Northamptonshire had to wait a long time before logging its first record of Lesser Scaup and that was an eclipse drake at Stanford Res last month. Sadly this was relatively short staying and had gone before I could get over to see it. Yesterday a drake was found at Rushden Lakes which happily coincided with my lieu day off today, Alan Shorrock and I headed over this morning and joined what seems like quite a few other birders looking for this bird.
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| Lesser Scaup |
It was a fine and bright morning and the scaup was relatively close to the path which allowed the gathered admirers some good views. It was actively feeding for much of the time but we could see most of its salient features except for the wing bar. Roughly Tufted Duck sized it had the peak at the back of the crown while the black "nail" on the bill was small and the vermiculation's on the back were courser and darker than on Greater. Many record shots were taken before we decided to move on, I'm guessing that social media will be awash with pictures later!
After Rushden we headed to Titchmarsh NR though in truth there was not a lot on view to enjoy. One noticeable exception to this was a mature female Marsh Harrier which we saw several times from North Hide, I managed a couple of distant and pretty poor record shots. Both Common Darter and a Red Admiral were seen during sunny spells but I didn't find any other interesting insects. We finished our day at a very busy Dukes in Woodford where a pint of Cleopatra went down very well indeed!
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| Marsh Harrier and Common Darter |
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