Thrapston Velvet Scoters

Hello

Eight Velvet Scoters were found at Thrapston Pits on Sunday 28th October and six were still present today on Town Lake, best reached from the A605 layby just east of Thrapston itself. Nick Parker was the finder of these comparatively rare sea-ducks and they have attracted a steady stream of admirers during the four days. The images below are courtesy of Robin Gossage...

Regards

Neil M

A funny ole day

So North Norfolk it was, our British Airways pilot Mark flew us directly onto Salthouse airfield.

A distant Stonechat became our quarry, an eastern race of which no-one could pronounce the name and a bit of a rarity.

Eventually reasonable views were had, but numerous common Stonechats confused the issue.

The wrong bird

The right bird 

Worryingly a female Sparrowhawk patrolled the area.

Stonechat hawk

My favourite time of day, Nosh-time, a cup of coffee, (gone off tea a bit) with a chocolate chip
muffin ! supposed to be watching my cholesterol !!

Overhearing a pager message BROWN SHRIKE, WEYBOURNE, 5 minutes down the road.

Now if a bird is going to be easy to see, Stonechat and Shrike are prominent .......Yeah.

Wendy, Bob, Mark and myself had already spent ages on one showy bird ? but the Shrike would
surely show well.

Joining the throng of gathered twitchers, we watched and waited.

Pink feet

Some people will do anything for a Brown Shrike.

And waited, eventually views were gained but I can honestly say they were not satisfying, especially
as this was a new bird for Bob, Wend and myself.

Tichwell, our next destination. Sadly I don't think I've ever seen this great reserve so poorly endowed
with birds.

Reported from Holme were several Shorelarks, off we trundled, but again we were thwarted .

Half a dozen Little Egrets were nice.

Little Egret

Little Egret.

Two major rarities and some warm weather with good company made for a nice day out.
The Shrike disappeared later that afternoon.

Thank-you Mark for the use and piloting of the 747.

As I say, it's bin a funny ole day !

NBC Trip

Hi all, the club trip this month will be to the East coast.  The final location will be kept secret until we get there !

OK..... we will decide nearer the date but we will keep an eye on what's going on before-hand.
North Norfolk is usually a good bet, but lets see.

Sunday the 21st of October.

If you are interested in joining us please get in touch with Sir Bob Gill, 01604 646706, he will
let you know the final destination and advise on any spare seats.

Hope to see you there, Cheers Robin.

Kestrel   RDG.

Black Tern at Pitsford

Congratulations to Dave Jackson on his winning entry to Birdguides Photograph of the week.https://www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/chlidonias-niger/984213/

Black Tern Dave Jackson

Steve Young of BirdGuides says

"A superb capture of a juvenile Black Tern by Dave Jackson takes the honours this week – and what a great image this is!

Even side-on flight shots of gulls and terns fishing are hard to take, with that precise moment of capture and perfect pose so difficult to take, but a head-on shot is even more difficult and this one is beautiful and about as perfect as it gets.

With fish in bill after a successful catch, the tern is just about to turn away, but not before the photographer has caught the action at 1/2500th second shutter speed. Congratulations to Dave on his winning photo, taken with a 400 mm lens on ISO500."

A great shot, well executed, Congratulations Dave.

NBC meeting, a brief review

Brian Eversham our evening speaker, is indeed as Neil says a talented orator, his presentation last night was both inspiring and informative.

The state of all our wildlife at the moment seems quite depressing with a bleak outlook, or is it? Naturalists as we know are getting  fewer, with no younger members coming on board, taken over instead by Environmentalists, Conservationist, Ecologists, which isn't necessarily a good thing without some common grounding.

Brian shared idea's and optimism  as to how this could be achieved  with communication and foresight our wildlife could benefit from changes now, for the future.

I guess there will always be winners and losers in a constantly changing  environment.

Brian left us with hope that in our changing world, fortunes for our wildlife  in the future could be promising. As head of the Wildlife trust he  seems to have his sights firmly on this target.

We thank him very much for his insightful talk.

House Sparrow