Back In The Cold

 After the mild climate of Iberia it was a bit of a shock to get back out into the English countryside. Cold it may well have been but importantly for me it stayed dry too as Alan Shorrock and I popped over to Eyebrook for a gentle reintroduction into local birding.

Common Scoter...

We began at Sam's Dyke where it was immediately obvious that recent rainfall has raised the water level to pre summer levels. Sadly there was no sign of the redhead Smew that had been present earlier in the week either south or north of the island. A Great White Egret was perhaps the best bird before we moved on to the island bunker. My search through the large aythya flock off the plantation shore was soon stopped when Shozzer picked out a distant female Common Scoter southeast of the island. We watched it briefly before it flew north and joined the flock that I'd been looking through moments earlier. Leaving the bunker we moved along the road and tried to find it again.

...and another rubbish picture of Common Scoter!

Surprisingly we found it rather easily feeding on the edges of the flock, it was always distant but I did get a couple of very dodgy record shots and I apologise for them in advance. Also present within the flock was an impressive total of thirteen Red Crested Pochard including eight drakes, nowadays I treat them like White Storks in that they look great but I never know if they're truly wild or not. The rest of the res was quiet and a look at Blatherwycke didn't produce anything memorable either. The Cross Keys in King's Cliffe provided me with a welcome chance to reacquaint myself with British beer, it was more agreeable than the British weather!

Fuengirola Break

 I've just returned from a week's break in Spain with my wife Sandra where we were celebrating her birthday. It was by no means a birding trip though I went for a walk every day and on my strolls managed to see a few things of interest. Visitors to the Costa del Sol will know that green space is at a premium amongst all the development but Fuengirola does have a few areas worth visiting.

Blue Rock Thrush and Black Redstart

The castle at the western end of the town is surrounded by a park and this is where most of my walks took me. The pines on the slopes of the castle mound attracted Crested Tits on three separate occasions while the slopes themselves hosted at least three Black Redstarts, others were seen elsewhere along the river. A juvenile Blue Rock Thrush paid the briefest of visits to the castle walls before being moved on by numerous visitors filing past. Other species noted included Sardinian Warbler, Serin, Short-toed Treecreeper, Monk Parrakeets and Crag Martins.

Crag Martin and Spotless Starling

The Fuengirola River has for the most part dried up but the tidal section held fishing parties of both Cormorants and Little Egrets with the odd Grey Heron joining them on occasion. Several Kingfishers helped to make this an even more dangerous place for the unfortunate fish! A juvenile Night Heron was seen on two occasions at the last part of the river proper which still contains some water. The river mouth suffers from plenty of human disturbance but when the sunny weather gave way to rain for the last two days visitor numbers slackened and I noted a single juvenile Ringed Plover and eight Turnstones. The beach is also prone to disturbance but early mornings saw loafing gulls resting and these included a good number of Mediterranean as well as the numerous Yellow-leggeds. Both Gannets and Sandwich Terns were seen flying past though I couldn't find any shearwaters, I have seen them from here before.

Monk Parrakeet and Kingfisher

Other wildlife was in short supply, I saw a single Painted Lady at the castle while a few Monarchs were noted flitting along the seafront. All in all it was a good break which even a massive queue at Malaga Airport passport control before our return flight could not sour. Now its back to work and rain, wonder how long it takes to forget that I ever got away?

Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Med Gulls

AGP Staying Put

 My one day weekend began slightly damp and drizzly before giving way to sunnier and much brighter conditions a little later on. An offer of a lift from my stepson meant that I found myself spending a very pleasant morning walking around Eyebrook reservoir. As I'm off to Spain for my wife's birthday next weekend this will be my last report for a fortnight.

One of four Red Kites circling a goose carcass

My watching began at Stoke Dry car park before I took a stroll along the road on the Rutland side of the res. A reasonable haul of wildfowl included Pintail within their number as well as a juvenile Shelduck. From trees next to the road the calls of my first Fieldfares of the autumn were heard, several Redwings were present too. A Brummie birder put me on to the now long staying American Golden Plover which is still showing good site fidelity. I had rather distant views but decided to continue walking rather than wait around hoping that it might come closer. At the bridge Siskin and Grey Wagtail were present though I was probably too early in the day to see any lingering odes basking in the November sunshine.

AGP record shots

From the Leics bank I had slightly better views of the AGP and took several ropey record shots, there were several hundred European Goldies and a couple of Dunlin too. I continued my stroll stopping periodically to look through the occasional gaps in the hedge. Nothing too interesting came to light other than my first Goldeneye here of the autumn, I'd seen two at Titchmarsh earlier in the week. Continued searching through the Tufted Duck flocks failed to find either Red Crested Pochards or Scaups though at least one of the former was seen by others. North of the island a herd of seven Whooper Swans resting on the bank were a definite highlight and I paused to take several pictures. Before my lift came to pick me up I heard but didn't see Ringed Plover south of the island and then it was off to do the weekly shop before heading to the George in Weldon for a family meal.

