County Tour

A bit of a trek around Northamptonshire in the company of Alan Shorrock with our first stop on the tour being Hanging Houghton. Our attempt to see the long staying Great Grey Shrike again came to nothing though the bird was seen later in the day by another observer. We did see a few Tree Sparrows with the many Yellowhammers feeding in the area but that apart from a few Buzzards was the only highlight.

Crossbills.

From here we moved on to Wakerley Wood where Crossbills were our target. Luckily these were more obliging than the shrike and we saw about 7 or 8 feeding in larches close to the car park. Unusually for this species most of the birds appeared to be adult males, I normally see more females and immatures. A wander around the wood produced a Raven heard croaking as well as two Tawny Owls calling. Returning to the car park and the nearby picnic area produced sightings of many Redpolls as a flock of at least fifty birds were feeding in the surrounding trees. This size of lock is pretty rare these days so we spent quite a time watching and trying to photograph them (with limited success).

Redpoll and Chiffchaff.

Harringworth Lodge Lake was our next port of call where a pair of Mandarins was the star attraction. Other birds included a pair of Pochards and also a pair of Great Crested Grebes. A Chiffchaff singing here was one of at least four either seen or heard today with a bird in the Old Village in Corby and also two in Wakerley making up the total.

Peregrine.

Final stop of the day was at a spot in Corby where we were treated to distant views of an adult Peregrine.

Primroses.