few notices and then straight in to the main presentation. Hot drinks and biscuits will be available during the evening. Car parking facilities exist around the Fishing Lodge itself with an overflow capacity down by the water's edge by the fishing boats. Please note that the causeway does not provide an opportunity for parking now due to the installation of permanent wooden bollards.

Members and non-members alike are invited to the meeting and I look forward to seeing you there!

Regards

Neil M

Breeding birds of Pitsford Reservoir

Hello

Yesterday at Pitsford Reservoir, a recce by boat provided an opportunity of accurate nest recording when 24 Common Tern nests were found on the rafts and the Cormorant colony numbered 57 active nests. The pair of Oystercatcher have relaid after the first clutch disappeared and it seems that the early nesting waterfowl have benefited from the constant high water levels with Mallard and Coot being rewarded with large broods.

Checks of the large nest-boxes around the reserve confirm usage by breeding Tawny Owls and Jackdaws have successfully bred in two of the boxes. The take-up rate of the small nest-boxes appears good and this year a couple of pairs of Coal Tits have used them with nestlings ready to fledge and face the big wide world any day now. Strangely young birds of more general species seem to be in short supply with two recent ringing sessions failing to catch any at all. Hopefully we will see a flood of juvenile birds soon.

Today a ringing session in the Walgrave Bay was sufficient to process 43 birds which included two Garden Warblers, five Blackcaps, two Willow Warblers, two Chiffchaffs, a Song Thrush, a Marsh Tit, a Woodpigeon and six Bullfinches. A Hobby was hawking insects overhead.

A Hobby and the family party of Ravens were seen at Staverton again today and Debbie and Eric Graham stepped out on the Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston to see and hear plenty of warblers, two Oystercatchers, 2-3 Cuckoos and Four Spot Chaser Dragonfly.

Kenny Cramer presided over a ringing session at Linford Lakes on the outskirts of Milton Keynes this morning, catching 23 birds of 10 species which included 6 new Reed Warblers, 2 Blackcaps, a Garden Warbler and 2 Chiffchaffs.

Regards

Neil M

Tawny Owl nestling
Pitsford Reservoir

'Drifts' of  'flowers'
from willow trees and bushes...

Willow Warbler

Garden Warbler

Coal Tit

Particularly good numbers of
Robins on territory this spring, possibly
an influence of the mild winter...


Last five images above courtesy
of Cathy Ryden.

Ringing recoveries

Hello

Here follows a quick summary of some of the more interesting Northants Ringing Group contribution to ringing recoveries, if a little dominated by Siskins!

Z451592 was a female Siskin first ringed at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory in Kent on 17th September 2015 which then showed up at John Woollett's garden in Astcote on both 24th and 25th March this year. Although the data shows this bird to have travelled 194km in 190 days this is no doubt a distorted picture and it is more likely that she was initially trapped heading south in the autumn and was on her way back north tracking a slightly different route this spring.

D543830 was a female Siskin first caught at Humshaugh in Northumberland way back on the 8th May 2013, John re-trapping her again at Astcote on 22nd March this year. It is likely that she was at or close to her breeding site when first caught and on her way back up from Southern climes earlier this year with a stop-over in sunny south Northants!

Z946874 was a male Siskin first caught and ringed by Chris Payne at Greens Norton on 2nd April this year which was then re-trapped at Selkirk on the Scottish Borders 36 days later and having travelled 397km in a NNW direction. Tempting to think that this bird is from Scottish or Scandanavian breeding stock which again re-fueled in South Northants.

Following a similar pattern, male Siskin S122655 was caught and ringed at Astcote on 24th March this year and was then controlled by another ringer at Drummond near Inverness on 2nd May, this bird travelling 622km in 39 days.

S122416 (another male Siskin) showed a slightly more lateral dispersal after initially being caught and ringed at Stortons Gravel Pits on 28th February this year. This bird was re-trapped at the RSPB headquarters at Sandy in Bedfordshire on 9th April, this time moving in a relatively short ESE direction.

But it wasn't just Siskins stealing the limelight! Chris Payne caught an already ringed male Goldfinch (Z453729) at Greens Norton on 12th April this year and it transpires this bird was first ringed at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory on 23rd October 2015. This movement correlates in some respect with Siskin Z451592 and is probably a bird moving back to more northerly climes.

Finally, a female Blackbird bearing the Dutch ring of L417709 was found in a mist net at Scotland Wood on the Kelmarsh Estate on 6th March this year. She had originally been ringed as a migrant at Korverskool, de Koog on Texel in the Netherlands on 17th October 2015, confirming that the UK is an important winter refuge for continental Blackbirds. Whether she spent the whole winter in Northants is speculative, but she travelled at least 391km in a westerly direction to find us.

Regards

Neil M

Siskin

Blackbird

Goldfinch

Finding the elusive

Hello

Birds yesterday (Wednesday) included a Barn Owl again hunting the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton and a singing Grasshopper Warbler again singing in The Hill field at Blueberry Farm in the morning (but not the evening).

This afternoon (Thursday) and the two Turtle Doves were on show at Harrington Airfield, showing in the dead branches half way along the concrete track and later in bushes at the end of the track. Like most years it seems that these sometimes very elusive birds will continue to play hide and seek with us for the summer and early autumn! However the good news is of course that these now rare bird have avoided the guns in the Mediterranean and finally returned to this local site.

Regards

Neil M

Turtle Dove
Otmoor RSPB reserve 2015.

Singing Wren at dawn.

Jay

Adult male Pied Wagtail
feeding a fledged juvenile.

Fledgling Pied Wagtail.

Above four images courtesy
(again) of Cathy Ryden.

Dorset delights!

Hello

John Gamble is not long back from a little wildlife tour of Dorset and the below images indicate he enjoyed himself down there!

Regards

Neil M

Little Owl
Portland Bill

Mandarin Duck
New Forest (Hants)

The very long-staying
drake Hooded Merganser
at Radipole Lake and possibly
of feral origin.

Spotted Flycatcher
Arne

Male Stonechat
Stobourgh Heath.

All images courtesy of
John Gamble.