New Year Wanderings

After yesterday's spoonful of sugar it was back to taking the medicine today with a walk around the Weldon, Deenethorpe and Deene area. While it may well have been a new year it looks as if I'll be continuing my old habit of polishing Thoras as once again things were pretty much stuck on the mundane side of the road.

New Year's sunrise.

My first bird of the year was a Robin heard singing before dawn while the first one that I actually saw was a Wood Pigeon. Other species were added as I walked out towards Bears Lane where my first raptor was a Kestrel. Between here and the A427 there was very little to look at though things perked up a little at Deenethorpe airfield. A large flock of seed eaters, mostly Yellowhammers were moving between the hedges and a field of newly planted trees. Quite a lot of Skylarks were feeding in the area and several rose skywards to deliver their marvellous song. The usual Red Kites were present and another Kestrel showed very well.

Wood Pigeon and Fieldfare.

The inflow at Deene Lake had the usual masses of Teal, at least a hundred and I also found a Green Sandpiper. On the main lake there was a reasonable selection of duck species with Shovellers, Wigeons and a Pochard new from my last visit. Four Shelduck were also present, their numbers will probably grow as the year rolls along. Walking through Deene village I flushed a female Sparrowhawk from her Wood Pigeon kill, hopefully she popped back to it but if not at least a kite nay have benefitted from a free meal.

Kestrel and Magpie.

The rest of the walk did not produce much else, good numbers of winter thrushes and Siskins being the highlights, and I headed off to a party at my local pub. That should explain why this post is a day late! Happy New Year.

Greylag Geese.