Rain birds

Hello

My goodness we finally enjoyed some rain! And a decent amount before the return of the winds dries it all up again!

Birding between the showers at Pitsford Reservoir provided views of at least three Great White Egrets in the Scaldwell Bay plus a Green Sandpiper and three Common Sandpipers. A Common Redstart provided a brief view in the back of the Scaldwell Bay and a Siskin was heard calling in Christies Copse. Purple Hairstreaks were seen at Christies Copse and the Goosander Hide in the Holcot Bay and a Copper Underwing moth was also at Christies Copse.

A/the female Ruddy Shelduck appeared at Stanford Reservoir today where there was also a Wigeon, a Common Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher.

A pair of Grey Partridge were at Harrington Airfield this afternoon where there were still large numbers of Large White butterflies and still Marbled Whites and a Painted Lady.

Regards

Neil M

Purple Hairstreaks
courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Copper Underwing moth.

Harlequin Ladybird larvae
courtesy of John Tilly.

Pied Wagtail courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

A reprieve from the sunshine

Hello

A quiet and much duller day in the county for birds and weather today but over at Stanford Reservoir a juvenile Cuckoo was caught and ringed, seven Common Tern chicks were ringed (total of 21 ringed there this year) and other birds noted were an Oystercatcher, three Kingfishers and a Nuthatch.

Two Ospreys were by the dam at Pitsford Reservoir this morning and a Raven was to the west of the Walgrave Bay. Four Cattle Egrets were at the North Lake, Stanwick Pits this afternoon.

A Crossbill flew over New Covert, Kelmarsh at about 11.40am.

Regards

Neil M

Meadow Brown.

Roadkill Polecat Lamport Station.

Field Scabious Brampton Valley Way.

Great Crested Grebe family
 at Stortons Pits courtesy of
 Tony Stanford.

Back to breezy again

Hello

A rather quiet day in the county today but Stanford Reservoir hosted an Osprey again, an Oystercatcher, two Common Sandpipers and two Kingfishers. Hollowell Reservoir also received a visitation from an Osprey, plus a Hobby and a Redshank.

At Pitsford Reservoir there were still six Great White Egrets north of the causeway and two Green Sandpipers in the Scaldwell Bay. Three Crossbills were briefly at Christies Copse before flying south and at least one Raven and a Grey Wagtail were present. The best of the butterflies were Small Copper, Marbled White and Purple Hairstreak. Bigger odonata included Brown and Southern Hawkers.

Two Common Sandpipers were at Clifford Hill Pits this morning and five Cattle Egrets were noted at a breeding site in the Nene Valley. Singles of Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper were on the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits today where there were also seven Egyptian Geese.

Three Purple Emperor butterflies were found on the Fermyn Wood complex today and Purple Hairstreaks were found for the first time at Easton on the Hill.

Regards

Neil M

Small Copper.

Grass Snake.

Purple Hairstreak.

Images courtesy of
Tony Stanford.

Birds, dragons and flutterbies this month!

Hello

Pitsford Reservoir provided some more interest today with at least one and probably two Osprey(s) this afternoon/evening, six Great White Egrets, a Green Sandpiper, a Hobby, at least one Raven and a Siskin all north of the causeway. A Brown Hawker was my first this year.

At Stanford Reservoir there was also an Osprey plus two Hobbies, two Common Sandpipers and a Kingfisher.

A scattering of Black-tailed Godwits with two at Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston Pits and singles at Clifford Hill Pits and Summer Leys LNR. A Great White Egret was also at Summer Leys and insects of note included two Green-eyed Hawkers at Toad Pond, a Brown Hawker and several Brown Argus butterflies behind the visitor centre.

A male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was a good find in the Nene Valley at the Earls Barton New Workings South/Whiston Wetlands, three Spotted Flycatchers were at Greens Norton Pocket Park and eight Redshanks at Hollowell Reservoir was a good number for this site.

A Little Owl remains vocal at Hanging Houghton. 

A Clouded Yellow butterfly between Cherry Hill and Walgrave appears to be the first record in the county this year and the best of the butterflies at Yardley Chase were two Purple Emperors, at least ten White Admirals, five Silver-washed Fritillaries and two Wood Whites with large dragonflies being Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker and Blue Emperor.

Regards

Neil M

A period away competing
has provided plenty of rosettes
for Jaeger and Rouzel.

Essex or Small Skipper
(I can't decide)!

Comma.

Gatekeeper.

Roe Deer.

Moulting Chiffchaff.

Dull, wet, sunny, then windy!

Hello

Birds at Stanford Reservoir today amounted to a fishing Osprey, a Redshank, five Black-tailed Godwits which didn't stay long, a Kingfisher, two Hobby and a Cetti's Warbler.

At Lilbourne Meadows reserve there was a migrant Common Redstart in a hedgerow running down towards the flood fields from Hillmorton Lane, two Oystercatchers, a Redshank, twelve Little Ringed Plovers, a Ringed Plover, a Green Sandpiper and a Little Owl.