Whooper Swans

Second Bite Of The Cherry

 Northamptonshire had to wait a long time before logging its first record of Lesser Scaup and that was an eclipse drake at Stanford Res last month. Sadly this was relatively short staying and had gone before I could get over to see it. Yesterday a drake was found at Rushden Lakes which happily coincided with my lieu day off today, Alan Shorrock and I headed over this morning and joined what seems like quite a few other birders looking for this bird.

Lesser Scaup

It was a fine and bright morning and the scaup was relatively close to the path which allowed the gathered admirers some good views. It was actively feeding for much of the time but we could see most of its salient features except for the wing bar. Roughly Tufted Duck sized it had the peak at the back of the crown while the black "nail" on the bill was small and the vermiculation's on the back were courser and darker than on Greater. Many record shots were taken before we decided to move on, I'm guessing that social media will be awash with pictures later!

After Rushden we headed to Titchmarsh NR though in truth there was not a lot on view to enjoy. One noticeable exception to this was a mature female Marsh Harrier which we saw several times from North Hide, I managed a couple of distant and pretty poor record shots. Both Common Darter and a Red Admiral were seen during sunny spells but I didn't find any other interesting insects. We finished our day at a very busy Dukes in Woodford where a pint of Cleopatra went down very well indeed!

Marsh Harrier and Common Darter

Golden Start, Dull Later

 This Sunday's weather was very similar to last week with a sunny start giving way to clouds and eventually rain. My morning involved a bus to Weldon and then a walk to Deene via Deenethorpe Airfield and village. While the weather may have resembled last Sunday the birding did not and overall it was pretty poor.

Golden Plovers

Chaffinches seemed to be on the move this morning, I heard them passing over my garden as I hung the washing out, a Grey Wagtail also flew past though this was probably a wintering bird. My bus was unusually punctual and I reached Weldon before nine and set off on my stroll along the A427. Just beyond the new academy I came across a large flock of Golden Plovers feeding in one of the roadside fields. A quick count suggested a minimum of 106 birds and also gave me a chance to see if any American Golden Plovers were accompanying them, there weren't! Sadly this was the highpoint of my day birdwise and I struggled to see much of interest during the rest of my wander.

Red Admiral

There were small numbers of Redwings feeding in the hedgerow at the entrance to the airfield and I heard at least one Redpoll above the clatter of a stunting biplane's engine. In the lane between Deenethorpe and the A427 I noted a female Common Darter and a Red Admiral making the most of the morning sunshine. At nearby Deene Lake there were a lot of birds but little of interest, I'd hoped to connect with either Whooper Swans or Pink-footed Geese but failed in both respects. The inflow was empty of birds and increasing cloud cover ruled out any further insect sightings. I reached Weldon just as the rain began to fall, a Siskin was my final sighting of the day. Stagecoach then stepped in to end my day on a disagreeable note as the X4 was twenty five minutes late, thank God for bus shelters!

Good, Could Have Been Better

 Alan and I went looking for Rock Pipits again today, there has been quite a few moving through and we wanted a piece of the pie. Sadly our trip to the dam part of Rutland did not deliver the goods pipitwise but there was some compensation on offer to offset this setback. Though it was sunny for quite a large part of the day a stiff north westerly breeze kept temperatures down and on the dam itself it was more than a little uncomfortable.

Dunlin

Our initial efforts did not produce much other than a female Goosander on the dam which disappeared not too long after discovery. We followed the shoreline along towards Normanton Church but didn't manage to find much of note. Our plan then was to head along to the north arm of the reservoir but we decided to have a look along the dam first. A single adult Dunlin was on the little beach at the southern end of the dam and this long billed individual may have been from one of the northern races. As we checked the area I heard Whooper Swans calling and six birds came into view flying in a south easterly direction, I couldn't  get any pics but Shozzer grabbed a couple before they moved out of sight. Several minutes later we heard but didn't see more Whoopers passing through.

Raven

Plans to move on were thwarted when Alan picked out a Raven sitting on the dam, seeing perched ones is something of a rare treat and we wandered along to get better views. The bird was casting hungry eyes towards a dead fish which a Great Black Backed Gull was munching on, the gull was not in the mood for sharing however. Though the Raven kept trying to steal a morsel the overly possessive larid was not inclined to share until, presumably full or perhaps just bored of fish, it moved on. It didn't take long for the Raven to seize this opportunity though it moved on itself too after just a couple of pecks and was replaced by a Yellow-legged Gull. Happy with the views we decided to head back to the car and make our way to the north arm though once again events conspired to hold us up...

