Summer visitors

Hello,

This weekend I have spent all my available daylight hours, apart cooking my mum breakfast in bed today as it is mothers day and I am a good boy, I have been down at Pitsford Reservoir doing my daily checks and an obvious movement of birds is starting to take place.

There has been quite a fair amount of gull passage occurring over the last two weeks or so and Friday was no exception. I was round the dam area of Pitsford Res in the evening after school and there was no gulls or very few birds to be seen at all from here, then in one big flock, at least 300+ Herring Gulls dropped in with about 50+ Lesser Black Backed and a handful of Greater Black Backed Gulls. I thought my luck had changed for a white winged gull but my hopes didn't come to much at all.

Yesterday was a bright but windy day with a strong northerly wind persisting through most of the day, however this did not deter a female Osprey to fly in from the south at around 11 O' clock and fish for about half an hour in the Scaldwell Bay before it continued its journey north without a fish, but with a Red Kite chasing it till it was out of sight. Interestingly, this bird was bearing a green colour ring and was originally ringed at Rutland Water in 2004 as a female. This makes it 13 years old if it reaches to the summer, imagine the number on miles that bird will have covered in its life! Other birds noted include the White Fronted Goose, two Oystercatcher, a Snipe, a Redshank, two Lapwing, three Green Sandpiper, a Marsh Tit and a few Little Egrets. I then went up to Harrington Airfield to feed the birds were I flushed two Grey Partridge and a male White Wagtail was along the concrete track with Pied Wagtails and Yellowhammers.

Today was the day of patch year ticks, I managed to catch up finally with the Nuthatch in the Moulton Grange Bay which has been present for nearly two weeks now as it was singing refutably as was the Willow Warbler in a neighbouring tree, this was my first of the year. Then, after walking less than 100 yards, a Curlew went over calling wildly as it was flying south, I was able to repeat its call and it started to circle above me, this was when I found out I had left my camera battery at home. Ah well. After five minutes of it circling, it continued its journey south. The Slavonian Grebe was still present in its winter plumage in the Pintail Bay and other birds included the three Green Sandpipers, two Oystercatchers, six Snipe, a Pintail and what could possibly be my last Fieldfares of the year. Its weird seeing winter and summer migrants on the same day.

Regards,

Jacob

Teal

White Fronted Goose

Osprey

Third time lucky!

Hello,

Today I set off to go and see the male Pine Bunting in Dunnington, North Yorkshire and third time lucky seems to tell the truth! Andrew Tyrell and myself set off at 6am this morning and we reached Cunnington at about half 8, we were then pointed in the direction of the bird by two teenagers who probably thought we were all a bit mad, all flocking to see one bird but never the less, we had arrived. After waiting around for 20mins or so after observing some Corn Buntings, Tree Sparrows and Siskins, I scanned the top of the trees through my scope and what was sitting on top of the Silver Birch was mind blowing. The male Pine Bunting, finally after three attempts to see this species, and everyone around me got onto it as it sat quite proudly in the same place for about five minutes before flicking down and into the field.

A record shot of the Pine Bunting

We then moved onto Acaster Malbis where a Great Grey Shrike had been seen however we had some confusion as Birdguides where calling it Acaster Malbis and Rare Bird Alert were calling the site Acaster Selby so after stopping a cycling birder we found that it was in-between the two villages. However, once we found the bird it was showing incredibly well around the Ebor Trucks compound.

Now we had ticked Great Grey Shrike for the year, we moved south, heading to Willow Tree Fen, Lincolnshire for the male Bluethroat that has been performing excellently there for the last few weeks. We arrived and the hour long wait began but that wait wasn't worthless as I managed to pick up a Water Pipit calling with some of the Meadow Pipits which were gathering there. Other birds included a Peregrine and a female Marsh Harrier. Then the Bluethroat stopped playing games and hoped out of view but it seemed to be struggling with swallowing something, probably some of the Mealworms that its being fed. However it was showing incredibly well down to four feet! 

Then, our last site of the day was Frampton Marsh RSPB which seems to be an excellent site holding very large numbers of Golden Plover, around ten thousand. Also big numbers of Brent Geese, Wigeon, Teal and other common waterfowl but some of the less common birds included a Barnacle Goose, ten Ruff, three Spotted Redshank, a Merlin, a male Marsh Harrier, a Peregrine, four Whooper Swans, quite a few Pintail but we didn't catch up with many of the birds with Sand Martins, two Common Cranes and a Dotterel being seen there today! 

Regards, 

Jacob 

Bluethroat

Brent Geese

Golden Plover

Great Grey Shrike

Peregrine

Redshank

Meadow Pipit

Skylark