An Osprey flew through Ravensthorpe Reservoir this evening and there were four Grey Wagtails around the dam with vocal Spotted Flycatchers in the trees there. Hollowell Reservoir also attracted an Osprey this afternoon plus seven Little Ringed Plovers.

A Common Scoter was reported from Pitsford Reservoir this morning but not seen subsequently and other birds there included two Whimbrel flying through and over the dam at about 12.20pm, a soaring Osprey west of the causeway, four Yellow-legged Gulls, three Ravens and two Great White Egrets.

A Common Scoter was present at Clifford Hill Pits for it's second day and there were three Little Ringed Plovers there too and two Common Sandpipers at Summer Leys LNR.

A Common Redstart was between the Chippings Compound and Bunker One at Harrington Airfield this afternoon where there was a big influx of Large White butterflies and still good numbers of Marbled Whites.

A Spotted Flycatcher was at Bucknell Wood and butterflies included Silver-washed Fritillary with the 'Vazenia' variant present too.

Regards

Neil M

Common Blue courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Red Admiral courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Essex Skipper courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Small Copper courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Little Ringed Plover
courtesy of Robin Gossage.

Osprey.

Summer heat

Hello

With temperatures locally at almost thirty degrees Celsius and cloud bubbling up with summery gusts this evening, it was another hot one!

More post-breeding waders passing through the county will probably be a theme of this new month and today there were single Common Sandpipers at Stanford Reservoir and Summer Leys LNR.

Early morning encounters at Clifford Hill Pits included a female Common Scoter and at one stage twelve Black-tailed Godwits.

A Bittern was reported from the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston Pits today, there were four Grey Wagtails in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton and still Spotted Flycatchers in the village itself.

Hollowell Reservoir attracted a first summer (second calendar year) Mediterranean Gull, an Osprey and two Common Sandpipers plus a splendid Green-eyed Hawker around the main feeder stream, a first for this site.

Birds at Ravensthorpe Reservoir amounted to a Raven, at least six Grey Wagtails and more audible Spotted Flycatchers all from the dam area. Large numbers of Common Blue Damselflies carpeted the water and lots of Blue Emperors and Black-tailed Skimmers were busy along the shoreline. Butterflies included Purple Hairstreak, Marbled White and Small Copper.

Evening birds in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir were an Osprey and up to twenty-five mobile Black-tailed Godwits.

Singles of Crossbill and Siskin were recorded at Bucknell Wood, both species recorded on the move through the county in small numbers since early June.

A Purple Hairstreak visited a garden in Thrapston this afternoon, four or five Lesser Emperors were active at Stanwick Pits and a female Vagrant Emperor (potentially a first for the county) was seen and photographed ovipositing there. 

Butterflies catalogued at Bucknell Wood included a Wood White, five Silver-washed Fritillaries and two Purple Hairstreaks.

Regards

Neil M

A recently-fledged juvenile Kestrel.

Grey Heron.

Tystie is developing into a 
mischievous young dog from the
 naughty puppy he was!

Looking from the Brampton Valley Way towards
 the villages of Lamport and Hanging Houghton.

Pitsford CBC

Hello

An induction ringing session for two new potential ringers was organised for Stortons Pits yesterday under the guidance of Chris Payne, John Boland, Helen Franklin and Nick Wood. During the course of this sixty-six birds were processed of fifteen species, the vast majority juveniles and newly-ringed. Warblers included seven Chiffchaffs, ten Reed Warblers, four Sedge Warblers, four Common Whitethroats, six Blackcaps and a Garden Warbler. A re-trap Long-tailed Tit had been ringed initially in December 2021 as far away as Astcote south-west of Northampton in John Woollett's garden.

A careful extraction was a Lunar Hornet Clearwing moth from one of the nets and interestingly the ringers at Stanford Reservoir encountered exactly the same thing yesterday and also carefully released an individual of the same species.

I completed one of the last Common Bird Census surveys of the year at Pitsford Reservoir today, starting just before 5am and finally concluded at 12.45pm when of course there wasn't much singing anyway. Whilst completing these surveys I try and keep an eye out for other wildlife too. The first half of the walk was cloudy and warm but insects and birds were at a minimum but of course there were plenty of Muntjacs, a Red Fox and Brown Hares out and about.

When the sun came out so did the insects with plenty of butterflies of about sixteen species including a couple of Purple Hairstreaks. A Giant Woodwasp is not a species I see regularly and is an impressive insect. Brief views of a large dragonfly in front of Willow Hide suggested a female Vagrant Emperor but the views were insufficient to identify.

Six Great White Egrets were on-site plus two Green Sandpipers, two Common Sandpipers, four Kingfishers, a female Tufted Duck with four ducklings and an early return with a Wigeon befriending the summering flock of Gadwall which number over two hundred. A 'reeling' Grasshopper Warbler was in scrubby bushes on farmland to the east of the Walgrave Bay and singing Sedge Warblers in the Scaldwell Meadow are clearly intent on second broods. Two Yellow-legged Gulls were an adult and a third calendar year bird.

