Month: June 2023

A week in which the heat built … and the birds did not disappoint.

It would just be kinda nice to leave out wildfowl – just for once. After all, it is mid-June and what’s out there currently is, well, not exactly the real McCoy, as it were. We could simply gloss over June 19th, however, it would probably be rude not mention the Barnacle Goose at Upton CP and the Ruddy Shelduck at Winwick Pools, both of which were present on that date.

And rightly so, as taking centre stage this week was another glitzy grebe – this time of the Slavonian persuasion, for once in splendid summer plumage. After the report of a quickly vanishing bird at Pitsford Res in February, the Slavonian Grebe at Thrapston GP’s Town Lake on the first day of the period provided more than ample reward for the fleet-footed – those who were able to make it to the site after the news broke, late in the afternoon, on 17th. Keeping its distance, it remained into the evening but was not seen thereafter. According to some accounts, it had been present the previous day.

June waders are normally at a premium but this week Stanwick GP dished up a Wood Sandpiper on 17th, Hollowell Res a Greenshank on 19th and Pitsford two Black-tailed Godwits on 21st. Not a bad haul, collectively.

From there on, the focus was clearly on the latter site, where a surprising total of five Yellow-legged Gulls was reported on 17th, ahead of two seemingly unseasonal Sandwich Terns, which lingered long enough for those so inclined to catch up with them during the morning of 21st. Late to the party and hot on the heels of this year’s only ones to date – those two short-stayers at Thrapston GP only eight days previously – they represent one of the very few June records this century.

The week’s Ospreys were limited to one over Thrapston GP’s Elinor Trout Lake on 18th, one at the favoured fishing site of Hollowell on 19th, followed by two there the next day and one flying south over Mears Ashby on 23rd.

Found on 18th, in the reeds below the Fishing Lodge at Pitsford, a showy male Bearded Tit pulled many a punter throughout the week. This represents another interesting summer occurrence in the wake of one or two at Summer Leys last week and may even be the first record for the site.

After last week’s, Pitsford also produced a Crossbill on 18th and two more were found at Wakerley Great Wood on 21st. More to come, no doubt.

Hitting mid-June saw birds which push the boundaries and break the rules come to the fore this week, a period that also gave rise to the rediscovery of what had initially been believed to be only a flyover Purple Heron … all of which placed the focus squarely on Summer Leys.

There was also an element of déjà vu as far as wildfowl were concerned, namely in the shape of the female Ruddy Shelduck still present at Winwick Pools on 12th and the drake Red-crested Pochard seeing another week out at Pitsford Res.

June is renowned as the month for Quail and, following this year’s first at Blueberry Farm on 2nd, two more were heard this week. The first was during the twenty-fourth hour of 10th, picked up in flight over Higham Ferrers, while the other was near Cottesbrooke, in an area with no public access, on 16th. Seeing one, of course, is a different matter entirely and presents a challenge which is rarely successfully accomplished.

Mid-June is also the time when wader numbers bottom out and, to prove the point, a Black-tailed Godwit appeared as a one-day bird at Stanwick GP on 11th, while an Avocet was reported on the dam at Pitsford, briefly, on 16th.

Pitsford also produced an adult Yellow-legged Gull on 11th but it was Thrapston GP’s Titchmarsh LNR that delivered the year’s only Sandwich Terns so far, bizarrely late, on 13th. There have been far fewer than is typical inland across the UK this spring.

Once again, though, it was good ol’ Summer Leys which delivered the period’s best birds. With the previous week’s flyover Purple Heron, two days before the weekend, on 8th, there it was again on 10th – this time on terra firma, considerately choosing the Scrape as its favoured feeding area. It went on to spend the next four days there – more in than out of the reeds – but with patience, or just plain good luck and timing, local, and some not so local, birders connected and went away happy.  

At the same locality and somewhat overshadowed by the above, was a Bittern that appeared briefly on the Scrape on 10th and again on 12th, before flying off west. This is a species which, over the past few years, has pushed the boundaries by being seen with increasing frequency during spring and summer, i.e. outside of its established autumn/winter occurrence pattern. It has yet to become a proven breeder in the county, but with plenty of suitable habitat locally and a UK population which is clearly on the up, the day surely can’t be that far away.  

