That Damn Fine Yankee

 Yesterday Nick Parker found a drake American Wigeon at his regular patch of Titchmarsh LNR prompting quite a county twitch. I've not seen one in the county for over forty years and this coupled with my Eyebrook dip a few weeks ago gave me reason enough to pop over this morning with the hope of catching up with it.

My best efforts - sorry!

Alan Shorrock and I arrived in grey and rather dank conditions and squelched our way along the muddy path towards Peter Scott Hide. Another birder was already present and had seen the bird but it had since been lost to view. I opted to head towards the screen and try my luck from there and though it took a while finally managed to see the bird. He kept drifting in and out of view though more arriving birders got the occasional glimpse as he fed with other ducks on the water. Alan chose to move to North Hide while I stayed put at the screen. More brief sightings ensued but then Shozz called to say that the bird was showing distantly but consistently from where he was. I walked around and it was just as Al had claimed, distant but in view for most of the time. While Alan decided to stay on and have lunch I went back to the screen. After a relatively brief wait the bird appeared again and I grabbed some rubbish record shots. By now time was pressing and with stuff to do at both home and at the shops I had to leave. Alan managed to see the Sanderling from North Hide but I missed this and also the drake Ring-necked Duck which was found a little later on. If I can face slopping through the mud again I may come back for another visit.

Clearly I have no shame - another feeble effort.

Glossy No Show

 This morning I decided to head over to Wellingborough and have a look at the long staying Glossy Ibises which have been spending a lot of time feeding in a wet field close to the Embankment. Frost covered pavements sparkled in the streetlights as I made my way to the bus stop which is close to the train station. A pink blush on the horizon hinted at the dawn to come and Robins and Great Tits serenaded me as I waited for my bus. An unusually punctual X4 trundled off into the last vestiges of the waning night and brought me to Wellingborough a little over an hour later.

Egyptian Geese and Great White Egret

Sadly the frost which had beguiled me on my way to the station had frozen the puddles and pools in the ibises favourite field with the result that they did not put in an appearance, seemingly they spent the day in the Summer Leys area. Despite the dip I decided to make the most of things and headed off along the Nene towards Ditchford. There was a Great White Egret at Chester House Lake and others were scattered around Ditchford. A brownhead Goosander flew from the lake and headed towards the Nene, I saw it later on the stretch close to the footbridge near Chester House itself. Beyond the viaduct a cream-crowned Marsh Harrier was the highlight, I could find little else of note. On my way back into town I heard and then saw a Raven while a further pair of Goosanders were noted flying along the Nene. After a quick drink in the local 'spoons I caught my bus home  which once again defied its reputation by being on time.

Goosander and Marsh Harrier

Boxing Day At Blatherwycke

 Boxing Day dawned bright and sunny and with Christmas calories to work off I knew that I had to get out. I decided to join up with Shozzer and pay a call on Blatherwycke Lake, the lure of seeing the Black-necked Grebe in better light and the chance of catching up with the reported dozen White-fronted Geese from Christmas Eve being reason enough.

Black-necked Grebe

On the way we stopped off at Deene Lake to check whether any decent geese might be hanging around, the county has enjoyed an influx of White-fronts and several Tundra Beans in the last couple of days. A large flock of Greylags near the monument were thoroughly checked without result and we moved on to give the lake itself the once over. Seven Shelduck have arrived and numbers will probably build over the winter. Other duck numbers have risen too and ten plus Shoveller were the pick of the wild birds, two Black Swans also being present. Brief views of a Kingfisher and a singing Cetti's Warbler, only my second site record, were the pick of the others though we did hear Siskins too. Relatively content with our haul we chose to move on to Blatherwycke Lake.

White-fronted Geese

Having arrived we decided to walk past the church and continue on the public footpath towards the lake. From the south eastern corner I managed to pick out several White-fronted Geese among the Greylag hordes and between us we counted twelve. It took a while but patience and quite a lot of scope squinting finally produced views of the Black-necked Grebe which came fairly close at times and I enjoyed seeing it in much better light conditions. Eventually the grebe drifted off towards the dam and I decided to have another look at the geese. A scan along the shoreline produced a sighting of a Tundra Bean Goose on the water's edge. I alerted Alan  and we had some good if distant views of this very scarce visitor before it swam off in the company of two Greylags and was lost to view. Mr Shorrock alerted the wider birding community and we headed back to the car.

