No Fooling Around.

I had wanted to head over to Oundle to check out the flooded areas but decided against it on the grounds that flooding might affect any progress along the Nene. As an alternative I headed over to Priors Hall but I can't pretend that it was an enjoyable experience. Spring seems to be coming in bi-weekly instalments at the moment and this weekend was one of the colder ones. Conditions reminded me more of February then April and I regretted not bringing my gloves along on ore than one occasion today.

Grey skies over the ponds at Priors.

A short stop at the A43 pond at Weldon seemed to be in order given that I was passing anyway though the results were far from spectacular. Three pairs of Tufted Ducks and a Canada Goose were the highlights on the water while a Chiffchaff was feeding in waterside Willows.

Primrose, the first was seen last week but there were more today.

My first stop was the quarry pools and lake viewed from the A43 as this is a private site and also I didn't want to disturb any breeding birds. Eight Pochards were still on the biggest lake and they had a few Tufties for company. Aside from these just a few Greylags and Mallards with the usual Coots were on view. A ménage a trois of Little Ringed Plovers were still present though one seemed to be playing the gooseberry role judging from their argumentative behaviour and there were a few Lapwings too.

From here I wandered over to the ponds hoping to catch a few more migrants but things were a bit of a struggle. A flyby Cormorant did not really improve matters while the largest of the ponds had a selection of Coots, Dabchick and yet more Tufties. Several more Chiffchaffs were feeding around the ponds, the cooler conditions appear to have made these  migrants behave more like their wintering cousins. Wild Primroses are a true sign of Spring and it was good to find a few coming into bloom, there were a few Violets too. Pine logs left over from recent felling activities held an interesting fungus which I believe may be called an Orange Jelly Fungus.

Orange Jelly Fungus?

Skirting along the edge of the quarry it struck me just how much of our county is being buried under development. Not only could I see the growing community at Priors itself but looking in another direction I could view both Weldon Park and a smaller housing development on the site of the old Weldon FC site. Take into account the likely approval for the so called Tresham Village on the site of the nearby Deenethorpe Airfield and you get the picture. Our crumbling local roads are already heaving with traffic while doctors and other health facilities are struggling to cope with increased demand, school places may well become an issue too in the near future. Surely we do not have to try and solve the housing crisis here in Northants on our own because it's certainly beginning to feel that way.  The pressure on our remaining green spaces from people looking to walk dogs or just to be out and about will increase and the affect on our wildlife could be potentially disastrous. If we don't want our hobby to become history something has to happen, perhaps we should build up rather than out.

Violets are beginning to bloom too.

Leaving depressing thoughts to one side I wandered back towards Weldon, a Shelduck flying across the A43 on the way to Priors was nice, a Heron taking the same route was more expected. A brief stop on the way home at the patch could not add much aside from a few Violets. With the forecast for tomorrow looking far from promising I'm hoping that things brighten up for next weekend..