That's Better

 I was going to pop over to Oundle today once I'd finished doing some stuff around the house but Stagecoach threw a spanner into the works. When I checked their timetable it said that the X4 was going to come through the village which is where I waited for it, imagine my joy then when I learnt that said bus had actually passed along the bypass. Muttering expletives and inwardly cursing a certain bus company I returned home to consider my options. A call to Shozzer retrieved what could have been a bit of a duff day as we soon found ourselves on the way to Eyebrook where several good birds had been reported.

Little Egret and Yellow-legged Gull

It was a mild but grey afternoon which thankfully stayed dry while a weak northerly breeze did little to stop a trickle of birds from moving through. Our first sighting of note was of an Avocet feeding at the sharp end, this bird had been reported yesterday and followed on from an earlier sighting on Monday of three which Alan had been lucky enough to see. Before we moved on Al picked out an Osprey circling fairly high overhead with several kites before it was lost to view. A brief stop at the bridge did not add much to our day list and we made our way to the viewing area that overlooks the inflow. There was a constant flow of gulls moving through, mostly Common but there was a third year Yellow-legged Gull amongst them which had been picked out by the county recorder. While I was trying to get a picture of the Avocet the Osprey passed by once again as it flew down the reservoir. Satisfied that we had seen all that the sharp end had to offer we moved on towards the island.

Avocet

Our journey was interrupted when the Osprey was spotting fishing in the bay north of the island prompting Shozzer to stop the car pretty sharpishly. We had good views of the bird before constant harassment from gulls made it move on. From the island bunker the Slavonian Grebe showed on and off and the Osprey with attendant gull groupies made yet another pass. While looking at the grebe Alan picked out a Swallow moving northwards, further viewing revealed another four and also a brace of Sand Martins which constituted my first hirundines of the year. I still had a Sunday dinner to cook so we didn't hang around for much longer, perhaps Stagecoach did me a favour after all as plan B seemed to work out very nicely indeed!

Osprey, Kestrel and Slavonian Grebe