Return To IL & M

 Regular birding buddy Alan Shorrock and I made a quick return to the Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows reserve this morning. I wanted to see the reported drake Scaup on Higham Lake and Shozzer didn't mind having a look either. In bright sunshine we set out on our stroll, I'd hoped to see some early butterflies but will have to wait for another day.

Black-tailed Godwits

A scan of the area in and around Otter Lake produced views of three Black-tailed Godwits, there seems to be quite a movement of these leggy waders going through the county at the moment. While they were fairly distant we did get decent enough views through the scope and I grabbed a few record shots. Our ignorance of the site meant that we followed the Nene footpath in our attempt to see the Scaup. Somewhat frustratingly Higham Lake was obscured by vegetation and it was only when we found a small gap in the trees that we were able to view the water. Happily or perhaps I should say luckily the Scaup did show briefly from here and was my first county one of the year making up for that dip at Grendon Lakes a few weeks ago. Once the duck had drifted out of view we continued our hike around the area without adding much to our list.

Rubbishy record shots of Ring-necked Duck.

Having left the Nene behind we returned to the reserve and started wandering back towards the car. I left the path and found a spot from where I could view Higham Lake without too much vegetation obscuring the view. A scan of the water produced distant views of a female Ring-necked Duck which has been reported on and off during the past week. Regular readers of the blog will know that I only ever take rubbishy shots of Ring-neckeds and today's efforts did not buck that trend! Not that far from this spot we found a path that led us to the lakeside from where we had a clear view of the lake. The Scaup showed pretty well from here and even the Ring-necked put in an appearance though it was very distant. Now that I know the best spot from which to view the area I won't be taking arduous riverside treks next time something good shows up here!

Scaup

We had another opportunity to watch the godwits on the East Pit where three Pintails were also showing. Two Great White Egrets included one adult bird coming into its breeding plumage, I wonder if it heads towards Ham Wall in Somerset or will this be the year when GWEs breed in Northants? With the birding wrapped up we headed into Wellingborough for a well earned pint.

Bad news for fishes!