Sunshine And Stonechats

 I had the day off for medical reasons (I'm sick of work! boom, boom) and spent the morning before my annual health review tinkering about and doing some chores, shopping and an array of other exciting stuff. Once my review had finished I met up with Shozzer for an afternoon visit to Deene Lake. After an all too familiar looking grey start we were favoured with some lovely afternoon sun which both lifted the mood and provided some excellent visibility.

Siskin and Pied Wagtail

On arrival at Deene we parked up at the church before heading down towards the Stonechat fence. On the way our attention was diverted to a male Siskin singing from the top of an Ash tree. We watched him until he flew off and then headed down to enjoy views of the Stonechat pair. Both birds appeared and disappeared several times as they split their time between the barbed wire fence and the neighbouring weedy field. After several minutes of watching the chats we headed to the churchyard where we failed to find any Hawfinches but did see a Raven. The lake was quite busy, a large flock of Greylags were present but weren't sheltering anything more interesting within their ranks. Half a dozen Pochards appeared to have replaced a similar number of Shovellers while the Shelduck total has risen to eleven. Two of the Black Swan population swam into view, they may not be tickable but they are striking looking birds.

Stonechat and Black Swan

Last stop as the afternoon began to slip into evening was at the inflow where more exposed mud is on show. The familiar brace of Snipe were probing intently and the number of Teal remains high though I still can't find a Green-winged amongst them. There was quite a large flock of Lapwings standing in the shallow water and up to four Green Sandpipers were feeding around them. The light was by now beginning to fail and we decided to call time and head back to Corby.

There was an interesting record from Alan Shorrock who found a ringed Common Gull at Corby Boating Lake this morning. The first winter bird bearing a ring with the code JX 240 was rung in Oslo on the 23rd of September last year. It just goes to show the types of journeys that birds make on a regular basis and how even the most mundane species can have a story to tell.

Waders at the inflow.