Yellow-legged Gull and Goosander

I had a quick scan through the scope before we left and noticed a brownhead Goosander feeding just off the dam. As I watched a probable Red-breasted Merganser surfaced next to it, Alan had a look and agreed with my I.D. For the second time in short order we marched along the dam and were treated to decent views of this scarce inland visitor. Phil Rogers again put the news out for us and although some people seem to have only seen one of the half dozen or so Goosanders present rather than the Merg I gather it was eventually seen by others a little later in the afternoon. We left soon after though rather than heading to the north arm as originally planned we went to the Cross Keys in King's Cliffe for a pint instead. While enjoying my beer Phil sent news that a pale phase adult Pomarine Skua had flown over lagoon four at Rutland Water, oh well you can't win them all!

Red-breasted Marganser

After the pub we had a look at Blatherwycke Lake which was bathed in glorious evening sunshine. Our efforts came to naught unfortunately with only  half a dozen Mandarins, a Black Swan and Egyptian Geese to report. A huge flock of geese came in but they proved to be Greylags and we decided at this point to call it a day and head back towards Corby.

Alan's Whooper shot and the Merg again.

Double Time

 I couldn't get round to posting an account of yesterday's travels as I was pretty busy with chores and other stuff until the wee small hours of this morning. As to whether  I saw anything interesting enough to write about in the first place I will leave for you to decide, good luck! Yesterday's weather was yet another on the recent conveyor belt of grey and dank days that we have endured of late but it was at least dry. Having blagged a lift to Blatherwycke I then walked along to Deene before carrying on across Deenethorpe Airfield and ending up at Weldon.

Pilatus and Skylark

There's a growing collection of wildfowl on Blatherwycke Lake but most of it was of the more mundane variety, a Black Swan and several Egyptian Geese added a touch of the exotic. Best bird on view was a Kingfisher though the view was typically fleeting. The stroll between here and Deene was unproductive but things did improve a modicum once I got to the lake. I always scan the fast flowing Willowbrook at Deene in case there's a Dipper hanging around, I've yet to score but will continue to check just in case. My Dipper dipping  did not depress me however as I had a brief view of an Otter swimming down the brook. In the churchyard I saw my first Redwings of the autumn, other sightings followed at Deenethorpe village and the neighbouring airfield. At the lake there is a growing collection of birds but, as with Blatherwycke, there was not much of note to report. Interesting sightings here included Raven and Grey Wagtail, the inflow turned out to be rather dull.

American Golden Plover

Deenethorpe village was quiet but the airfield was mercifully a little more interesting. Two Golden Plovers were heard and then seen as they flew overhead and the air was alive with the calls of Skylarks. A Chiffchaff was calling on the edge of Weldon Park Wood, there still seems to be quite a few holding on for the time being at least. A rather large aeroplane then distracted me, Deenethorpe is generally the home of microlights and other small stuff so the sight and sound of a turboprop aircraft landing was quite a change. It's visit was seemingly brief and the plane was gone within ten minutes, later research revealed that it was a Pilatus PC 12.  The rest of my walk was uneventful and an unusually punctual X4 meant that I didn't have time to grab my customary pint in the George before returning home.

Med Gull

This morning I awoke bleary eyed and somewhat the worse for wear, a Judas Priest tribute gig having kept me up far longer than is good for a fellow of my advancing years. My original plan had been to accompany Shozzer to Rutland Water for another attempt to find Rock Pipits but not for the first time this month an American wader contrived to spoil that notion. Reports came through from Eyebrook yesterday afternoon that an American Golden Plover was associating with normal Goldies at the inflow. Now I know that I'd already seen the Pitsford bird this autumn but neither Alan nor I could pass up on the chance to see our seventh yank of the year particularly when it was so close to home. Rain was forecast to arrive sometime this morning but the early part of the morning was actually sunny and the light conditions were pretty good for a change.

Ringed Plover and another shot of the AGP

On arrival we parked next to a small group of birders scanning the inflow but their news was not encouraging, the bird had been showing but had apparently since done a bunk. We began to check a large flock of Goldies that were further up the Eye Brook and eventually I found the bird but only got a few record shots off before a Peregrine flushed the whole lot including a Redshank that had been hanging around with them. Luckily for us and also the people that arrived a little later the AGP returned and treated us to some good views. Eventually I wandered off towards the car park and saw two Ringed Plovers on the nearby shore that had been reported earlier. Returning to the small huddle of birders brought dividends as Alan found an adult Mediterranean Gull that stopped briefly to preen before moving on.

Scaup

We followed the gull's example soon after and moved on ourselves heading towards the island. From north of the island a scan of the opposite shore produced views of two drake and one duck Red Crested Pochard though they were too distant for pics. Next stop was the viewing bunker south of the island where a female Scaup was the highlight. By now rain was just beginning to fall and a decision was made to throw the towel in though not before we popped into the 'spoons for a celebratory pint