No Dragons Today

My trip on the Vex 4 today took me over to Oundle (twenty minutes later than planned) where I took a walk along the river before heading into Barnwell CP. While it was nowhere near as sunny as it was yesterday it was still pretty mild.

Floods near Barnwell Lock.

Very little of interest along the Nene though the flood water near Lower Barnwell Lock is beginning to rise. While it had already attracted a decent sized flock of Wigeon I'm hoping that more interesting species will follow suit over the next couple of months. Barnwell was on the quiet side too, the feeders had not been filled so activity was confined to Dunnocks at Lowlands Hide. Reasonable numbers of Siskins were about and several posed for some pictures. Rather a few Fieldfares and Redwings were seen around the park but they're still very flighty at the moment.

Siskins and Redwing.

A Kingfisher was seen several times from its namesake hide but was never close enough to photograph while three Mandarins were similarly obscured. A few more ducks today included a small group of Gadwall and a first Tufted Duck for some time but that really was that as far as my day went.

Gadwall.

Having stopped at The Ship for a refreshment break I did my best business of the day at Oundle Bookshop when I popped in and bought the new county bird report for the princely and bargain price of £7.50 - a cracking deal.