Damp at Deene

Another Saturday off though it was booked when the weather looked like it was going to be OK, anyone that peeked out the window will know that this turned out to be not he case. Despite the nasty conditions I still got the X4 as far as Upper Benefield from where I took my usual stroll towards Deene.

A Blackbird was not quite singing as I waited for the bus, it sounded as if it was doing a little warm up before the main show. Later on a Chaffinch seemed to be going through the same sort of routine in Deene Churchyard, we may get the full deal when the sun decides to shine. Leaving Benefield I soon connected with the hoped for Tree Sparrows a little way out of the village. It's wrong to try and transfer human feelings on to animals but these did sound a little indignant as I gave them an unsolicited wake up call, they flew tweeting noisily from their hedgerow roost as I walked past.  As daylight slowly seeped into being more birds were noted but nothing much of interest was seen.

Now I cannot claim to be much of a tracker but even a dunce like me could not fail to trace the movements of an idiot that had dumped several pieces of furniture along the road, what is wrong with these morons? Presumably they had access to a vehicle so they could have taken this to the dump at Weldon - #£/&!!s!. Rather more agreeable was a large flock of Yellowhammers and Chaffinches near Burn Coppice which were checked but did not reveal anything special. A flock of about forty Lapwings were seen nearby but little else.

A shooting party were gathering at Deenethorpe but I managed to check the inflow at Deene Lake before they got started. High water levels meant only one Snipe was on view and a few Teals. The main lake held eleven Shelducks, a small number of Pochards and the first Great Crested Grebes since the last freeze. The pair of Black Swans remain, they seemed to have latched on to a family party of Mutes. The churchyard offered a tantalising but too brief view of a large finch which I suspect was probably a Hawfinch but I couldn't get the necessary confirmation - pity. Not much at the farm ponds, a Redpoll gave great views but it was the only decent thing.

On the way home I made a rare winter visit to Priors Hall but I'm unlikely to return as it really was rather dull. A flock of about twenty five Teals was the only highlight, it could be that nothing wanted to move about in the rain. As a result of the weather I didn't take any photos so here's a few from last Spring's visit to Poland, at least the skies are blue!

Never mind the birds, look at that lovely blue sky!