Yesterday (the 11th) and my brother and I attempted to catch up with a couple of the long staying Northants rarities, namely the Stanwick Lakes Cattle Egrets and the Thrapston Velvet Scoters. We began at Stanwick where the early morning rain had moved on leaving a reasonably pleasant spell of weather in its place.
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| Stanwick. |
Sadly for us the egrets did not want to play and even some up to date info supplied by a birding couple could not help us. To add a little insult to injury we also failed to see either the Great White Egret or the reported pair of Bearded Reedlings - birding can be a vexing hobby! My brother managed some compensation in the shape of a passing female Marsh Harrier but I was too busy looking for Common Darters and missed it.
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| A sunnier Stanwick view. |
On the subject of darters I managed to find a female but she was flushed by a dog walker and his mutt as my auto focus was zooming in. Another flying highlight was a DH Chipmunk decked out in the old RAF training livery.
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| DH Chipmunk. |
At Thrapston there was a reasonable collection of ducks on view though they were distant. Happily the group of six Velvets did show and so too did a Scaup. As we were making our way round the lake to get better views a flotilla of boats set sail and presumably flushed the duck as we couldn't find them again. Not my best day's birding but at least I finally added Velvet Scoter to my county list.
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| Thrapston Toadstool. |
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