The week’s raptors were kept afloat by single Ospreys at Hollowell Res and Titchmarsh LNR – both on 15th and, back at Summer Leys, a Marsh Harrier on 10th.  

Which brings us neatly to the other rule-breaker of the week: Bearded Tit, a female of which was seen at Summer Leys on 10th, with a possible second bird present, too. As another bird with an autumn/winter occurrence pattern, tentatively, this may be the first June record for the county. This species breeds in Bedfordshire, at Marston Vale, a mere 25 km SSE of Summer Leys, as the Beardie flies. How long before they breed in Northants …

A Common Redstart on the northern outskirts of Kettering on 14th seems likely to be an early southbound migrant, while two Crossbills flying over Fineshade Wood on 10th, two west over Wellingborough on 12th and two or three at Hanging Houghton on 14th also suggest an ‘autumn’ movement is also in the early stages for this species, too.

There has been no let up in the relentless, brisk, north-easterly airstream this week and, as we moved firmly into June, migration quickly began to tail off. The week still had much to offer, though, and the cup was far from running dry. Meanwhile, a certain north Northants town became involved in a bit of a hoo-ha …

The female Ruddy Shelduck returned to Winwick on 5th, after last being seen there on 20th March – an early return to moult, perhaps – while the lingering drake Red-crested Pochard remained north of the causeway at Pitsford Res until the week’s end. Once again, it had the sporadically appearing female Ferruginous Duck x Red-crested Pochard hybrid in tow.

With the county having already done reasonably well for Black-necked Grebes so far this year, another putting in a one-day appearance at Summer Leys on 8th was essentially the first in the Nene Valley – Pitsford and Daventry CP having shared the previous five records.

Also in the Nene Valley, residual waders included another unseasonal Golden Plover – this time at Thrapston GP, on 4th, and last week’s Grey Plover chalking up a five-day stay at Clifford Hill GP until 5th. The latter site also harboured all of the week’s Sanderlings, comprising one on 3rd and three or four on 5th, which concludes a remarkable run of records for this energetic little wader in the county this year.

But let’s not forget that rather modest area of floodwater which forms the focal point of Lilbourne Meadows NR, tucked away in that small spike of Northamptonshire on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border. This small, unassuming wetland continued its fine run of waders this week with another Wood Sandpiper on 3rd, a Greenshank from 3rd to 5th and a Black-tailed Godwit on 8th.

Three Little Terns at Pitsford on the evening of 9th both eclipsed, and ended, the ‘run’ of the year’s two individuals that visited Clifford Hill GP in May, on 3rd and 31st.

But a major contributor to a week of surprises was a Purple Heron, photographed flying east over the scrape at Summer Leys, in the early afternoon of 8th. This constitutes only the twenty-first record for the county, following the last one, in 2021, which was also present at Summer Leys and the wider environs of Earls Barton GP, during late May and early June of that year.

This week’s raptors were few and far between. An Osprey again visited Biggin Lake, Oundle on 9th while, not too far down the road, two Marsh Harriers were present briefly at Titchmarsh LNR on 4th and one flew west over Summer Leys on 8th.

Which leaves what may potentially be bird of the year … or not. On the evening of 6th June, the Facebook Group Spring Watch, Autumn Watch and Winter Watch fans World-Wide carried an image within a post which asked the question: “This picture was taken in Corby Northamptonshire in a friends garden, can anybody identify what bird it is please?” As the news reached a wider audience, late on 7th, pulses raced and eyebrows were raised as the image appeared to depict a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak on a wooden post.   

A subsequent follow-up, on 8th, confirmed the bird had not been present since the initial sighting, which was in the Stanion Lane area on 6th. Wild bird, escape, potential hybrid cagebird – we’ll never know if it was ‘the real thing’ in all respects, and there has been much scepticism, debate and head-scratching … There have been thirty-three UK records to date, almost half of which have been in the Isles of Scilly, with the remainder in other coastal counties and only two of these have been in spring.

To say the last week of May was not too shabby is an understatement and, while there were no new blazing rarities, a late spring wader-rush delivered those missing ingredients from the seasonal smörgåsbord we are used to dipping into at this time of the year.

Unsurprisingly, wildfowl took very much the back seat this week, with just the lingering drake Red-crested Pochard at Pitsford Res on 27th, followed by an impressive raft of thirteen Common Scoters seeing out the whole day at Stanford Res on 1st.

