Siberian Chiffchaffs

This past week I've been itching to get down to Ecton Sewage Farm to catch up with the 2-3 Siberian Chiffchaff that had been found, with ID confirmed with the help of some expert advice.

I only had the morning so Dave and I got there as early as possible and arrived from the Cogenhoe Mill end. We arrived in trhe area and it wasn't long before we had a couple of standard Chiffchaff. Soon after we came across our first Siberian Chiffchaff, an obviously greyer bird with as should be, a distinct supercillium and more obvious wing bar. We enjoyed amazing views of it and a second almost identical bird, feeding along the edge of the outfall stream. The banks of the stream was dripping with Chiffchaff with around 10 nominate race birds too.

Also in the area were a couple of vocal Water Rail, several Siskins and a flyover Redpoll sp. We then had a look at the nearby reedbed which last month came up trumps with several Bearded Tits, however they had not been reported for several weeks and had presumably moved on. However it wasn't long before we picked up a Bearded Tit calling close by from the centre of the reedbed. A male then flew across the path, swiftly followed by three more birds, before swiftly melting into the reedbed. Great to see they were still here.

With a couple hours left we then moved onto Barne's Meadow NR on the edge of Northampton in the hope we may find ourselves a Jack Snipe around the flooded meadows. We did unbelievably well with a total of 5 along with a single Common Snipe, Little Egret as well as a pair of Goldeneye and several Gadwall on the River Nene.

A look for stuff on the edge of Brackmills revealed a massive female Peregrine overhead and at nearby Delapre Lake/Hardingstone GP there was a single drake Goosander and decent numbers of Goldeneye and Gadwall.