Mandarins

 A changeable day of showers and sunshine that saw me heading along to Oundle. My walk took me from the north bridge to the south bridge and then into Barnwell CP. Whether the results justified the effort is open to debate but it was certainly nice to have an extra day off work.

Wren

The river walk was somewhat dull until I reached the footbridge at Ashton where a pair of Mandarins were present on the river. Around the mill a Cetti's Warbler and a Blackcap were singing while a Kingfisher paid a brief visit. Nothing else of note was seen until I reached the A605 bridge where another Mandarin was noted. At the floods near Barnwell Lock duck numbers had dropped a bit since my last visit and the best birds here were a couple of Redshanks. Perhaps the highlight of the day was a Peacock butterfly near the Princess fishing lake which was my first of the year.

Peacock and Mandarin

Barnwell was a little on the quiet side and a look from either of the hides failed to provide much of interest. Four pairs of Mandarin were the only highlight and I didn't hang around for too long before making the decision to stroll back into town.

Great Crested Grebe