Birders up and down the country will have been out in force today working on their brand new year lists, I don't bother myself but I still like to get out and see what's about. In Northants at least it turned out to be mainly bright though a westerly breeze helped to keep temperatures down. Not for the first time I joined up with Alan and we began our day and year with a trip to Blatherwycke.
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| Peregrines and Pheasant |
Sadly for us things were very quiet here, very few geese were on view and there was no sign of the Black-necked Grebe. We decided to cut our losses and head over to Eyebrook, Thrapston was considered but I thought it might be busy with county listers and so we left it for another day. On the way to Eyebrook we called in on our local Peregrines and were delighted to find the pair at one of their favourite spots.
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| White-fronted Geese |
From Stoke Dry car park we had distant views of the White-fronted Geese which had been reported earlier. A small gaggle of thirteen were feeding with Greylags in a field next to Hollyoaks Lane. Also on view were a drake and redhead Smew though the light was not optimum and they were distant too. Having decided that staring into the westerly breeze was someway removed from being fun we moved on to the bridge where several Siskins were noted. A short trip to the inflow viewing bunker provided sightings of a male Stonechat and also about one hundred Golden Plovers. The White-fronted Geese left their field and flew down on to the reservoir giving me some good views as I wandered past. From the gate at Hollyoaks we saw seven Smew which included five adult and one immature drake as well as a redhead. South of the island at least six Scaup and one Red Crested Pochard were seen feeding close to the dam, not the best views but nice to see nonetheless. Our final act of the day was to head to the Samuel Lloyd and raise a toast to the New Year.
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| Adult drake and redhead Smew |
On a different note it seems as if one unfortunate birder had their car broken into at the Aldwinckle car park and lost some expensive gear as a result of the crime. It's always best not to leave expensive stuff in the motor just in case opportunistic scumbags are on the prowl, it's a mercifully rare occurrence but devastating for any victims. Don't buy any gear when the price seems too good to be true as the price paid by victims of theft is often higher than that of money alone.
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| Immature drake Smew |
