Weird Wigeon

 Another wet and windy one this morning so I donned the waterproofs before heading out. At first I wasn't sure whether to have a look at the Welland Valley or go and check on the floods at Oundle. After some deliberation I decided on the latter course of action and so ended up taking a bus from the Old Village.

Dabchick, Moorhen and Treecreeper

My travels took me to Barnwell CP first which was fairly quiet for a Sunday, I'm guessing that the weather may have kept a lot of people in. There was nothing too interesting about with just the usual park stalwarts such as Marsh Tits on view. Having hung around for a bit taking some pictures I then moved on to the flooded area near Lower Barnwell Lock. Recent rainfall has expanded the flooded area by quite a bit and the site now looks fairly promising. Plenty of Lapwings were finding things very much to their liking with as many as a hundred here. Wigeon were even commoner with twice that number of birds present and they included a striking leucistic bird amongst their ranks. I saw a similar looking bird at Lady Fen in Cambs and wonder whether it's the same bird? That particular Wigeon was sharing the area with five Glossy Ibises but sadly this one did not have such illustrious company. Other ducks on the floods included lots of Teal and smaller quantities of Mallard, Shoveller and Gadwall.

Leucisitic Wigeon.

Having left the floods I headed back into town where I whiled away the minutes before my bus arrived by enjoying a pint in the Rose and Crown - I knew there was a reason for choosing Oundle!