Dipping After Work.

I'd read on the Northants Birds News web site that a Black Redstart had been seen at Crucible Road, Corby which is only a five or ten  minute walk from my house. Although after work jaunts in January are normally off menu I thought that this was a chance that was too good to miss. Black Reds are pretty scarce birds in this neck of the woods, I've only seen three previous ones in many years of local birding.

Weather conditions were pretty grotty with grey and miserable being the order of the day. Having made my way to the site I was struck by just how plain yucky it was. With rubbish festooning many of the bushes and numerous parked vehicles along the verges I found what looked to be the best vantage point and began to scan. My vantage point proved to be a bad choice as a chap bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Easter Island heads soon arrived to tell me that I'd strayed on to a patch of private land. Making my apologies I moved on to a public patch and continued my search.

There was a lot of disturbance in the yard where the bird had been reported and a sighting seemed even more unlikely when a large articulated lorry arrived and began a lengthy series of manoeuvres. Deciding that my chances here were slim I had a short walk to the nearby balancing pond to see if the bird had been drawn to either here or perhaps to the neighbouring stream in its hunt for food. Sadly for me the bird did not appear and I was left with views of several kites and a passing Cormorant as scant consolation for my efforts. No pictures from today but here's a January Black Redstart taken in Bratislava in 2018.

Black Redstart, Bratislava, 2018.