Easter sightings

Hello

Yesterday morning at around 7am Dave Burnapp was lucky enough to see an Otter in the River Nene in Northampton at the marina next to Beckett's Park, so it seems that our urban Otters are still there!

Also yesterday a small band of ringers were active at Linford Lakes on the outskirts of Milton Keynes where they caught and processed 45 birds made up of 18 new birds and 27 re-traps of 14 species. Highlights included a Jay, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 3 Greenfinches, 5 Blackcaps, 2 Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff first ringed there in July 2016.

A couple of Cuckoos were present and two Great Crested Newts were also seen.

Eleanor saw a Whitethroat and four Grey Partridges at Harrington Airfield yesterday.

Today and a singing Lesser Whitethroat was near Arthingworth and Brixworth Sewer Works attracted a couple of Yellow Wagtails and a small swarm of Swallows.

An influx of passerines at Pitsford Reservoir in the vicinity of the dam this afternoon and evening included at least ten Bramblings feeding in the trees at the Sailing Club, a Wheatear, a Rock Pipit and a flock of forty plus Yellow Wagtails, courtesy of Jacob Spinks.

Other birds noted at Pitsford by Jacob today included a White Wagtail, a Grey Wagtail, a Kingfisher, 2 Common Terns, a Little Ringed Plover, a Green Sandpiper and a Common Sandpiper.

Four more Bramblings and a Wheatear were in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this evening.

Regards

Neil M

Grey Heron River Nene,
Northampton courtesy
of John Boland.

Wheatear at Pitsford
Reservoir today, courtesy
of Jacob Spinks.

Odds and Ends

The last couple of days have been fairly quiet on the birding front. The only birds of note yesterday were 2 Wheatears at Blueberry Farm and a Raven near Walgrave.
Today was the more productive of the two days.  At 07.30hrs I was watching an adult Otter fishing at Ravensthorpe Reservoir. 
Next venue was Daventry Country Park where a walk around the reservoir was disappointingly quiet with nil birds of note. The only excitement was the presence of a large group of runners and Tor baying loudly as he wanted to run with them !!
I then went to Borough Hill and parked with great difficulty as every available space was taken, it seemed as if the whole world was there, and it did feel as if I was walking down Oxford Street at times.  But despite this I managed 2 Wheatears and 2 Common Redstarts.
At Staverton the pair of resident Ravens were very vocal and put on some spectacular acrobatic displays as Tor was clowning around on the agility course. I don't know who caused us to laugh the most the Ravens or Tor !!

Regards Eleanor

Potential developments for Freight Terminals and loss of habitat

Below is a message we have received regarding proposals to site two Rail Freight Terminals on the outskirts of Northampton and of  the possible implications for the wildlife. I have included it on our blog site to raise awareness and to provide the opportunity to contact Brian for further information and/or sign the petition if you so wish. 
Whilst I am not very familiar with the area in question alot of my birding is done on farmland and I know just how important our farmland is in supporting our birds and other wildlife. Any loss of this habitat will have a significant impact on our birds and once it has gone it will be too late for some of the species we take for granted.

My name is Brian Sumpton and I have been a RSPB volunteer for over 30  
years. I am currently working on wildlife issues for a group called stop  
rail central. I am sure many of your members will know about the proposals  
to site two massive Rail Freight Terminals near junctions 15 and 15A of the  
M1. If these go ahead almost1,200 acres of farmland will be lost to  
wildlife. Whilst this area is not of major importance for birds it is  
classed as supporting habitat for the Upper Nene Valley Gravel Pits SPA.  
Notable birds include overwintering Golden Plover, (500+), Lapwings and  
Skylarks. As a part of our fight to stop these proposals going ahead we  
have a petition that will go to the Secretary of State for Transport. Could  
I ask if your members would be prepared to sign our petition,I can send a  
paper based version, or on our website at norailinterchange.co.uk
Andrea Leadsom our local MP and SoS for the Environment is supporting us
Please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss.
Thanks,
Regards,
Brian Sumpton | briansumpton1@btinternet.com

Link to the petition 

Sign the Petition

Regards Eleanor

Another odd mix !!

Another odd mixture of birds today. One minute I was watching our winter visitors and the next our summer visitors and sometimes both together in the same field of view.
Early morning there were 2 Wheatears and a Cuckoo in the valley below Hanging Houghton. Already this year I have seen three Cuckoo's which I think is more than I saw during the whole of Spring/Summer last year.
This afternoon at Harrington Airfield there was a super male Common Redstart in the bushes close to the compound, 2 Wheatears and 4 Grey Partridge around the bunkers. Whilst walking around the bunkers I literally stumbled over a Short Eared Owl which was sitting on the ground seemingly asleep in the sun !!
Blueberry Farm area was quiet apart from a Wheatear, Fieldfares and Redwing feeding on the short grass in the horse fields.