Distant Tundra Bean Goose...

Our plan was to check the lake from the King's Cliffe road and hopefully re-find the Tundra. Phil Rogers and Cheryl joined us and we found an additional two White-fronted Geese grazing on the bank near Home Farm and also a drake Goosander on the lake. We continued our walk along the road continually stopping to check any geese and our efforts did eventually pay dividends. The Tundra showed on the bank next to where the the channel between the east and west sides of the lake opens and gave some good views. We watched it for a while before moving on and had a further though more distant sighting of the Black-necked Grebe. Such a day of course requires celebration and the good people at the Samuel Lloyd were only too happy to help us out!

...slightly closer Tundra Bean Goose!

Early Christmas Present

 The shortest day was a grey and rather dull affair with early morning mist clearing  only to be replaced a few hours later by drizzle. Despite the dross weather I blagged a lift over to Blatherwycke Lake from my eldest stepson, I can't waste precious days off sitting around and moaning about the rain.

Black Swan and Little Egret

On arrival the fog was thick enough to obscure the lake and I did more bird listening than watching. From the bridge in the village I had close views of a Black Swan and also watched a Little Egret fishing along the brook. At the entrance to the church walk a Brambling was calling from a beech tree though it moved on soon afterwards. From here I made my way to the churchyard where the fog had lifted enough to make the chances of finding a Hawfinch slightly more possible. Sadly the big finches did not oblige and it was left to a pair of vocal Ravens and a Great White Egret to provide some compensation. After slightly over an hour I wandered down the public footpath towards the lake, viewing conditions had by now improved even more.

Coot, Mallard and GWE

There were quite a few birds on the lake and I spent some time going through them. A small flock of Pochards were new in and while scoping through them I was rather surprised to see a Black-necked Grebe bob up in their midst. This was my first sighting of this species here and I spent quite a long time watching it. For a while it joined a group of about ten Little Grebes before drifting off to feed close to an upending swan. With the light conditions dire and the bird always distant my record shots are predictably poor but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to share some here! My return lift was due to arrive soon so I left the grebe to do its thing and walked back towards the road.

Rubbishy record shot time! - Black-necked Grebe

Fog

 It seems to have gotten a little quiet on the local birding scene and when this morning dawned foggy rather than bright and sunny as the weather forecast had suggested Shozzer and I were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. With four Smew and up to nine Scaup at Eyebrook and an amazing nine Great Northern Divers at Grafham Water there were definitely targets to go for but we for our sins decided to begin our watching at Wakerley Wood instead.

Young male Sparrowhawk and Wigeon

Unfortunately Wakerley was poor and during a stroll of about two hours we saw or heard very little and certainly there was no sign of the hoped for Crossbills. Only a singing Mistle Thrush was vaguely memorable and we returned to the car feeling a little deflated. Next port of call was the dam at Rutland Water where we hoped the fog might lift and give us the chance to find something interesting.

Great Northern Diver.

The stubborn mist seemed to cling on for dear life and it was only during the afternoon that visibility improved enough to give hope. Goldeneyes and Dabchicks were the most obvious birds on view through the shifting veils of fog and at one point near Normanton Church we heard a Redpoll. Eventually conditions did improve and Alan decided to pause for lunch but before he had taken so much as a bite out of his cold pizza he found a Great Northern Diver. I left him to munch and set off to get closer views, my plan worked well and I was treated to lengthy views of the bird. Many pics and even a film were taken before Shozz joined me for continued views. Eventually the bird moved on and we followed suit though I suspect the bird did not end up in the Samuel Lloyd for a festive pint as we did!

More GND pics.

Restorative Ramble

 Last night I had a red wine fuelled catch up with some ex work mates (and I'm still not sure how I managed to knock out last night's blog post!) so woke up feeling more than a little delicate to say the least. My self prescribed cure was to take a stroll around the Oundle area for what seems like the first time in months. Bright and breezy conditions aided my recovery and by the time that my medicinal meander had ended I felt pretty much normal again.

Shoveller and Grey Wagtail

Happily the X4 behaved itself and I arrived in Oundle pretty much on schedule. My first stop was at Barnwell CP where I had a quick look around before the squealing brats became too annoying. The park hosted a good selection of the more common species with both Redwings and Fieldfares being noted near the entrance. A Chiffchaff called from bushes next to the Nene while Siskins were heard on several occasions. From Kingfisher Hide I saw quite a gathering of Shovellers which looked resplendent in the sunshine, there were at least half a dozen Gadwall here too. At least one Kingfisher dropped in though I heard it more often than I saw it and those views were fleeting. Lowlands Hide provided brief glimpses of Nuthatch and also a Grey Wagtail. I left soon after the wagtail had departed and made my way towards the river.

