We started first thing along the southern edge of the reedbed at Stortons GPs to have a go for both Bittern & Bearded Tit. After around 20 minutes we heard the familiar pinging of Bearded Tits as two flew over the tops of the reeds in front of us before dropping down again. We heard them a couple more times after that but never saw them. Also here were several more year-ticks, including Cetti's Warbler, calling Water Rail & a Great Spotted Woodpecker, however no Bittern. We then moved off to Pitsford Reservoir.
We started at the dam, again in bright sunshine. Soon I had further year-ticks in the shape of great numbers of Little Grebe, a Green Sandpiper on a small flooded area behind the dam and a Redshank flying past the dam calling loudly. We had also hoped to pick up the long-staying juv. Great Northern Diver from here but couldn't locate it so we decided to walk along to find it.
After having a Redpoll sp. over calling and enjoying the amusing sight of a chubby cyclist going flying on the ice, we arrived at the back of Moulton Grange Bay. The pool behind the bay held 3-4 Little Egret and at least 4 Goosander too. We headed on past the pines, and we were soon greeted by very good views of the juvenile Great Northern Diver pretty close to shore. It was diving frequently making i-phone scoping a little tricky but pretty happy with the results:
On the way back we checked the pool behind Moulton Grange Bay again and managed to pick out a fishing Great White Egret, largely obscured by vegetation, another decent year tick. We then drove round to have a quick scan from the causeway. Me managed to find very little, however I did pick out a distant female Smew south of the causeway.
We were hearing news of both Iceland & Glaucous Gulls on show in flooded fields on the edge of Wellingborough, by the Finedon Road Industrial Estate. So around midday we shot over to take a look. We weren't the only ones there will several familiar faces present. By this time it had clouded over and it was fookin cold but the draw of feasting our eyes on some 'white wingers' spurred us on.
It wasn't too long before we had an adult Yellow Legged Gull in the nearest field. Most of the gulls though were further away and were largely obscured by a hedge. Despite this we soon were onto a very smart 1st-winter Iceland Gull. This showed on & off for a while before we got the other main target with a 1st winter Glaucous Gull on show too. Brilliant! The gulls were constantly being flushed by several Red Kites swooping around and a big old bruiser of a Fox ambled past causing a bit of caos.
Eventually a large number of the gulls moved over to the field right in front of us. Here we were able to enjoy great views of both the Iceland & Glaucous Gulls. In addition were two Caspian Gulls; a very dapper looking 2nd-winter and a ringed 4th-winter, a 2nd-winter Yellow Legged Gull and a 2nd-winter Herring X Glaucous Gull (the latter three picked out by Martin Elliott a real gull expert and a very interesting guy to listen to. All these were in a seriously small area and made for quite a haul!
By this point we were painfully frozen so off back to the pub for a well earned pint to conclude a great days birding.
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