Regards Eleanor

Exciting Times

I think that I have just about recovered from our amazing trip to Argentina and Chile. More details and pics to follow after we have sorted through the hundreds of images taken !!
My birding has been snatched in between the many jobs, errands etc that I have needed to undertake to catch up with what has been happening.
It has been great to come back to such lovely weather and see the signs of spring . I have been amazed at how many butterflies are already on the wing, Orange Tip, Brimstone, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell are in abundance.  The hedgerows are bursting into new growth as well as bursting into song with large numbers of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap.
It is also the time when our winter and summer visitors overlap. This morning I was watching Fieldfares and Redwing feeding in the grass field behind the house whilst a Cuckoo was calling nearby and Swallows flying overhead.
It was a similar scenario at Harrington Airfield with more Fieldfares and Redwings preparing to leave and 4 Wheatears and a male Ring Ouzel around the bunkers.  Other birds included 2+ Brambling, 4 Grey Partridge, Willow Warbler and Swallows.
There were also 2 Wheatears in the valley below Hanging Houghton this morning and a Common Redstart this evening.
Yesterday I came across 4 Brambling sitting in a hedgerow in the valley below Hanging Houghton.
Exciting times as birds are on the move and you just never know what you are going to see.......so ears and eyes wide open !!

Regards   Eleanor

Spring surprises

Hello

Debbie and Eric Graham had a fabulous surprise this morning with their weekly walk around the Titchmarsh Reserve at Thrapston when two Spoonbills flew in and around and then flew on. Although it is assumed this species will gradually become more common and easier to see in the UK, it is still a rare bird here in sunny Northants!

There were also plenty of early singing warblers which included both Sedge and Reed, Swallows, Common Terns and two drake Red-crested Pochard (Elinor and Aldwincle Lakes). An array of butterflies included Orange-tip and Speckled Wood.

Eleanor was at Blueberry Farm this afternoon where there were singing Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps and she bumped in to a relatively early singing Cuckoo too...

The last few days has seen a flock of spring Waxwings arrive in the vicinity of Rushmere Road, Northampton and spilling over towards Abington Park and sub-urban areas nearby with up to 31 birds present...

Regards

Neil M

Waxwings in the vicinity
of Rushmere Road, N'pton
courtesy of Cathy Ryden.
The patterning on the wings
of the bird above suggest it is
an adult male. The top bird
is colour-ringed and Cathy has
hopefully captured sufficient
details with her camera to
identify this individual...

Grey Herons at Abington Park,
Northampton courtesy of John
Gamble. John reports that a pair
have attempted to nest here three
times during the past four years.
They have already produced
 young this year...

South America and back...

Hello

Just back in from a long haul trip to Argentina with brief excursions in to Chile and Brazil.

Together with Wendy and Robin Gossage, our long-suffering travelling partners for many years, we spent twenty days away in South America utilising nine flights to visit Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, the Valdez Peninsular in Argentina and the Iguazu Falls at the juncture of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We also spent some time around Buenos Airies which served as a staging post for the three main destinations. A little weary now and my apologies for the lack of blogs from Eleanor or I.

Our thanks to Diane Freeman, John Warner, the Spinks family, Neil Hasdell, Dave Francis and Helen Franklin for maintaining the respective feeding stations in our absence. Thanks are also due to Neil and Diane in assisting with issues when our return plans didn't go quite as planned and of course to Neil again for maintaining the blog in our absence. Thanks also to the regular contributors continuing to forward their birding experiences and images during the last three weeks.

The British spring seems to be unfurling beautifully here!

Regards

Neil M

The spectacular Iguazu Falls...

Pitsford ringing

Dave Francis conducted a ringing session over Sunday evening and Monday morning at the. Scaldwell Road feed station. The weather on Monday was windier than expected leading to an earlier than anticipated finish.
A total of 42 birds were processed with good numbers of target species: Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting. Details are as follows:

Yellowhammer 15
Tree Sparrow 8
Reed Bunting 4
Dunnock 4
Wren 2
ChiffChaff 1
Chaffinch 2
Robin 1
Meadow Pippit 1
Great Tit 1
Goldfinch 1
Blue Tit 1
Greenfinch 1

Summer Leys

A very pleasant walk day for a walk around Summer Leys this morning.
Not a huge amount of new birds in today, plenty of Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers singing all over the reserve with a solitary Sedge Warbler vocal near to the Marigold pond.
A Peregrine was perched up on a pylon distantly behind Mary's lake and the drake RCP was in it's preferred spot on Pete Wylde's lake, viewable from the top gate.
3 snipe were visible from the screen hide with up to 5 Redshank dotted about the reserve.

Yesterday at Titchmarsh reserve 3 RCP were noted in front of the south hide and later the Palmer hide. Plenty of common warblers were singing including the first Sedge Warblers. A pair of shelduck were present along with a pair of Goldeneye and a few Wigeon and Teal.

