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I hadn't done any birding at all this weekend as I had been helping the missus in the garden. The weather report for today was supposedly for a nice day until about mid-afternoon so I decided to get up early (4am) and drive the 40 miles to Summer Leys NR near to Northampton.
I arrived to a clear cloudless sky at about 05:30am and just sat for a while just watching and listening to the birds in and around the car park. A Cuckoo flew low past the car calling as it went by and a small raptor suddenly appeared and disappeared just as quickly but I was fairly confident that it was a Merlin.
It was time to do the 2-mile circular walk and I started at the 1st hide where I was soon watching most of the common birds. The usual ducks plus Ringed Plovers, Redshanks a couple of Dunlin, Sedge & Reed Warblers, Reed Buntings, a couple of Yellow Wags plus quite a few Common Terns were in attendance. A Green Woodpecker flew across the reserve. I started the walk to the Bittern Hide and as I approached a small Tern dropped onto a post on one of the islands. It was a surprise Little Tern followed by a Whimbrel also dropping onto the same island. That was a new GB tick this year, although I had a few in Spain a month ago. The Little Tern only stayed for a brief period before it flew off but the Whimbrel stayed for about 10 minutes before it too flew off.
I carried on to the feeding station and sat down on the bench that is in this half hide. (It is built like a hide but has no back wall to it). The feeding station was full of Tree Sparrows and their young. (I can’t recall ever seeing young Tree Sparrows before and there must have been at least 20 or more coming to the feeders). I have never seen so many and spent a couple of hours in the warm sunshine just watching the antics of these birds as they jostled for perches to wait for food from their parents. Occasionally the odd Starling would go through the same routine. It really was the most relaxing day to have just watching these birds on such a warm, sunny day. I have attached a few photos of these lovely birds.
I decided to go to Stanwick Pits for an hour before returning home and spending the afternoon in the garden. Just before I got there the pager went off announcing a Squacco Heron at Blithfield in Staffs. That was quite a long way from where I was and even though I have never seen one in Britain I felt that I wanted to keep this day as relaxed as possible and decided not to go for it.
There wasn’t much at Stanwick, other that most of what I had seen at Summer Leys, so it was off home. An hour and a half later I was just arriving at our house when the pager went off gain, this time announcing the fact that the Bufflehead had been relocated at Whitemore Hayes which is not far from Blithfield. Knowing that I had let my mate down in the week with this bird I thought it best to ring him and alert him to the fact it had been re-found.
I walked in the house and told my missus that I was ringing Bob and 5 minutes later was walking out of the door having been talked into going after both birds.
At this point relaxed it certainly was not as we made a beeline for Whitemore Hayes. Thankfully the Bufflehead was still there but the pager had announced that the Squacco had disappeared still we decided to go for it and as soon as we arrived it came out in the open, albeit possibly about 400 yards away. Still that meant one new bird on my British list (the Squacco), one new bird on my combined GB & EU list (the Bufflehead) and 3 new birds for the year for my GB list.
What started out as a totally relaxed day certainly didn’t end that way. Still they were nice birds to finish May off with.
I arrived to a clear cloudless sky at about 05:30am and just sat for a while just watching and listening to the birds in and around the car park. A Cuckoo flew low past the car calling as it went by and a small raptor suddenly appeared and disappeared just as quickly but I was fairly confident that it was a Merlin.
It was time to do the 2-mile circular walk and I started at the 1st hide where I was soon watching most of the common birds. The usual ducks plus Ringed Plovers, Redshanks a couple of Dunlin, Sedge & Reed Warblers, Reed Buntings, a couple of Yellow Wags plus quite a few Common Terns were in attendance. A Green Woodpecker flew across the reserve. I started the walk to the Bittern Hide and as I approached a small Tern dropped onto a post on one of the islands. It was a surprise Little Tern followed by a Whimbrel also dropping onto the same island. That was a new GB tick this year, although I had a few in Spain a month ago. The Little Tern only stayed for a brief period before it flew off but the Whimbrel stayed for about 10 minutes before it too flew off.
I carried on to the feeding station and sat down on the bench that is in this half hide. (It is built like a hide but has no back wall to it). The feeding station was full of Tree Sparrows and their young. (I can’t recall ever seeing young Tree Sparrows before and there must have been at least 20 or more coming to the feeders). I have never seen so many and spent a couple of hours in the warm sunshine just watching the antics of these birds as they jostled for perches to wait for food from their parents. Occasionally the odd Starling would go through the same routine. It really was the most relaxing day to have just watching these birds on such a warm, sunny day. I have attached a few photos of these lovely birds.
I decided to go to Stanwick Pits for an hour before returning home and spending the afternoon in the garden. Just before I got there the pager went off announcing a Squacco Heron at Blithfield in Staffs. That was quite a long way from where I was and even though I have never seen one in Britain I felt that I wanted to keep this day as relaxed as possible and decided not to go for it.
There wasn’t much at Stanwick, other that most of what I had seen at Summer Leys, so it was off home. An hour and a half later I was just arriving at our house when the pager went off gain, this time announcing the fact that the Bufflehead had been relocated at Whitemore Hayes which is not far from Blithfield. Knowing that I had let my mate down in the week with this bird I thought it best to ring him and alert him to the fact it had been re-found.
I walked in the house and told my missus that I was ringing Bob and 5 minutes later was walking out of the door having been talked into going after both birds.
At this point relaxed it certainly was not as we made a beeline for Whitemore Hayes. Thankfully the Bufflehead was still there but the pager had announced that the Squacco had disappeared still we decided to go for it and as soon as we arrived it came out in the open, albeit possibly about 400 yards away. Still that meant one new bird on my British list (the Squacco), one new bird on my combined GB & EU list (the Bufflehead) and 3 new birds for the year for my GB list.
What started out as a totally relaxed day certainly didn’t end that way. Still they were nice birds to finish May off with.
