I navigated past Northampton pretty quickly and zoomed up the A45 towards Wellingborough. I parked up at Summer Leys, got out the car and went to open the boot. I then looked round to see the unmistakable sight of 4 big white Spoonbills fly over the main lake and away towards the west. It was disappointing that I hadn't got to enjoy better views, but overall I have to count myself lucky that I saw them at all.
Anyways, there was still a nice enough supporting cast to keep me interested. The wader bay area of the reserve held a group of 3 Grey Plover, with one bird in particular looking absolutely fantastic in immaculate summer plumage. Round Island held 3 Ruff, including a single male, while the scrape held a smart Wood Sandpiper. A couple of Ringed Plover and 2-3 LRP were also in the vicinity.
The next day, (Sunday 08/05) myself & Dan Watson decided a trip to the coast was in order, with promising weather/winds on the cards. We decided on Norfolk and so set off early-ish, together with Tim Marlow, also joining us for the day.
We headed straight for the road past Choseley Drying Barns, an area that pretty much every year, attracts a sizable gathering of Dotterel. This year was no exception.
It was a scorching day and to be honest, we were expecting wobbly views of them through the heat haze, several hundred metres away, in the middle of a stubble field. We were then pleasantly surprised to see them immediately, some 25 metres or so from the road! We stayed here for a good little while, enjoying some of the best views you're likely to get of the species, away from their mountainous breeding grounds.
With a strong-ish south easterly, we were hopeful of finding our own birds, so we next tried a couple of slightly less well-watched sites. First was Hardley Flood, just east of Stiffkey. This is always worth a look and in the past has produced some good birds. Today there was little to shout about with best being a few Avocets, a Common Sand & a Cuckoo.
We next had a look at nearby Stiffkey Fen, a new site for me and one I liked the look of. The place was alive with the sound of Reed Warblers, a Cetti's Warbler, loads of Avocets present on the fen, along with another Common Sand and a few Black Tailed Godwit.
Out on the saltmarsh & estuary, there were plenty of other waders too including 2 Whimbrel, several Grey Plover, Barwits, plenty of Oystercatcher & some Ringed Plovers. A couple of Spoonbill then flew past and landed somewhere out on the saltmarsh to feed. Walking back to the car also produced lovely views of a fresh-looking Holly Blue.
Cley appeared to have a great selection of waders on offer so we moved on to there, meeting up with our friends Kieran & Leila in the process.
Pat's Pool provided lovely views of a female Black-Winged Stilt that had been present a couple of days. Great to catch one of these again.
Also here was a welcome, if rather distant Temminck's Stint, as well as a couple of Curlew Sandpiper (one of Pat's Pool & one on Simmond's scrape). Several Ruff were strutting their stuff with a few stonking looking males, a Greenshank, a Barwit and a Sanderling amongst the Dunlin were present too.
We completed our day at Kelling Water Meadows, just down the road. It was pretty quiet here to be honest, however did see my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year, as well as a single male Yellow Wag. This concluded a pretty decent day, with very good company to boot!
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