MK ringing

A ringing session took place at Hanson's Pits on Sunday with the following report from Kenny.

We had quite the team today with Chris, Helen, Rory and Laura (a new potential trainee) joining Sarah and I (Kenny) so we took the opportunity to try a few new nets at the far end of the reserve.

These proved to be quite productive, and combined with the feeder site produced 52 captures, 39 new, (13 retraps) of an impressive 16 species.

Highlights included 4 chiffchaff, 3 blackcap, 5 reed bunting, 3 treecreepers, a jay, a great spot and a retrap cettis warbler.

A grass snake was a nice non-avian sighting.

Chiffchaff 4

Wren 4

Dunnock 2

Robin 1

Blackcap 3

Jay 1

Blue tit 2 (4)

Goldfinch 4

Reed bunting 5

Great tit 3 (7)

Long tailed tit 2 (1)

Treecreeper 3

Blackbird 1

Chaffinch 3

Great spotted woodpecker 1

Cettis warbler (1)

Thrapston Pits

Both Eric Graham and Nick Parker were birding at Thrapston today, albeit at different times and areas.
Graham & Debbie spent a day picnicking and birding around the reserve area and were rewarded with an assortment of birds: 2 Egyptian geese, 4 Cetti's warblers and 7 Blackcaps, a Willow Warbler was singing too.
2 Oystercatchers were on Elinor and the feeders held 5 Redpoll, 2 male.
3 RCP were around the Palmer hide as well as a pair of displaying Redshank near the backless hide. A pair of Kingfisher flew by calling.
Butterflies were enjoying the weather with peacock, tortoiseshell and brimstone all on the wing over a background of cowslips.

Nick had an evening outing mostly around Town Lake and had his first Common Tern fly through as well as a Little Gull. 2 Shelduck headed south and c15 Sand Martin appeared and disappeared rapidly.
A significant number of Goldeneye are still present with 23 on Town Lake and 33 on the reserve pit. C25 Wigeon flew over in the twilight. 

More spring migrants...

Hello

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and Andrew Tyrrell located a Wheatear at the Nene Barrage on the outskirts of Northampton.

This morning the reliable if a little repetitious Red-necked Grebe and White-fronted Goose were both at Pitsford Reservoir, again just north of the causeway.

Early this afternoon there were 104 Golden Plovers flying around the Harrington Airfield complex and further east Paul Gosling had a Dunlin on the gravel pits east of Wellingborough and at 2.50pm a migrating Osprey heading west over Little Irchester towards Summer Leys...

Regards

Neil M

Wheatear.
Image courtesy of
Robin Gossage.

Golden Plovers.

Osprey.

The Willow Tits are still hanging on...

Hello

Birds at Pitsford Reservoir today included the Red-necked Grebe and White-fronted Goose again north of the causeway and the Slavonian Grebe off the Sailing Club. Other birds included two Oystercatchers, two Green Sandpipers, a distant Ringed/Little Ringed Plover, a Little Egret, two Grey Wagtails and as many as five Willow Tits (including two at the Christies Copse Feeding Station).

Jacob came across an Icelandic race Redwing between Scaldwell village and the reservoir.

Several Siskins and a singing Willow Tit were present at Scotland Wood on the Kelmarsh Estate, a pair of Grey Partridge were between Draughton and Maidwell and a pair of Raven remain at Staverton.

Regards

Neil M

Willow Tit.

Canada Geese.

Cock Pheasant.

Drake Tufted Duck.

Above three images all courtesy
of Jacob Spinks and taken at
Pitsford Reservoir.

Northants Bird Club Indoor Meeting 5th April

Hello

The next indoor meeting of the Northants Bird Club is on Wednesday 5th April 2017 when club member Paul Fuller is kindly providing an illustrated presentation on the wildlife of Tanzania.

This is a country dominated by interesting mammals but there are excellent birds and other interesting aspects of wildlife too, and knowing Paul he would have photographed it!

The meeting starts at 7.30pm utilising the usual venue of the Fishing Lodge at Pitsford Reservoir. Hot drinks and biscuits will be available!

Regards

Neil M

Pitsford small bird census

Hello

Birds north of the causeway at Pitsford Reservoir today included the Red-necked Grebe still, a Peregrine, a Raven, 2 Oystercatchers, 2 Green Sandpipers, 3 Kingfishers, three small parties of Siskins, a singing Blackcap and 2 Sand Martins. There were 26 singing Chiffchaffs on the reserve today and a minimum count of singing song birds on the reserve located 59 singing Robins, 50 singing Wrens and 23 singing Dunnocks.

