Smews, Morons and a Scaup

 A slightly later start than usual this morning as Alan and I tried to avoid the worst of the forecast foggy conditions. It had not lifted completely by the time that we arrived at Eyebrook reservoir but visibility was pretty decent despite this. Several people were walking across one of the roadside fields making the noises that I usually associate with beaters chivvying partridges suggesting to us that a game shoot was sadly imminent. Knowing that the disturbance level would soon rise to an intolerable level spurred us on to see as much of the res as quickly as possible.

Drake Smews

We saw nothing of note either south or north of the island apart from a couple of flyover Golden Plovers. From the gateway close to Hollyoaks I picked out a distant pair of Smew while Alan found a drake much closer to us. Distant gunfire was by now beginning to unnerve the birds and more drake Smew appeared as they swam across towards the opposite shore, an eventual total of five drakes and a redhead were noted. Our next stop was at the inflow where the exposed mud had attracted a total of seventeen Dunlin. Also present in the area were about twenty Pintail upending in the shallows. The plummy voiced prattle of people coming from the other side of the hedge and the arrival of a convoy of mud spattered four by fours suggested that the shooting party had arrived prompting us to move on. From the Rutland shore we had further views of the Smews before a fusillade of shots rang out from the other side of the reservoir causing the wildfowl to take flight. As the killing squad continued their murderous barrage Golden Plovers scared up from neighbouring fields wheeled and spun above us. Deciding that enough was enough we made the choice to move on, quite why recreational killing is allowed so close to an SSSI is beyond me.

Redhead Smew and Pintail

Blatherwycke Lake was our chosen destination and we began by checking the churchyard for Hawfinches. None of the chunky finches revealed themselves to us but we were treated to some good views of Ravens before we headed off towards the lake. A reasonable selection of wildfowl were present amongst which the long staying female Scaup was the highlight. She was in her favoured spot on the Blatherwycke side of the bund and we had some reasonable scope views of her. Other birds of interest included four Mandarins and a similar number of Egyptian Geese. As is so often the case when we're in this neck of the woods we made our way to the Cross Keys in King's Cliffe where a pint in front of an open fire brought the day to an agreeable close. 

Scaup and Kingfisher