Bird news and more
A Red-backed Shrike was showing well in bushes by the river, opposite the hide on stilts at Thrapston GP’s Tichmarsh reserve late this afternoon. Alan Bull captured images of this splendid male, which is the first in the County since the last accepted record of a male at Hartwell on 24th May 2004. This species last bred in Northamptonshire in the 1960s.
The Stanford Ringing Group has again been busy trapping rare warblers, having yesterday netted Northamptonshire’s second only Northern Willow Warbler. Identified on biometrics this race, acredula, which breeds as close as Norway, is regularly recorded on passage in the UK but what an odd time to find one inland in the Midlands!
Normally Willow Warblers start moving south at the end of July. So where did it originate? It is a female with a brood patch growing over so maybe from Scotland (where this race is believed by some to breed) or maybe a Scandinavian breeder whose brood has failed and it decided to return south early? I would be pleased to receive comments on its possible origin. Interestingly, the only previous record of this race for Northamptonshire was also trapped by the SRG on 23rd August 2008.
It’s about time we had one this year and John Peacock was lucky enough to catch this individual as it passed over the footpath near the Screen Hide at Summer Leys this morning. Initially mobbed by a crow, it circled and quickly gained height before moving off north-west at about 08.15.
Plumage characteristics, such as the slightly darker secondaries than primaries, with barring conspicuous and filling the space between the covert barring and the darker trailing edge – as well as the outer primary barring extending out toward the darker tips – point to this individual being an adult female. Honey Buzzard is a scarce annual passage migrant with, over the last ten years, 2-4 records per year. In 2000 a record 37 were recorded as part of a national autumn invasion but prior to that there had been only 12 records in the 20th century.
Keith Smith sent me these images of a leucistic Willow Warbler, with plumage reminiscent of a domestic Canary, recently photographed at Summer Leys. It was along the old railway track at the far end of the reserve (opposite end to the car park) frequently dropping down out of view to feed, then appearing again in the same general area.
Leucistic Willow Warblers are rare but not without precedent. There are two recent, similarly striking, examples from Scotland involving returning breeding individuals (paired to ‘normal’ Willow Warblers) with a female on Mull in 2003 and 2004 www.mullbirds.com/Leucistuc%20Warbler.html and a male near Dalry, north Ayrshire in 2010 and again this year www.lizworld.com/Leucistic/Leucistic_WW.html.
I found a flock of thirteen Ringed Plovers (with five Dunlin and a Little Ringed Plover thrown in for good measure) at Hollowell Reservoir this afternoon. The Ringed Plovers all seemed to be Tundra Ringed Plovers appearing relatively small and neat with quite dark mantles and, for those in the vicinity, only a ‘half size up’ from the Little Ringed Plover. But look at the contrast between the two birds pictured here. One is clearly
a male (black ear coverts, apparently wholly black breast band and sharp demarcation between the orange bill base and the black tip) and the other presumably is a female,
with dull brownish ear coverts and a narrower breast band as well as a narrower black band on the forehead. Unlike nominate race hiaticula Ringed Plovers, tundrae undergoes a late winter moult to summer plumage and so should always appear fresh in spring. I always get the impression that the breast band on tundrae is perhaps slightly narrower and more even in width than that on hiaticula but that’s just a personal perception – I haven’t seen it in the literature and I could be wrong. The two races intergrade and individuals with intermediate morphometrics and moult patterns have been recorded. To make matters worse, tundrae becomes larger again, further east in Siberia. Ringed Plovers are anything but simple!
Just back from three great days in Wetzlar, Germany, with Carl Zeiss. No birds. Just optics. A very informative two-day seminar and factory tour which really brought home the reasons why top tier optics cost what they do. Expensive? Relatively speaking, they’re not. Find out why here. To Suzanne Challinor (Cley Spy), Richard Caplan (Richard Caplan), Ryan Longley (Focalpoint Optics), Tim Strivens (Viking Optical), Richard Cross (London Camera Exchange) and Paul Longley, Gary Hawkins and Walter Schwab (Zeiss) – a big thank you for being such good company over the last couple of days!
A Slavonian Grebe in full summer plumage was found this afternoon on Mary’s Lake at Earls Barton Gravel Pits by Robin and Wendy Gossage. This species averages around two records per year in Northants – normally in the winter months – and individuals in summer plumage are extremely rare in the County. In fact this is the latest spring record ever and the first in May since 1974, when a pair visited Billing GP on 1st May. Thanks again to Bob Bullock for the excellent photo below.
While working in Rutland on Thursday, 12th May, Tom Lowe ‘videoscoped’ this Black Kite after it had drifted over him, high SSE, and crossed the River Welland into Northamptonshire between Collyweston and Easton-on-the-Hill. His videograb composite, below, leaves no doubts on the ID with perfect structure and the 6-fingered primaries
visible in the the top right and bottom left photos. This will be only the third record of Black Kite for Northants, the previous two were of singles near Long Buckby on 2nd May 1995 and at Summer Leys LNR on 7th May 2007, so May appears to be ‘the’ month. There have been a handful of previous reports but these have either been unaccepted or have related to escapes. Well done, Tom!
A phone call to Frank Smith from an excited farmer who was uncertain of the identity of a ‘large stork or ibis’ on his land at Weedon sent Frank over to investigate – and this was the
result! A fantastic adult Black Stork, only the second record for Northamptonshire, after the first at Barnwell on 27th-28th July 1990. The swift release of the news allowed local (and some not so local) birders catch up with a long awaited Northamptonshire tick! ‘Unblocked’, I think is the term.
The bird, present for 4 hours by the River Nene, just off the Upper Weedon-Dodford Road (see Latest Reports for directions), flew west at 16.45 but was later relocated about 1 km to the west, at the end of a rape field at around 18.45. It then took flight again towards some more ponds about 2 km further west.
Thanks to Bob Bullock for use of his photos and to the farmer for initially alerting Frank.
The busiest months are July/August, when the area is flooded with locally-bred juvenile birds; at this time 150-180 birds trapped per day is not unusual. Today was quiet with only around 35 birds trapped, many of which were retraps of birds previously ringed at the site. Willow Warblers and Common Whitethroats predominated but we also trapped this first-summer Lesser Whitethroat, aged by the absence of a white tip
to the penultimate outer tail feathers, further supported by the reduced amount of white in the outer tail feathers. A cracking little bird and a great example of putting birds under the spotlight to allow in-hand examination to reveal ID and ageing features not normally
visible in the field. With the increasing interest in ageing and sexing individual birds in the field, along with the tendency to ‘split’ races, feather-by-feather scrutiny of all birds is now at its highest level, with trapping and ringing playing an important role in the process of confirming and establishing ID criteria.
Northants birds 