Last Thursday morning (15th September) broke with a
beautiful crimson red sunrise, and after a cool night, a few mist patches started to fill the hollows
in the surrounding countryside.
It was 6am as Keith, from holdingmoments , and myself set off
for a visit to Pitsford Reservoir near Northampton.
We arrived at about 6.45am and after buying our permits at
the self service hut by the main gate (£5 well spent, as it turned out) we set off along the causeway which
carries the road between the A43 and Brixworth and separates the wildlife reserve
from the boating and leisure part of the reservoir.
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| Sunrise |
We could see in the distance across the water large rafts of
Coot, Mallard and Gulls and on the water's edge below the causeway Pied and Yellow Wagtails flitted up and down
accompanied by a couple of Goldfinches. Keith then spotted, cruising back and
forth across the water what we later identified as a juvenile Black Tern (a
lifer for me).
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| Black Tern (juv.) |
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| Black Tern (juv.) |
On
through the gate that leads to the pathway and a 7 mile walk around the reserve and
it's nine hides. At the first hide we were scanning over a large (very!) raft of Tufted Duck mixed
with numerous Pochard when all of a sudden they all took to the air in a mass of
beating wings and were gone, spooked by
an Osprey maybe we thought, but then coming into view from behind the
hide.......
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| The Culprit! |
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Along the trail to the next hide we encountered a large
flock of Meadow Pipits a few of which
kindly posed for their portraits.
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| Meadow Pipit |
The chill morning had now given way to a pleasantly warm day
as we made our way around to the other hides through various types of woodland
and grassland areas and on the way passing a couple of ringing sites with
their associated mist nets. All the hides afforded good views across the water (although
the birdlife was a little distant)
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| A Grey Heron wondering if it had come to the right party! |
We also encountered a few butterflies, mainly Speckled Wood
with the odd 'White' and a single Comma......
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Comma with Ladybird |
.....and a few Dragonflies
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| Ruddy Darter (male) |
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| Ruddy Darter (female) |
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| Migrant Hawker (male) |
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In an adjacent field a farmer was busy kicking up a dust
storm.
After about 7 hours we finally arrived back at the car
where, after driving down to the lay-by on the causeway, we had a much needed cup of coffee and a sandwich.
Here once again Keith came up trumps and found what we
later confirmed as a Yellow-legged Gull on a spit off mud not more than 200yards
from where we were parked, another lifer!
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| Yellow-legged Gull |
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| Comparison of between a Lesser Black-Backed Gull on the left and a Yellow-legged Gull on the right |
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So, perfect weather,
a gentle stroll and with a count of 58 birds (plus two or three maybe's / probably's ) it turned
out to be an excellent days birding.
