Newsround – 3rd to 9th June 2023

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.