Brampton Valley birds

Hello

Eleanor's foray in to the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this afternoon succeeded in locating good birds in the form of a juvenile Marsh Harrier quartering fields plus a Barn Owl, a Hobby, a Grey Wagtail and a Kingfisher.

Regards

Neil M

Old Lady moth at
Kingsthorpe, Northampton
earlier this week.

Image courtesy of Amanda Fraser.

Peekaboo Barn Owl!

Courtesy of Chris Payne.

Back from the Camargue...

Hello

Having been absent for a short time for a foray to the Camargue in France looking at dragonflies and birds, I am now back! My apologies for the lack of blogs but thank-you to Neil H for his post in my absence.

It was very warm in the south of France and we were fortunate that the famous mistral wind provided relief from the hot temperatures. Hopefully some images to follow during the next few days...

Eleanor saw four Ravens at Staverton again today and ringing activity at Pitsford Reservoir included the capture of eleven juvenile Tree Sparrows plus a re-trap adult female, and single females of Lesser Whitethroat and Reed Warbler sporting brood patches which might indicate local breeding.

Fifteen more Common Tern chicks were ringed on the rafts today bringing the known total of hatched youngsters so far this year now totalling 67, seemingly a very productive season.

And it seems that Purple Emperor butterflies are on the wing at Fermyn Wood now, so no doubt they will attract the crowds for the remainder of the month and in to August.

Regards

Neil M

Cattle Egret

Greater Flamingo

Adult Black-crowned Night Heron.

All images taken in the Camargue, South France

Linford ringing and Summer Leys

A very interesting morning at Linford yesterday which produced 43 captures, of which 39 were new and included 19 species.

An abundance of juveniles boosted the number of new birds including wren, dunnock, chiffchaff, robin, blackcap, garden warbler, reed bunting, blackbird, goldcrest and song thrush. 

Juveniles of scarcer species included willow warbler which was nice to see, the first kingfishers of the year (an adult and a juvenile), a gorgeously speckled green woodpecker, and another cettis warbler.

The biggest surprise of the morning came in the shape of a fully juvenile plumaged redstart which, coming hot on the heels of the 2nd year female from two weeks ago, suggest that these birds have bred locally.

Wren 8

Dunnock 2

Chiffchaff 5

Robin 1

Reed warbler 5

Blackcap 2

Cettis warbler 1 (2)

Garden warbler 3

Willow warbler 1

Reed bunting 1 (1)

Kingfisher 2

Redstart 1

Green woodpecker 1

Goldcrest 1

Whitethroat 1

Blue tit 2

Blackbird 1

Song thrush 1

Treecreeper 0 (1)

Summer Leys has been quiet on the bird front recently. A cuckoo was still present last week, as was a peregrine that whizzed through over the scrape, panicking all the birds in residence.

The 4 LRP chicks are flourishing and are almost as large as their parents now, as are the 5 egyptian goslings.

A new addition to the youngster count were at least 2 redshank chicks. The adults are always very secretive in their nesting activities, the only indication normally being the foraging of the youngsters amidst the prolific waterside vegetation and the constant contact cheeping of the parent birds.

Butterflies have been much in evidence over the last week or so, with large hatches of ringlet and meadow brown.

The colony of marbled white butterflies in the south east corner of Mary's Lake comprises at least 20 individuals.

Finally, the orchid season is drawing to a close with just a few southern marsh and bee orchids left. The common spotted and pyramidal orchids have mostly gone over now.

Regards,

             Neil H.

Mid-summer birding

Hello

Yet another Siskin recovery has come through following the intense period in the early spring when John Woollett was almost engulfed in these stunning little finches on their way north. S122497 was a first year male Siskin that was ringed at Astcote on 6th March 2016 and was then subsequently re-trapped at Peebles in the Scottish Borders on 11th June, presumably where it is breeding. A time period of 97 days elapsed between the two records with the bird having moved in a general NNW direction.

With many hay meadows being cut currently, this is a good time to witness Red Kites taking advantage of man's activities in order to cash in on any food opportunities. They will fly very close to machinery in action hoping to grab fleeing or injured rodents or indeed any small thing that is disturbed by such activity. What is really interesting is that the Common Buzzards have clearly been watching the success of the kites in exploiting this opportunity and this normally much shyer raptor has learnt to do much the same thing. Yesterday I noticed a couple each of Red Kite and Common Buzzard hunting a hay field being cut between the villages of Scaldwell and Old.

