Wet and Wonderful

A very interesting morning despite the light rain that started falling soon after my brother and I arrived at Barnwell. Not for the first time we were hoping to catch up with otters and so we headed for Kingfisher Hide. An initial check of their favourite spot did not produce any sightings of Mandarins and the hide did not come up with the otter goods either. Patience it's said is a virtue but in this case it was not the key to success and our vigil from the hide was not the most interesting. At least the cob swan found a distraction from chasing his stay at home brats by chasing some Canada Geese instead!

Canada Goose attracting some unwanted attention.

Having left the hide we had a bit more luck with a drake Mandarin that had returned to the normal spot. Seeking to get out of the rain we popped into Lowlands Hide where a photographer had left seed on various logs. This bounty had attracted a pair of Nuthatches and a Marsh Tit amongst the more common fare. Highlight for me here was a vole which kept dashing from its stump lair and grabbing a morsel before returning with equal alacrity.

Old faithfuls.

Moving on from here provided us with our best sighting at the park when an otter was spotted at Mill Lake. I'd seen the head of this large and presumed dog otter swimming along seemingly unconcerned by its proximity to the path. We were able to watch it hunting for a few minutes and this included it coming out of the water on to one of the islands for the briefest little bout of shore leave. Unfortunately the rain meant that my camera stayed firmly in my bag but that could not ruin the experience.

Marsh Tit and vole.

By now the important matter of breakfast was calling my brother but he agreed to drop me off at Wakerly Wood and a rendez vous with Alan Shorrock before his appointment with some cheese on toast. Alan had seen at least three Crossbills here on the previous day and we were intent on finding them again today. Setting out in the continuing rain we were lucky in that the birds were feeding in larches close to the car park. At first there appeared to be about half a dozen but during the next few minutes these birds were joined by others and we estimated that a flock of about eleven or twelve of them were present. Deciding that we had seen as much as we were likely to we left the birds to continue feeding. Although I was unable to take any pictures Alan was kind enough to allow me to use one of his record shots from yesterday.

Alan's sot of an immature male Crossbill.

On the way back to Corby we had a stop near Spanhoe airfield where we dipped on the hoped for Ravens but I enjoyed looking at a DH Chipmunk parked on the strip. With the grotty conditions looking unlikely to improve and with lunch occupying Alan's thoughts we headed back to Corby.