Peregrines

Little of note was seen on my riverside trek until I reached the seasonal floods near the A605. Plenty of Wigeon and lesser numbers of Teal were present and I spent some time scoping them to see if any of their American cousins were mingling with them, they weren't! Final stop was at the church where two Peregrines were perched on the spire. The drowsy falcons spent a lot of their time snoozing and even the chimes of the clock didn't appear to disturb them. Whilst watching the Peregrines I heard a male Tawny Owl hoot twice from trees adjacent to the churchyard and that was the final act before I caught my bus home.

Peregrine stack.

Smews

 A beautiful winter morning saw Shozzer and I head over to Eyebrook where a glorious sunrise was as good a way as any to start our day. The light meant that viewing conditions from south of the island were challenging to say the least but things were decidedly better from north of here.

Smews

In the bay north of the island I managed to pick out a redhead Smew which though distant showed well enough through the scope. Alan then picked out a splendid drake Smew which again was similarly distant but I enjoyed my views nonetheless Even further away was a drake Red crested Pochard off the plantation shore, it seems as if the post eclipse flock has all but moved on. Shozzer had a fleeting glimpse of a female Scaup but I was unable to catch up with it. A male Stonechat showed well enough at the inflow where a minimum of ten Dunlin had joined the many Golden Plovers which had gathered there. Last birds of note here were a minimum of twenty Pintails feeding around the tern rafts.

Goldeneye and Shovellers

Blatherwycke was our next port of call but both the lake and the churchyard failed to produce any sightings of note. We opted to then head for the Cross Keys in King's Cliffe where I enjoyed a couple of pints of decent beer.

Pintail, Plovers and Fieldfare

Saving Grace

 It was a grey and drizzly morning and one when I might well have stayed at home if it wasn't my only day off this weekend. Instead of a relaxing and dry day at home I opted to visit Blatherwycke Lake in the company of Alan Shorrock. Although it started off dry drizzle soon began to fall and my camera did not leave the bag. 

Hawfinch

The lake held a selection of the commoner wildfowl but there were very few Wigeon here, I'd hoped that the Eyebrook American might have moved on to here but that was sadly not to be. Once again there were no Mandarin ducks which is quite a surprise given that this used to be their county stronghold. A Great White Egret was fishing in the shallows but there was little else to report. We moved on to the churchyard where we held a drizzly vigil in the hope of seeing Hawfinches. After a bit Alan went for a wander and as he returned I saw a bird land in the top of one of the bare trees. A squint through the bins was promising while a look through the scope confirmed my suspicion - Hawfinch! The bird paused to wipe its bill on a twig but was gone before Shozzer got a good look. As it flew it was joined by a second bird and both flew further into the estate. Despite hanging around for a further rather damp hour the birds did not return though a future visit has been pencilled in. On the way home we stopped at Deene but there was nothing of interest to report, the lake there remains strangely bird free. Today's blog pic comes from the same location and was taken on the third of January 2022.

Otter, Diver and a Goose

This week is yet another back shift one which means that i get a lieu day off to replace my Saturday and today was that day, Shozzer though suffering from a cold joined me on my excursion to the dam at Rutland Water. and we had a decent session before moving on to the North Arm.

Otter

Fog blighted our initial efforts to find stuff from the shoreline near Syke' s Lane car park but the first bird that I saw once it had begun to lift was a juvenile Great Northern Diver midway between the north and south shore. Attempting to find the diver again revealed an Otter feeding just off the shore, it  later came out on to the shoreline and treated us to some good views. Our attempt to find the reported Slavonian Grebe came to naught and having enjoyed further views of the diver we moved on to the north arm.

Great Northern Diver

The north arm produced sightings of five Curlews, a Pink-footed Goose and three Redshanks. I thought that I 'd  seen a Black-tailed Godwit too though none of the other birders present could verify it. Last bird before we moved on was an adult Caspian Gull found by another birder. Having checked Eyevrook on our way home where there was little of note other than five Red Crested Pochards we moved on to the 'spoons in Corby or a pint.

Pink-footed Goose.