White Stork

 An often grey morning with an increasing amount of sunshine saw me heading over to Barnwell CP where I hoped to see some damsel or dragonfly activity. As my bus was quite early I decided to take a walk along the Nene to the floods near Lower Barnwell Lock, I'm happy to say that this turned out to be one of my better ideas!

White Stork

I'd just got to a point from where I could view the floods when a sweep of the area through my binoculars revealed a White Stork feeding amongst the sedges. A quick march followed as I headed towards an area from where I could get a little closer to the bird. Although this sighting was not a complete surprise as one has been reported in the area recently it was still a great bird to see. This bird is probably from an introduction scheme taking place in the south of England and so is not perhaps tickable but to see one in Northants is still a treat, my only previous sighting was of one over my garden in the Old Village a few years ago. After over an hour of looking at the stork I headed off to the park seeing my first Banded Demoiselle of the year en route.

Banded Demoiselle, Azure and Variable Damselflies

Banded Demoiselles were emerging in good numbers at Barnwell CP and I would guess that over a hundred were seen. Another new species on my Northants year list was Azure Damselfly with about ten being noted. The forecast sunny spells were not as long or frequent as I hoped they might be but I was still able to find a freshly emerged female Variable Damselfly and two Large Red Damselflies. Not too many butterflies were observed but I did manage to see Brimstone, Peacock and Orange-tip. Highlights amongst the birds were a Cuckoo, Cetti's  and Garden Warbler as well as five drake Mandarin Ducks.

Mandarin, Reed Bunting and Sedge Warbler.