Slow Going

 Today was far from being one of my most interesting forays out into the countryside though in truth I guess it could have been worse. This morning dawned bright and sunny before turning grey for a spell, the afternoon settled down into a mixture of both. My route took me to Deene taking in rather a lot of other sites on both the way out and on the way back.

Greenfinch and fleeing Fallow Deer

I tried to plan my route to include as many potential sites for Wheatear as I could but my plan came to nothing and my day remained Wheatear free. Another species I was hoping to encounter was Willow Warbler but again I drew a blank, I'm not sure that the weather has been right for migration though both Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps seem fairly well established. The early part of my walk was rather quiet, I saw displaying Ringed Plover and Fieldfares at one site and a herd of Fallow Deer at another but things were slow to kick off.

Shelduck and Starling

A pleasant surprise was waiting for me at the Deene farm ponds where a Cetti's Warbler was my first at this site. Cetti's are still uncommon away from their Nene Valley strongholds. The main lake had at least four Shelduck and a decreasing number of other wildfowl. Round at the inflow a Green Sandpiper was the pick of the bunch though it flew off before I could get a picture. Moving on to Deenethorpe Airfield where the pair of Lapwing were still in residence, today they were paying host to some cousins as a flock of about sixty Golden Plover were present too. I'm reasonably certain that I would have missed them if an autogyro hadn't flushed them when it too off. A Snipe rounded of the wader list as it flew up from one of the boggier spots.

Ringed and Golden Plovers

A walk across the fields towards Harry's Park Wood was initially a bit dull but things picked up a little with the sighting of a Raven while the airstrip at Bears Lane hosted a pair of Mistle Thrushes. Birding was brought to a close by a Grey Wagtail at Weldon where several butterflies were glimpsed but not identified. 

Goldie flushing autogyro and Wren.