Short dog walks around the village of Hanging Houghton during the last couple of days has been pretty good for notching up rather scarce birds such as Grey Partridge, Raven, Little and Barn Owl, Spotted Flycatcher and Hobby. Sadly no Cuckoo or Turtle Dove though...

Regards

Neil M

Emerald Damselfly

Four Spotted Chaser

Black-tailed Skimmer

Carrion Crow. Very much at the
top of the hierarchical structure
of wild birds locally. The spread of
the Raven in the county will
nevertheless provide an interesting
development.

Red Kite, moulting inner primaries.

All images from Pitsford Reservoir
on Sunday...

Barn Owls

Hello

Chris Payne and Paddy Jackson were busy out in South Northants today visiting Barn Owl boxes and similar nesting sites. The good news was that there were plenty of breeding pairs trying their luck at producing young and it seems that the vole population must have improved from earlier in the year as the average brood encountered was three nestlings.

Cathy Ryden is watching over a breeding pair near Guilsborough and there appears to be at least two pairs doing much the same at Blueberry Farm and in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton.

Regards

Neil M

All images courtesy
of  Chris Payne.

Fineshade proposal for wildlife project

Hello Once again we feel that there is something you could do to help protect Fineshade Wood from inappropriate development. It involves completing a short online survey here-- www.naturebackfromthebrink.org  There is a series of tick box questions followed by an opportunity to write something short, mentioning that you are a Friend of Fineshade and supporting the idea to base a wildlife project here.  Full details are below. You may have seen a page that we published on the Friends of Fineshade website earlier today: www.fineshade.org.uk/#!back-from-the-brink/p3lhi We feel there is a good chance that the Rockingham Forest Back from the Brink Project, led by our good Friends at Butterfly Conservation, will decide that they want to base at least part of the project here at Fineshade. By filling in the survey form and saying that you would support an ecological project based here you will be helping to ensure that the project does indeed make that decision. Of course, that will not be the end of the matter. The Forestry Commission will need to agree to the project being based here, an agreement that would make it even harder for them to allow Forest Holidays to develop a holiday camp: perhaps even they will see that the two developments would be incompatible. We believe there could be strong support within many at the FC for a Back from the Brink project here. Perhaps the Visitor Centre at Top Lodge could become a centre for celebrating nature once again, rather as it was when the Red Kite centre was here. And, of course, the Heritage Lottery Fund needs to agree to fund the project - once again a strong response to the survey will help greatly.  So please fill out the project’s survey (it's mainly tick boxes) but include some mention of Fineshade in your answer to question 10. You could perhaps mention that you are a Friend of Fineshade and would support the idea to base a wildlife project here. This is rather urgent - we understand decisions could be made as soon as next week. Very many thanks for your continued support for Fineshade Wood. We really do appreciate your help. Friends of Fineshade.

Pitsford CBC

Hello

Jacob Spinks and I conducted the seventh Common Bird Census of the season at Pitsford Reservoir this morning in pleasant sunny conditions. Four Common Sandpipers were on the causeway, the pair of Oystercatcher are still supporting two young, three or four Little Egrets were mobile and five species of raptor included two Hobbys.

Dragonflies were made up of Common Darter, Black-tailed Skimmer and Four-spot Chaser and there were a few Emerald Damselflies amongst the hundreds of Common Blues. Butterflies were relatively few in number but a reasonable hatch of Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Speckled Woods and Large Skippers will hopefully enjoy some more fine weather in the days to come.

A pair of Grey Partridge near Hanging Houghton this afternoon were chaperoning a brood of chicks no older than a day or two.

Regards

Neil M

Brown Hare

Speckled Wood butterfly

Large Skipper butterfly

Common Buzzard

Great Crested Grebes

Little Egret

Oystercatcher

All images taken at Pitsford
Reservoir today...

Saturday's bits and bobs

Hello

Visits to the usual local sites today failed to turn up anything new. It was good to see plenty of common butterflies trying to exploit the broken but strong sunshine today, with new hatches of Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Common Blue and Large Skipper on the wing.

Up to six Ravens were at Staverton today, a Grasshopper Warbler was singing weakly at Blueberry Farm, Jacob Spinks recorded two Crossbills at Fineshade Wood and Eric Graham located two Yellow-legged Gulls a female Red-crested Pochard and a Cuckoo on the Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston (Aldwincle Pit)...

Regards

Neil M.

Adult Raven.

Birds and the weather

Hello

No birds of note to report today and at one stage I thought it would be the first day for ages without rain. However it loomed very dark here this evening and we experienced a series of very heavy showers. It might be just an inconvenience to us, but to just fledged young passerines a drenching late in the evening followed by a cool night can be enough to chill and kill. 

