Eyebrook Smews

 Yesterday (the 10th) Alan Shorrock and I took the relatively short trip to Eyebrook where clear blue skies and sunshine could not conceal the fact that it was very cold. Although our trip was cut short  by the noisy antics of some recreational killers in neighbouring fields we enjoyed a reasonable day.

Pink-footed Goose and Pintails.

First bird to make it on to the daylist was a Pink-footed Goose associating with the Greylag flock at the bottom of the hill on the west side. It's tempting to think that this was the bird we saw previously but there's no way of telling for sure. A single Dunlin was present in the bay south of the island where a small number of Lapwings had also gathered. Some Pintails added some understated class to the ducks feeding  north of the island, there were at least twenty on the res today. Even this class act had to take second place to the star performers however which were four drake and three redhead Smew. While they were always rather distant it was still good to see these attractive little ducks feeding in the sunshine. There was a small cluster of gulls on the ice which momentarily had a Redshank join them and a Great White Egret was feeding along the stream near the bridge. Passerines were represented by a pair of Stonechats and a few Siskins but by now the guns were blasting away and we opted to leave.

Distant redhead Smew and Great White Egret

A quick visit to Blatherwycke failed to produce any sightings of the hoped for Hawfinches and we only saw a small selection of commoner passerines. With the sun beginning to set and the temperatures falling we called it quits and headed back to Corby.