Northants Wildlife: Past Spurn trips and Patching weekend

Hello,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I should have done a couple really in the time I last uploaded as I have been to Spurn twice during that time. First time for Migfest and to compete in the Young Birder of the Year award which was expertly won by George Dunbar. A good friend of mine who I am not at all jealous about winning, why would I be? The last time was for a birding holiday during the October half term with Eleanor Morrison, Harry Witts, Frank Osterberg and Dawood Qureshi (to look at Twitter accounts click links at bottom of post). During this trip I managed to get eleven lifers! These including Yellow Browed Warbler, Little Bunting, Tawny Pipit and Siberian (Stejnegers) Stonechat. The Tawny Pipit and Little Bunting were both self founds and are waiting to be accepted although Little Bunting is more likely to be as I have some horrific record shots, they were both found along Chalk Bank on the 25th October in a matter of five minutes from each other.

Little Bunting

Black Redstart

Redstart

Eastern Black Redstart

Eider

Long-Eared Owl

Long-Tailed Duck

Red-Flanked Bluetail

Snow Bunting

Yellow-Browed Warbler

Yesterday morning and early part of the afternoon was spent meandering around the big side of Pitsford Reservoir in aim to get a few a patch birding ticks for the year. I managed to catch up with the Great Northern Diver which was found the day before, I saw it from Pintail Bay at about 15 meter range unfortunately without my camera. Other birds on the south side of the causeway were three Dunlin, a Brambling, 1-2 Stonechat(s) and two Ravens. I then got to the lodge and located another pair of Ravens calling in the trees. A short stop in the Goosander Hide didn't provide much apart from a Great White Egret. I then got to the Scaldwell Bay were I located another single Great White Egret, a Redshank, a Siskin, a Brambling and 4 Common Snipe.

This morning was spent ringing in the top of the Scaldwell Bay where we caught 65 birds in total, the highlights being of this were two Meadow Pipit, a Bullfinch, eleven Goldcrest including a bird from elsewhere, two Great Spotted Woodpecker, eight Blackbird, fourteen Redwing, a Song Thrush, a Grey Wagtail which was ringed as a youngster at Stanford Reservoir this year, a Kingfisher, a Willow Tit, three Mallard and five Moorhen. The undoubted highlight was a Woodcock which found its way into a mist net.

Other birds on-site today included a Crossbill which flew over 07:30, four Great White Egrets, two Scaup at 14:00 (Adrian Borely had 5 at one stage), a Brambling, a Siskin, two Shelduck, a Snipe and just generally a lot of passage going on.

Regards,

Jacob