Of course not every singing bird represents an established pair but certainly an individual bird intent on holding territory. It took seven hours to complete the whole census with the optimum period being the first couple of hours after dawn. This means that some would-be songsters will have been silent by the time I had reached their territory and not every nook and cranny was visited, so the true number of birds holding territory will be higher. The mild conditions during the winter would have benefited all these birds.

A Raven and a Peregrine were over the village at Hanging Houghton this afternoon, a few Siskins were at Ravensthorpe Reservoir with two more at neighbouring Hollowell Reservoir which also hosted 5 Sand Martins, a Little Ringed Plover and a Dunlin.

Eric Graham's walk around the Titchmarsh Reserve today recorded 4 Little Egrets, a Water Rail, 8 singing Cetti's Warblers and 3 Redpolls.

Regards

Neil M

Carrion Crow
Pitsford Reservoir.

Brown Hare
Pitsford Reservoir.

Little Ringed Plover and
Dunlin at Hollowell Reservoir.

Otters in Northampton.

Hello

Andrew Tyrrell enjoyed a wildlife spectacle when he turned up for work this morning at the Carlsberg depot at Southbridge, Northampton and watched three Otters playing and fishing in the River Nene there (at 6.30am)! At last urban Otters in Northampton! Let's hope they stay and show regularly...

At Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon the Slavonian Grebe was again in Yacht Bay and birds immediately north of the causeway were the further long-stayers of Red-necked Grebe, White-fronted Goose and two Redshanks. Single Grey Wagtails were noted at Beck Dairy, Cottesbrooke and in the Brampton Valley below Lamport and three pairs of Grey Partridge remain at Harrington Airfield.

One of the Reed Buntings caught at Harrington Airfield on Wednesday was already bearing a ring (Y576214). This male bird was originally caught at the main feeding station at Pitsford Reservoir on 15th February 2013 when it was judged to have been a first year bird (believed to have hatched in 2012). As such this bird will be five years old this summer.

Regards

Neil M

White-fronted Goose.

Drake Tufted Duck.
The week-end forecast
suggests we are all going
to suffer a bad hair day!
Well apart from Robin...!

Male Reed Bunting.

All images courtesy
of Robin Gossage.

More garden birds

Hello

A big push of Fieldfares today with huge numbers moving north pretty much all day in NN6, and at about 4pm this afternoon, three Ring Ouzels overflew Blueberry Farm also heading north trailing one of the Fieldfare flocks.

Two days ago Jim Dunkley was pleased to see a Tree Sparrow on his garden feeder, the first time he has seen this species in his Sywell garden...

Cathy Ryden has been taking more photos of her garden birds as depicted below...

Regards

Neil M

House Sparrow (on the left) and Tree
Sparrow, courtesy of Jim Dunkley.

Male Bullfinch munching
his way through the spring buds!

Brimstone butterfly
on hyacinth.

Cock Pheasant.

Male Starling.

Collared Dove.

Sparrowhawk.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Above ten images courtesy
of Cathy Ryden.

Thrush gallery

Hello

Strong and sustained sunshine is absolutely fine for the soul but is no friend to ringers using mist nets, as the sun shines on the nets and makes them much more visible to birds.

Nevertheless some limited ringing activity today still provided a number of captures including some quality species...

Dave Francis completed a little garden ringing today on the east side of Northampton and caught 26 birds using just a couple of very small nets with 18 exquisite Goldfinches dominating.

Chris Payne spent a couple of hours using mist nets at Bradden and this provided just over 20 captures including a cracking bold Mistle Thrush, new Nuthatch and several new birds including a couple of Coal Tits, Goldfinch and Blackbird. Many of the tits are spending larger parts of the day away from feeders at the moment as they pair up and ratify nesting sites in our copses and woodlands.

A pair of Egyptian Geese are currently lodged in some wet woodland near there...

This morning's ringing session at Harrington Airfield in very warm and sunny conditions netted 55 birds, 46 of which were new. Perhaps surprisingly thrushes dominated with a Fieldfare, two Blackbirds, two Song Thrushes and thirteen Redwings all extracted from mist nets. Other birds included 13 Yellowhammers, 8 Reed Buntings, 8 Dunnocks, 2 Robins, 3 Chaffinches and a Meadow Pipit.

Birds seen using the site included a fly-over Raven, a redpoll sp, a Chiffchaff, at least one hundred Golden Plovers and a Woodcock.

Jacob watched a mobile flock of five Waxwings in Moulton village today plus a Chiffchaff and noted a Raven flying over Scaldwell village this evening.

Regards

Neil M

A smart adult male Blackbird
exhibiting white flecks to the head.
Image courtesy of
Chris Payne.

Big, bold and beautiful, the
stunning Mistle Thrush.
Courtesy of Chris Payne.

This Fieldfare was judged to be a
first year female...

Some of the Redwings today
exhibited some plumage fading,
perhaps suggesting they had come
from sunnier climes where the sun
had blanched some features.