Little Gulls

On our return from walking to toft shallows Draycote Water, just as the easterly wind picked up a first winter Little Gull arrived to feed on insects off farborough spit at 10:35am to be joined by 3 adult birds at 10:47am when they all left to the west. Earlier we had seen Grey Wagtail, Ringed Plover, Yellow-legged Gull adult and juvenile Wheatear between the visitor center and farborough spit. A couple of chiffys were calling in toft shallows and 100 Great-crested Grebe but no sign of Wheatear on our return. There was a trickle of Swallows heading south and 6 House Martins appeared at mid-day before they also went south. Also noted were 16 Linnets, 45 Wigeon, Pochard, 8 Meadow Pipit and 4 Buzzard.

After lunch a visit to Napton Reservoir only produced 2 Wigeon and 4 Teal and another look at the pond while playing round 15 of the Bilton Scrabble Championship produced sod all apart from grumpy parents and screaming kids.

A little bit of mig

Having spent the previous day in Norfolk I dossed the morning away looking out for migrants over the garden managing Hobby, Swallow and 7 Cormorant all heading east.

Raptors and duck

It was a day for raptors at the pond with 3 Sparrowhawk, 5 Buzzard and Peregrine over the Grandborough valley seen from either farborough bank, toft bank or the balcony of the visitor center. Earlier there had been a Ringed Plover and Grey Wagtail in front of the fishing lodge, 5 Meadow Pipits on farborough bank, 23 Wigeon off hensborough bank commuting between there and the leam valley, two groups of Shoveler over east of 13 and 4 and a Yellow-legged Gull adult. Other sightings included Raven and a Snipe.

Our first impression of Napton Reservoir when we arrived was that it was void of birds but our walk produced a very skittish juvenile Water Rail, Grey Wagtail, 2 Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, 6 Raven and 3 Buzzard with the bonus of an adult Hobby hunting and feeding on dragonflies above our heads. Party of 40+ Linnet and 4 more Buzzards seen on the way home.

More plodding

With no mist this morning we toured the Grandborough valley before visiting the pond managing 60 Linnet, 6 Meadow Pipit, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge and 2 Tree Sparrow. Just as we were leaving the Baseley Small Holding after chatting with Cym we had a large juvenile Sparrowhawk and presumed it was the bird that kicked up all the Lapwings, corvids and Starlings near Kites Hardwick only to arrive at Draycote to find out it had been a Red Kite – bummer.

A walk to rainbow corner produced 3 Grey Wagtail, 16 Wigeon, 2 Golden Plover still retaining their black bellies, 3 House Martin and a record count for me of 42 Greylag’s. Luckily we managed to get Bob on to the Little Gull we had spotted between the valve tower and ‘c’ buoy who was in toft bay at the time minutes before it flew off west.

Napton on the Hill was disappointing with no visible migration despite favorable conditions, a few local Swallows and House Martin, 2 Raven and 2 Buzzard.

Bob notified me he had tracked down the nasal saddle Tufted Duck that we saw earlier in the week and seen by him again today, it had been ringed at São Jacinto Dunes Nature Reserve (40º41’N 08º44’W) which is in Portugal for those who don’t speak longitude and latitude, surprising it should choose to migrate north to winter

It was another good catch last night with 117 moths of 23 species including my 4^th Merveille du Jour of the year along with good numbers of Lunar and Large Yellow Underwing.

Barred Sallow

Merveille du Jour

Draycote and Napton on the Hill

After another mild night meant that we were greet with 50 feet visibility which never cleared while we we present. Our walk to toft shallows produced 4 Grey Wagtails on farborough and toft bank and 7 Chiffchaff in willow scrub at the end of toft bank. Only other sightings were of adult Yellow-legged Gull, Ringed Plover, 2 House Martin and a single Wigeon.

Lunch at Brandon Marsh then a look at Napton on Hill which had 5 Raven, 2 Buzzard and a very large juvenile Sparrowhawk.

We have id this as 450 Scythropia crataegella but as its a July moth we will need the county recorder to confirm.

Angle Shades. I have trapped over 190 of these but this is the first that kept its wings open

Early moth records and dreary pond

Had a triple surprise in the moth trap this morning with my earliest record of Red-lined Quaker, 2^nd earliest record of Pink-barred Sallow and 3^rd earliest record of Blair’s Shoulder-knot due to last nights very mild temperatures before the low cloud and mist arrived.

Pink-barred Sallow

The same low cloud was responsible for very poor light conditions at the pond when Bob and I walked to toft bay which hardly improved through out our visit and made viewing very difficult.

Ended up with 2 Ringed Plover and a Dunlin on the south shore, 4 Ravens over our heads heading for toft, 2 Gadwall, 32 Mute Swan, 2 Swallow, Sparrowhawk and a Kingfisher flying across toft bank and along the brook bordering the sewage farm. There were plenty of Black-heading Gulls loafing around but nothing special among them.

Plodding along over the same old ground

Early morning mist cleared quickly as we walked out to farborough spit but all we managed to see was a 7 Wigeon, Yellow Wagtail, Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper. A chat like species seen distantly on toft bank was unfortunately flushed by a procession of cyclist and runners and never specifically identified despite searching for it when we got closer.

Napton on the Hill had a continuous movement of Swallows heading south occasionally joining the local birds over the village below us plus thirteen Cormorant and a Yellow Wagtail heading south west. Of the 15 Ravens counted only 2 were distant and there were at least 10 Buzzards present. Three Chiffchaffs heard and a Willow Warbler showed well in the churchyard.

The water level continues to rise at Napton Reservoir so apart from a juvenile Great-crested Grebe demanding the attention of its parents all we found was a Teal.

Plenty of Speckled Wood and Comma’s butterflies seen today plus Ruddy Darter and Migrant Hawker dragonflies.