Preliminary observations suggest that some birds have enjoyed this very wet spring and early summer. Birds that need to probe for invertebrates require at least moist conditions in order to reach their food. Starlings are much reduced in numbers these days but my impression is that they have enjoyed a productive year with plenty of juveniles on the wing. Leatherjackets, the grub stage of the Cranefly family, are a critical food item for the Starling and it seems that the adults found plenty of them to provide for their nestlings. It is probably a similar story with the Rook, another bird that probes the surface for grubs and similar, and the flocks now out in the fields seem to include plenty of juveniles.

Other members of the corvid family also breed well in damp springs when invertebrate prey is important for the breeding success of Magpies, Carrion Crows and Jackdaws. Although all these species can be predatory towards smaller birds, it is invertebrate prey which ensures success and makes up the majority of the food.

Generally Blackbirds and thrushes breed well in moderately wet conditions, but such is the extent of the rain it is likely many of the fledged young have chilled and not survived. The first couple of broods are also staple food for birds of prey, larger birds and mammalian predators and few survive. Later broods stand more chance when predators have less pressure to feed young of their own. Robins are a smaller prey item and less readily sought out by predators such as Sparrowhawks, and they seem to be having a good 2016 (2015 was good for them too). Wrens enjoyed a great season last year and this year indicates there are record numbers of breeding pairs but productivity is very low. Building moss nests which soak up rain like a sponge will not have helped. However there have been plenty of calling just-fledged juveniles about, but the rain and cool nights compromises their limited feathering and small size and many seem not to be surviving for very long.

For those species that attempt a couple of broods, there is still plenty of time for breeding success. The tits in general do not normally double brood (occasionally Great Tits do), so we know already that yet again it has been a poor breeding year for them.

The pretty constant high water level at Pitsford Reservoir appears to have benefited those species that nest on the water or in the margins with good numbers of Coot families and even several Mute Swan families too. Time will tell if species that tend to breed later (such as the Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Duck) will do as well.

Every year there are winners and losers and no two years are the same, and despite adverse conditions, it is always amazing how many young birds survive and join the ranks to ultimately breed themselves.

Regards

Neil M

A nestful of Swallow chicks!
When it's wet outside there is a
significant advantage when your
parents have created a nest for you
inside a building! These birds will
probably fledge this coming week-end.

Image courtesy of Chris Payne.

Adult male Starling. The blue
base of the bill in the breeding
season identifies it as a male. And
you guessed it, the female has a pink
base to the bill!

Juvenile Starlings.

Adult and juvenile Rook.

Thursday's birds

Hello

Single Barn Owls were noted near Brixworth and again below Hanging Houghton today.

A visit to the floating rafts at Pitsford Reservoir provided evidence of more hatched Common Tern chicks and with two of the Oystercatcher chicks still present too. A small 'black goose' with the Canada Goose flock is seemingly one of the races of Cackling Goose or one of the small types of Canada Goose and presumed of captive origin.

An experimental ringing session at Lamport Hall this evening provided the capture and ringing of eleven Swifts and two House Martins, with a pair of Hobby in close attendance!

Regards

Neil M

Juvenile Robin!

A Swift in the process of being ringed.

Images courtesy of Cathy Ryden.

Images from Pitsford Reservoir.

Hello

Some recent images from Pitsford Reservoir with my thanks to Robin and David for their valued contributions...

Regards

Neil M

Tufted Duck

The acrobatic Common Tern

Cormorant.

All above images
courtesy of Robin Gossage.

Common Spotted Orchid
as found in the Walgrave Bay.

Juvenile Common Buzzard.
 This bird is exhibiting some kind of
 deformity or disease affecting the softer tissue
 to the right hand side of the head.

Above two images courtesy of
David Arden.

Grey Heron.

Courtesy of Robin Gossage.

Pitsford CES

Hello

Dave Francis worked Session 6 of the Constant Effort ringing effort in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir today, catching 47 birds. This is much less than would be expected and appears to confirm a poor breeding season at Pitsford for many species.

Nineteen species were captured today including two Coots and a Mallard in the duck trap and other birds of interest included two Kingfishers, six Blackcaps, two Garden Warblers, a Reed Warbler, five Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler, a Treecreeper, a Song Thrush and a Bullfinch. The only bird in good numbers was the fabulous Robin with eleven individuals logged.

Regards

Neil M

Stroppy Avocets!

Images from Titchwell
taken on Sunday.