25th Sep 2022: Pochards

Monday morning John was out and found a rather confiding Whinchat along the western side, as well as 2 Wigeon, 2 Teal and 3 Little Egrets. I headed up later but unfortunately the Whinchat had moved on, but I did see 2 Little Egret and 2 Little Grebe. Mark R also had 2 Yellow-legged Gulls at the Borrow Pit pool.
John was out again on Tuesday and had 7 Wigeon and 2 Little Egret and on Thursday morning Iain B had 180 Mallard, 27 Tufted Ducks, 3 Little Grebe, 2 Wigeon and 1 Teal.
Friday morning I found our first 2 Pochard of the year and 7 Teal, 2 Wigeon, 5 Little Egret (2 present and another 3 dropped in for a short time) and 3 Little Grebes. This was pretty much the last regular sighting of Little Egrets before they moved on.

All photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

18th Sep 2022

Another reasonably quiet week, but the Great White Egret was still around up to the 17th as well as up to 5 (!) Little Egrets. That must be the most Little Egrets there has ever been at the reservoir. The floating matt of weed is starting to die off and break down which may be why the Great White has now moved on. 

Other bits this week - John had 2 Little Grebes and a Raven yesterday and I had an adult Yellow-legged Gull early this morning (and possibly a juv too but it wasn't light enough to be certain) and a Greylag Goose over.

11th Sep 2022

The Great White Egret was present all week with up to 3 Little Egrets, all fishing at the northern end of the reservoir where there was a good matt of floating weed. Proving that a bit of habitat is great for the fish and the birds!

Generally not much else of note this week though, with 4 Yellow Wagtails over on the 7th and 2 Common Sandpipers and 2 Snipe (in the cattle field) on the 8th. On the 9th there was a bit of over head passage with 7 Yellow Wagtails and 40+ Meadow Pipits, including flocks of 8 and 13 birds. 

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

4th Sep 2022: FERRUGINOUS DUCK!

On Monday John, Adrian T and I were all out at various times and between us we saw a Common Sandpiper and 2 Little Egret at the reservoir, a Yellow Wagtail over and at least 2 Yellow-legged Gulls at the Borrow Pit pool.

Thursday morning I was pleasantly surprised to see a Great White Egret patrolling the shore at the northern end of the reservoir with 2 Little Egrets. This is the first one we've recorded that isn't flying over, after two flew over together in 2019 and another one earlier this year. While I was watching it a Greenshank also dropped in very briefly and a Yellow Wagtail went over. 

Friday morning I was scanning through the ducks when I came across what appeared to be a FERRUGINOUS DUCK! Knowing that you need to be aware of hybrids and only having my binoculars I put the news out as probable and tried to get some photos. A few of my record shots appeared to show good features for a pure bird. John and Steve H were the first other people to arrive and with good scope views we were fairly happy it looked pure. 

There have been a few in the area recently, with 2 at Draycote Reservoir and 1 at Daventry Reservoir. News later highlighted that the Daventry bird had gone (but was back on the 3rd) and it's reasonable to assume this was the same bird. The actual provenance of these birds is an all together more tricky conclusion to make though...

There was also the Great White Egret, 3 Little Egrets and in the afternoon our first 2 Spotted Flycatchers of the year. 

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Yesterday John had the Great White Egret and 3 Little Egrets again, as well as a Snipe and Wigeon at the reservoir, Yellow Wagtail over and a Spotted Flycatcher. Later in the day I had another Willow Emerald along the river by the wood.

Today John and I had the Great White Egret, 3 Little Egret and a Spotted Flycatcher at the reservoir, a Shoveler, Common Sand and Yellow-legged Gull at the Borrow Pit and our first Meadow Pipit of the autumn over and a Skylark.