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.

28th Aug 2022: Nuthatch and Green Sand

On Friday Mike Pollard had a (the?) juv Little Ringed Plover again. 

Yesterday Adrian T had a Nuthatch with the tit/warbler flock at the entrance of the wood and a Peregrine over. Mike Pollard also had a (the?) Little Egret again.

This morning there was a Green Sandpiper at the reservoir (very unusual to not be just flying over) and Little Egret again. Clive also had a Peregrine over mobbing a Buzzard.

21st Aug 2022

On Friday Mike Pollard had a female Redstart and yesterday Adrian T and Mike had 4 Swifts, a Yellow Wag and a juvenile Little Ringed Plover.

Courtesy and copyright of Mike Pollard

This morning the Little Ringed Plover still present and a Yellow Wagtail, 2 Ravens and a few Skylarks over. Later John had c.5 Yellow-legged Gulls at the Borrow Pit pool.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

14th Aug 2022: Black-tailed Godwit

On Monday Mike Pollard had a Little Egret and on Tuesday Adrian B had 2 Med Gulls.

This morning I had a Black-tailed Godwit fly over early on and a Little Egret. This is very likely the first year both Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits have been seen here in the same year.

7th Aug 2022: Willow Emerald Damselfly!

On Monday Mike Prentice had a Purple Hairstreak along the river and Clive had 2 later in the afternoon. Mike Pollard had 2 Yellow-legged Gulls at the Borrow Pit pool on Tuesday. 

Yesterday there was a Med Gull again, a Yellow-legged Gull, 2 Kingfishers and I could hear a Raven nearby but couldn't see it. The main news though was a female Willow Emerald Damselfly along the river, just north of the railway bridge. This is the first one I've ever seen and the first record for the reservoir and this area of the county. I also saw a Grass Snake, Southern Hawker and several Common and Ruddy Darters.

31st Jul 2022: Med Gulls!

Tuesday evening there was an adult Dunlin along the western side, making use of the floating weed instead of the usual concrete shore. On Wednesday morning John had 2 Common Sandpipers.

Friday late afternoon I hadn't really expected to see much (I was going to look for inverts), but I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted a juvenile Mediterranean Gull amongst a small gathering of Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. They were obviously feeding on emerging flying ants, with birds 'flycatching' up in the air over the reservoir and surrounding area and picking them off the surface of the water too. As I was scanning though I picked up a second bird and a Yellow-legged Gull. Scanning through again a bit later I saw one bird fly off north and two birds still on the water, so at least 3 birds present. I did think I had another bird, but on reviewing photos then next day it turned out to be a juvenile Common Gull.

Two of the Med Gulls

Med Gull and the Yellow-legged Gull

Juvenile Common Gull

This morning John and I had a Whimbrel fly over going south-west, another (maybe one of the same) juvenile Med Gulls come in for several minutes, a Peregrine over and then a juvenile Little Ringed Plover appeared on the western side.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

24th Jul 2022: Small Red-eyed Damselflies

On Tuesday Mark Ribbons had a Yellow-legged Gull.

Courtesy and copyright of Mark Ribbons

There were 3 Little Ringed Plovers on Wednesday evening, an adult and 2 juveniles.

Friday morning a Redshank flew in and lingered for a little bit but was apparently gone later in the morning and a Peregrine flew over. Mike Pollard had 2 Common Terns late morning which stayed until c.5:25 when they flew off north and John had 4 Ravens fly over in the afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon there was a Common Tern and an immature (3CY?) Yellow-legged Gull flew in briefly. I also had a really good look for odonata and found we Small Red-eyed Damselflies on site (a new species here), with 9 seen along the river and 35+ at the Borrow Pit pool with pairs ovipositing there. I also saw a female Brown Argus in Reg's meadow and a Clouded Yellow up by the Borrow Pit.

Comparison of size between Red-eyed (left) and Small Red-eyed (right) 

This morning a Common Tern dropped in briefly and Clive had 2 Ravens over. John also spotted a colour ringed Black-headed Gull, which we think is EMK1 and would have been ringed in the Netherlands.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

17th Jul 2022

Another quiet week but more signs of return passage. John had Essex Skippers in the meadow on Friday.

This evening I had a juvenile Little Ringed Plover at the reservoir and at least 3 Purple Hairstreaks around the oaks along the river. I also saw a Hawker Dragonfly sp. along the river that I didn't see well enough to ID, but it was possibly a Southern Hawker as I know they are out now.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Jul 2022

It's been another fairly quiet couple of weeks.  On Weds 29th there were 2 Common Sandpipers and 2 Skylarks, with one singing over the cattle field. Clive had a Common Sandpiper on Sun 3rd and Small Skippers in the meadow.

On Mon 4th Steve H and I had a walk around mainly for recording odonata, but we had a Common Tern at the reservoir and a Peregrine over. Dragons and damsels recorded were Banded and Beautiful Demoiselles, Azure and Common Blue Damsel, Blue-tailed Damsel, Red-eyed Damsel, Emperor Dragon (at the Borrow Pit pool), Black-tailed Skimmer and a Darter sp. - probably Common. We also had Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Marbled White, Red Admiral and Comma butterflies. Later in the evening I also saw a Scarlet Tiger Moth.