Elsewhere and a Barnacle Goose and two Little Ringed Plovers were at Clifford Hill Pits and an Osprey and two Little Ringed Plovers were at Hollowell Reservoir. A Spotted Flycatcher was at Bucknell Woods and butterflies on offer there were White Admiral, Purple Emperor and Purple Hairstreak. Spotted Flycatchers were vocal in Hanging Houghton village today.

Regards

Neil M

Giant Woodwasp.

Lapwing.

Otter. 

At one point the three Otters swam within 
touching distance of a very large Common
Carp wallowing in the shallows and they
completely ignored it! I know they have a
liking for small 'silver fish' and they were
moving fast and Carp seemingly wasn't on
 the menu!

Large White.

Blue Emperor.

Sunday ringing

Hello

Another warm day but plenty of cloud cover and much softer winds made it much more bearable.

A hot and sticky ringing session at Linford Lakes, Milton Keynes provided 151 processed birds of nineteen species and like last week a nice variety too! The most common bird encountered was Greenfinch with lots of youngsters bringing the day total to twenty-eight and Chiffchaff was the second most common encounter with twenty-six of them hitting the mist nets. There were also nineteen Blackcaps, sixteen Great Tits, eleven Blue Tits, nine Garden Warblers, eight Reed Warblers and eight Common Whitethroats.

Quality captures included two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a juvenile Green Woodpecker, three juvenile Lesser Whitethroats and two recently-fledged Cetti's Warblers. A Goldfinch and a Treecreeper added further variety.

Birds noted on-site included a Cuckoo and two Oystercatchers.

A parallel ringing session was also managed at Pitsford Reservoir today yielding eighty-nine birds of fourteen species, the majority being newly-ringed birds. Here the most prevalent species was Blue Tit with twenty-eight birds and Sand Martin with twenty-seven birds, the latter total including nestlings too. Other birds included a re-trap Reed Warbler first ringed in 2020, an adult Lesser Whitethroat, six Sedge Warblers and singles of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Reed Bunting and Goldfinch.

Birds on-site included two Great White Egrets and a Green Sandpiper.

Five Black-tailed Godwits were found at Clifford Hill Pits this morning and at Bucknell Woods there were two Spotted Flycatchers and the butterflies included Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak and Silver-washed Fritillary.

Four juvenile Grey Partridges were noted in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton today and a Little Owl was vocal in the village during the early hours.

Regards

Neil M

Lesser Whitethroat.

Common Whitethroat.

Green Woodpecker.

Above images courtesy of
Kenny Cramer.

Sand Martin ringing courtesy
of Jane Neill.

Still hot and windy

Four-spotted Chaser.

Hello

Another windy and hot day, great for Butterflies but hard work birding!

Sadly it seems that all the Avocets have now gone from Earls Barton New Workings/Whiston Wetlands.

Plenty of geese at Clifford Hill pits amounted to 670 Canadas, 270 Greylags and a single Barnacle Goose. Large numbers of geese can be found at Pitsford and Sulby Reservoirs - gathering together in post-breeding flocks to moult.

A Hobby was seen at Summer Leys LNR.

Birds north of the causeway at Pitsford Reservoir this evening included an Osprey, a Great White Egret, a Black-tailed Godwit and a Whimbrel.

The current weather conditions have provided a large scale immigration of moths and butterflies from the continent and moth traps up and down the country have been enjoying large numbers of both local and migrant moths. Coastal watchers have recorded waves of butterflies coming in off the east coast with Small White dominating. Angus recorded an Olive Crescent moth in his Pitsford village garden trap this morning, possibly only the second county record and Vicki saw White Admiral and Purple Emperor butterflies at Bucknell Wood this afternoon. Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreaks and Silver-washed Fritillaries were the pick of the butterflies at Fermyn Wood.

Willow Emerald Damselfly was noted at Whiston Locks this morning, a recently arrived but now quite widespread damselfly in Northamptonshire.

Regards

Neil M

Willow Emerald Damselfly.

Purple Emperor courtesy
of Kerry Massey.

Hobby courtesy of
Robin Gossage.

Meagre pickings

Hello

Some overnight showers made it nice and damp first thing but this moisture was soon cancelled out with strong, dry winds and warm sunshine with high temperatures.

Meagre pickings today with a Common Sandpiper at Summer Leys LNR, a Barnacle Goose at Clifford Hill Pits and two Cattle Egrets on the Roadside Pit at Stanwick Pits this morning with a Curlew flying over going south-west.

Regards

Neil M

Little Egret courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Muntjac swimming the width of
the Holcot Bay, Pitsford Reservoir
today courtesy of Tony Stanford.

Comma courtesy of
Tony Stanford.

Marbled White courtesy
of Tony Stanford.

Black-tailed Skimmer.