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