By Royal Appointment

 Traditional Wimbledon weather today with wall to wall grey clouds and rainy periods of varying length to challenge the would be wildlife observer. After yesterday's exploits I knew I was always going to struggle to avoid an anti climax but decided to venture out all the same. Given the conditions I thought that a place with hides might be sensible and so popped over to Barnwell CP on the fringes of Oundle. My hope was to catch up with the park's Kingfishers as the end of June and early July are usually very good for catching up with this colourful species.

Male Kingfisher.

After what seemed like an interminable bus ride I finally arrived at Barnwell CP and made my way to the Kingfisher Hide. Once there I settled down and waited hoping that I might be lucky enough to experience a royal visit. Joined by another observer and sharing the hide with  a nest of bumble bees we did not have to wait for too long before the first whistling call announced the arrival of a Kingfisher. Initial attempts to locate our colouful visitor drew a blank but luck did attend our efforts and we were rewarded with some prolonged and excellent views of a male Kingfisher. Not many European birds could match yesterday's Roller for impact but I believe that this chap more than matched it and indeed probably surpassed it. The bird was extremely obliging and I enjoyed my most sustained views for many a long year. Eventually the bird moved on and I decided to do the same leaving my fellow watcher and those bees to their own devices.

Mandarins

Barnwell is now one of the best places in the county to encounter Mandarins in Summer and today was really fantastic for them. While most of the drakes are now in eclipse there was at least one which retained most of his finery. About thirty were seen in total and these included a brood of new ducklings on the north lake. Of the other species noted a pair of Cuckoos were the best and I had some good views of Sedge Warbler. The dreadful weather meant that few insects were noted and the only mammal other than Grey Squirrels was a Brown Rat!

More Kingfisher pics.