Boxing Day at Blatherwycke

As it was my last day off I wanted to use it wisely and so scrounged a lift over to Blatherwycke lake from where I walked home. Arriving just after eight I was treated to a wonderful sunrise that bathed the whole area  in glorious light. There was the usual selection of wildfowl on view including a large number of Mute Swans. Highlight amongst the ducks were the Mandarins, ca 10 were seen up against the bank on the opposite side of the lake in the bit nearest Kingscliffe. A feint whiff of Spring must have been in the air as the drakes were playing very close attention to the females, a large group of Mallards seemed similarly distracted.

Sunrise and swans at Blatherwycke.

From the bridge in the village a couple of Little Egrets and a Grey Heron were fishing while one of the Chinese Geese was grazing on the bank. Lots of Greylags were about too, most of them were feeding in surrounding fields. A drake Wigeon seen from here had some green showing on its head and the crown stripe seemed white rather than yellowish so it may have had a few American Wigeon genes mixed in.

Greylags and a Wigeon that has perhaps a hint of American in its ancestry.

The churchyard delivered a late Christmas present in the shape of two Hawfinches one of which posed for a minute or two at the top of a tree. Several Siskins were seen as well, this is definitely proving to be a better winter for this species than the last. A pair of Red Kites stayed close to the area and looked superb in the sunlight. Also showing well were a couple of Mistle Thrushes feeding on Rowan berries in one of the cottage gardens.

Red Kite and Hawfinch.

Naturally this being Blatherwycke I had to have a peek over the fence to see what was occurring in the menagerie. Rheas and wallabies seemed to be the order of the day with a few of each including several leucistic individuals present. Three Black Swan cygnets were also observed, I wonder if individuals from here  escape to visit both the lake here and the one at Deene?

Just a normal day at Blatherwycke!

A large flock of thrushes near Bulwick village included more Mistles and several hundred Fieldfares. Not much else was noted until Deene Lake which itself was rather quiet though there was a large number of geese on the main part. The inflow was awash so there were no Snipe or Green Sands but Teal numbers were high.

The female Stonechat was back at the airfield.

A large flock of buntings at Deenethorpe were checked just in case something exotic was around but I had to be content with Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers. The star of the show here though was the female Stonechat which had reappeared after a few blank visits, it was nice to know that she had survived the cold weather earlier in the month. That was it though as far as interesting stuff went, a few more buntings were seen at Bears Lane but that really was that.

Another view of the Hawfinch.