A high pressure system remained in position over the UK throughout the week, ensuring the continuing run of warm, dry conditions. A trickle of migrants hinted that autumn was underway … just.
A drake Wigeon was unusual at Hollowell Res on 11th and a Mandarin Duck visited nearby Ravensthorpe Res on 10th, the same day that a Garganey was found at Summer Leys LNR, where there was also a Goldeneye on 7th. An Osprey flew west at Pitsford Res on 6th and it, or another, flew east over Blueberry Farm, Maidwell on 8th but the only other raptor of note was a Peregrine in Northampton on 10th. Summer Leys played host to a number of transient Black-tailed Godwits with singles on 7th and 12th, 7 on 8th
- Six Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa islandica, Summer Leys LNR, 10th July 2013 (Mike Alibone). Present in the wader bay and videoscoped from Pioneer Hide. The individual spending most of its time at the right hand end of the group is a female. Larger, longer billed, less extensively coloured underparts and less boldly patterned upperparts may invite confusion with Continental Black-tailed Godwit L. l. limosa, which is much less frequently encountered in Northamptonshire.
and 6 on 10th and a Green Sandpiper visited Daventry CP on 9th, the same site hosting a Greenshank on 10th and 11th while another was at Summer Leys on 7th. Loafing summer larids at Stanwick GP on 11th included a Common Gull and seventeen Yellow-legged Gulls while a first-summer Little Gull visited Daventry CP on 9th and the first Black Tern of the ‘autumn’ was at Summer Leys on 12th. Several Crossbills were mobile around Bucknell Wood on 6th.
Northants birds 