The first Quail of the year was heard at Blueberry Farm in the Brampton Valley – an area with a track record for producing this species over many years. Having become a much scarcer visitor these days, though, the question is will there be many – or even any – more as the summer unfolds?

With last week ending on a high note in the form of a Black-winged Stilt at Summer Leys LNR, this week opened with the same bird still present, early on 27th, before quickly melting away out of sight of the early morning observers, never to be seen again.

Surprisingly for late May/early June, other waders were nothing less than prolific at a time when passage is normally all but done. Two more Grey Plovers helped boost this species’ relatively poor numbers to date with one at Lilbourne Meadows NR on 29th and the other – obligingly staying overnight – at Clifford Hill GP on 1st and 2nd. The same site also produced two unseasonal Golden Plovers on the evening of the latter of these dates.

Although Ringed Plovers don’t qualify as scarce migrants as far as weekly reviews are concerned, it’s always interesting when birds come through in numbers in late spring to try identifying them to race. Rather than those seen on a regular basis, i.e. British breeding hiaticula, those later birds are often of the subtly different race tundrae – or perhaps even psammodroma – which are commonly referred to as ‘Tundra’ Ringed Plovers, on their way to their mainly Arctic breeding grounds. Birds were identified as showing such characteristics on 31st, when at least eight were at Lilbourne Meadows, rising to twelve there on 2nd, while at least eleven visited Stanwick GP on 1st and five were at Clifford Hill on 2nd.

Following the only Turnstone of the year, at the latter site on the more typical date of 10th May, further late arrivals followed this week with four at Stanwick, briefly, on 27th and singles at Summer Leys on 30th and 1st, Ditchford GP on 1st and Clifford Hill on 2nd.

If previous years are anything to go by, we might be blessed with one spring Curlew Sandpiper if we’re lucky but three together in various stages of moult to summer plumage, at Lilbourne Meadows, was a real treat on 29th.

And, just when we’d all but given up hope of getting any, along came the Sanderlings – a veritable rush at the eleventh hour. Kicking off on 29th, six dropped in at Summer Leys and three visited Clifford Hill. These were quickly followed on 31st by four more at Summer Leys, two at separate birds on the dam at Stanford and singles at Clifford Hill and on Pitsford’s dam. The 1st saw a different individual at the latter site, plus one at Summer Leys and two at Stanwick, followed the next day by twos at both DIRFT 3 and Clifford Hill. Impressive numbers by any standards.

A Little Stint – the first for 2023 – was a nice find at Stanwick on 30th but it was not one for hanging around, having flown off north-east shortly after its discovery. Another Wood Sandpiper, at Lilbourne Meadows on 2nd, further boosted numbers in what has turned out to be an unusually productive spring for this smart little Tringa.

More modest fare appeared in the form of Greenshanks – another wader which has appeared in higher numbers than usual this year. Four were together at Lilbourne Meadows on 27th, dropping to two the next day, with one remaining until 2nd. Singles visited Stanford on 27th and 31st and two appeared at Summer Leys on 2nd.

One can only speculate on the reasons for the late passage of some of these waders. Strong, prolonged and persistent north-easterly winds, throughout much of the month, may have served to hold back many of these birds in their attempts to reach their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and the Arctic. We may never know …

A late rush of Black Terns saw six sites being visited. Stanford produced the highest count of eight on 1st, while four were there on 2nd and one on 29th. Boddington Res held five on the latter date, Pitsford three on 31st and one on 27th, Thrapston GP’s Titchmarsh LNR produced at least two on 2nd, following singles there on 30th and 1st. Single birds visited Stanwick on 31st and 1st and one was at Clifford Hill on 31st. The latter site also pulled in its, and the county’s, second Little Tern of the year on the same date.

A tight flock of fifteen Arctic Terns went north-east through Ditchford GP’s Irthlingborough Lake & Meadows LNR on 30th.

Back at Clifford Hill, a Yellow-legged Gull was present there on 2nd.

A White Stork was reported from a flooded field near Oundle on 28th.

It was down to Ospreys to fill this week’s raptors’ slot, with Hollowell producing singles on 27th, 1st and 2nd, while others visited Stanford on 28th, Biggin Lake, Oundle on 30th, Thrapston GP on 30th and Ravensthorpe Res on 31st.

Once again, there were no scarce passerines …