Saturday 12 March 2011

March 12th 2011

Dave and I looked at Boughton Rd, Rugby and Eye-brook Reservoir, Leicestershire on our way to Harringworth Viaduct, Rutland.
Waxwings had been reported from Boughton Road yesterday afternoon so arrived at 7:15am and had at least 41 coming down to berries in the grounds of the demolished Riverside Club after they had been seen around the nearby housing estate.


Eye-brook Reservoir was disappointing with high water levels so all we managed was 2 Shelduck, 40 Goldeneye, 2 Tree Sparrow, Marsh Tit, 2 Red-legged Partridge and 2 Chiffchaff.
We then met up with Bob and April at Harringworth Viaduct and it was just like a birding twitch with many arriving early looking for the best advantage points due to its height and length so by the time Oliver Cromwell came over there must have been 600 dotted around the viaduct. We chose the high ground but lost out on distance on the viaduct.



Half Way across the viaduct 70013 Oliver Cromwell then begins the steep climb to Wing tunnel.

There were at least 8 Red Kite and 6 Buzzard in area including a kite with blue wing tag on left wing and white wing tag on right. In 1998 a national coding scheme was introduced which allows red kites to be identified at various levels depending on how well the birds can be viewed. The colour of the tag on the left wing of the bird denotes the area in which they were marked / released and the colour on the right wing denotes the year it was fledged/ringed. This bird was tagged on Black Isle, North Scotland in 2002

Dave had a couple of hockey matches to umpire later so I cadge a lift home with the Bob and April and they found a Little Owl and I had 2 Hebrew Character, 2 Clouded Drab, Small Quaker, Grey Shouldered-Knot and 2 Dotted Border plus one micro to identify in the trap last night so Bob got down to the nitty gritty.

Richard

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