At Least I Got a PInt or Two Out of It!

My Monday routine seems pretty set at the moment with a walk between the north and south bridges at Oundle before having a stroll around Barnwell CP.  Beautiful cloud free conditions to begin with which made for a very nice though sadly not too interesting walk.

A trio of views.

A drake Mandarin was on the river close to the north bridge and was pretty much the only thing of note until another some way down the river. A third drake flying from about twenty feet up a willow was probably leaving a nest, I'll keep an eye out on future visits. Other than these colourful ducks there was surprisingly little on view, the floods near Ashton Lock were very quiet and the river held only a few geese and swans.

Regulars.

I couldn't find the two Garganey that were reported on the A605 floods today which is just a little annoying as I thought I had given the ducks a thorough check, oh well perhaps I should have gone to a well known high street opticians! Rather a lot of Shovellers and Teal joined smaller numbers of Mallard, Gadwall and a pair of Wigeon. The only waders today were a few Lapwings, more species may appear when the area dries out a little.

Grey Wagtail.

A Grey Wagtail showed well at Lower Barnwell Lock and the Egyptian Geese were at the marina but that was that until the country park. Lowlands hide had the usual selection of commoner birds which once again included Nuthatch. Feeling slightly optimistic I checked the margins of the lakes and ponds for any early emerging Large Red Damsels but my search proved fruitless, perhaps next week. One Peacock posed very nicely while rather a lot of bumblebees were buzzing around the willow flowers. Realising that today was not going to be my day I headed off to the pub for a couple of pints, thankfully Pedigree is somewhat more reliable than nature spotting.

A couple from Barnwell.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's instalment that I saw three Fieldfares at Deenethorpe Airfield, not wildly exciting but probably my last for a while.

Peacock.