Busy

 This morning dawned bright and clear in Corby but by the time I'd reached Oundle it had turned somewhat foggy. Viewing conditions varied from challenging to almost impossible at times and much of my birding was by ear. Happily it did clear up eventually and it developed into another beautifully sunny day.

A morning of contrasts.

A Sedge Warbler near the north bridge was one of three present along the Nene, there was a Reed Warbler near Ashton Mill. Close by a Cetti's was again near the weir and I even managed to get a glimpse of it at one point though not for long. Several Mandarins were seen on my walk, all were males suggesting that the females might be busy elsewhere. Thick fog meant initially that I wasn''t be able to check the floods near Barnwell lock but I hung around for a bit gambling that it might lift and happily for me it did. The pair of Redshanks were still present and they had been joined by a Green Sandpiper. Other waders were three Snipe and rather more Lapwings. Commonest duck was Teal with about thirty around though the most attractive was a Shelduck which was feeding actively for the half hour or so that I was there. Final bird of note along the river was a Common Tern feeding on the stretch close to the marina.

Swallow and Grey Heron

With the sun out and getting warm I popped into Barnwell CP to see if any damselflies were on the wing. If any were then I'm sad to say that I missed them because I didn't see any, mind you it is still a little early for them. Birds were mainly of the common or garden variety though once again Blackcaps seemed fairly common and I saw another three Mandarins though little else. Having left the park I found my first Green-veined White while heading back into town.

Green-veined White and Willow Warbler

Still thinking about those damsels I broke my journey with a stop at Weldon where a look around the pond at the Woodland Park was as successful as the Barnwell one. More butterflies were now active though I couldn't add any more species to my year list. There seemed to be plenty of Willow Warblers about and I spent several minutes trying with some success to photograph one. At this point an offer of a trip over to Daventry CP brought about a change of plan and I and my brother headed off for what was only my second ever visit to this site.

Shag (with Cormorants)

Best bird was a first winter Shag, only my second in the county, which spent most of its time snoozing on one of the tern rafts. It was hard to get a decent pic unfortunately as the bird was obscured by the chicken wire sides and also the wooden structure of the raft itself. At times it looked almost as if the bird was in jail with a posse of Cormorants serving as the guards! A Common Sandpiper on the dam was my first of the year and showed quite well and there were also a couple of Common Terns. By now after a full day out I was getting fairly hungry so we packed up the gear and headed home.

Common Sandpiper and Common Terns