Taking A Punt On Cambridgeshire

 Another out of county experience for my brother and I as we visited our neighbouring county of Cambridgeshire for what turned out to be a fairly decent day though not one without its frustrations. Grey skies and the occasional spot or two of rain were the order of the day for the morning but they did eventually give way to a few afternoon sunny spells.

Bearded Tits.

Our day began at Pymoor where we hoped to catch up with the Cranes that have been visiting this spot over the past week or so. Sadly for us we failed to catch up with these stately stunners and had to be content with some slightly less spectacular fare. Highlight was a distant Great White Egret while both Redwings and Redpolls were also found. Our next goal was an American Wigeon that has been making the new Ouse Fen reserve its home for at least a week.

Glossy Ibis

Our wild duck hunt failed to produce any sightings and that was perhaps due to our failure to find the lake where it has been seen. For an RSPB reserve I have to say that the signage and trail markings are pretty poor though it's to be hoped that this may improve as time passes. Our ducky dip was disappointing but the fen was not without some rewards for my brother and I. Bearded Tits seem to be doing very well here, we saw four near the car park and heard numerous others during our walk. Waders were represented by a large flock of Golden Plovers and a Green Sandpiper while none wader records included Water Rails and Marsh Harrier. Two overflying Bramblings were my first of the Autumn and there were plenty of Cetti's Warblers singing too. In the afternoon the part of the Fen near Needingworth produced sightings of Migrant Hawkers, Common Darters and at least three Willow Emeralds while a single Red Admiral represented the butterflies.

Willow Emerald and Red Admiral.

David and I have suffered several dipressions this year caused by Glossy Ibis no shows but today we were able to put that right. A group of five were seen at Little Fen on the edge of Earith. Though the birds were quite distant we had good views through he scope and I even managed a few record shots. This is the largest number of Glossies that I've seen together in the UK and it certainly made up for our earlier misses. A good number of dabbling ducks were also feeding on the fen and these included a leucistic Wigeon.

Too late for the Countryfile calendar? - Black-necked Grebe.

The day concluded in our fair county as we popped into Thrapston to look for the reported Black-necked Grebe that has been frequenting the town lake for the past few days. A friendly and informative local birder gave us the up to date gen on the bird and we found it after a few minutes of searching. Always distant the bird nonetheless showed well through the scope. My attempts to get a record pic were predictably dire but I'll share one of my efforts here - it might make my other photos look slightly better if nothing else!