Summer Comes To The Leys

 My day started with an early morning walk to the town centre so that I could grab the first bus to Earls Barton from where I took a stroll along the Nene to Summer Leys. For the duration of my wander the weather stayed dry if mostly grey and it felt fairly mild too. My visit was marked by sightings of some arriving Summer visitors and I'd imagine that the next few weeks will bring in many more.

LRP record shot and female Pintail.

Around Mill Lake many Cetti's Warblers were singing while on the lake itself there was a good number of Shoveller though not much else. On neighbouring Hardwater there were two hundred plus Wigeon which I checked through in case they had been joined by one of their American cousins - they hadn't! Heading to the reserve I could hear many Chiffchaffs singing, I suspected that they may have been newly arrived migrants though can't be sure. From Rotary hide I didn't see too much though things improved somewhat from Pioneer. Another birder put me on to a Little Ringed Plover on one of the islands as well as a female Pintail. News that a pair of Garganeys had been seen from Paul Britten hide saw me making my way along there pretty sharpish.

Distant drake Garganey and Redshank

On arrival I learnt that the Garganeys hadn't been seen on the scrape but rather on the opposite bank of the main lake. Worse still they hadn't been noted for a while though I didn't have much time to contemplate  dipping as another birder found them soon afterwards. Although distant they looked nice enough through the scope and were not surprisingly my first of the year. Summer Leys seems to be one of the most reliable spots for Garganeys and I'm glad that record looks set to continue. I didn't see much else from the hide other than a wisp of twelve Snipe and four Great White Egrets.

Snipe and Wigeon

The rest of my circuit of the reserve did not add much to my day list and I headed back along the river. Sadly the Saxon Tavern was closed but the Old Swan delivered a couple of very nice pints to help my wait for the bus pass pleasantly enough.

One of several new grass cutters!