Swanning About

 Alan Shorrock and I spent most of the day out birding beginning at Blatherwycke before moving on to the cold magnet that is Eldernell. The skies were for the most part grey apart from in the late afternoon when the sun finally put in an appearance, it didn't make it any warmer though!

Hawfinch

We had barely got out of the car at Blatherwycke before a Hawfinch put in an appearance as it flew across the road in the village before disappearing into trees next to the stream. Walking towards the church produced another sighting as a scope check on some distant specks revealed another perched at the top of a tree. From the churchyard we had further sightings which though normally distant did provide decent views through the telescope. After a while we left the birds to their business as a growing band of would be admirers began to assemble, hopefully they got some views of their own. While driving past the stream we had good views of a Black Swan next to the bridge.

Bewick's Swan (second left) with Whoopers and Cranes

It took quite a bit longer to get to Eldernell than usual as the traffic seemed much heavier than normal but we did get there eventually. Right from the start we hit on to some good birds as six Bewick's and four Whoopers were noted feeding in one of the fields. The Bewick's numbers were swelled by two with the arrival of more birds. Even more Whoopers were also noted as distant birds travelled between feeding spots. Two other birders were good enough to put us on to a couple of distant Cranes which we watched until they flew off west. Some time later on at least twenty more were seen as they arrived to feed in a distant field. A Peregrine was found resting on the ground before a close pass by a Red Kite saw it winging away. Other raptors to be had were a Kestrel, several Buzzards and a few Marsh Harriers.

Short-eared Owl.

It looked as if we were going to miss out on seeing any owls until I happened to eavesdrop on someone's conversation (how rude!) which mentioned both Barn and Short-eared. After a brief interrogation we set off armed with some decent gen. The Barn was hunting around some farm buildings before it disappeared into one of the barns while the Shortie was roosting in long grass near a log pile. I managed a few record pics of the latter but they really were not that good. It's fair to say that all of today's pics fall into the dodgy record shot category but they do at least help to show what a good day it was.