Red Necked Grebes

Last weekend was a right old scorcher, with cloudless skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in excess of 20 degrees! The winds did have more of a southerly flavour to them, however with such clear skies, grounded migrants were a little harder to come by.

I had plans on Saturday (08/04) but did pop into Bucknell Wood for a quick look for butterflies mid afternoon. It was cool to see Orange Tips had increased a lot since the previous weekend with numbers very much in double figures. I also came across quite a few smart looking Peacocks & several Comma too, hammering anything passing by!

Early Sunday morning, (09/04) I headed over to Daventry Reservoir to try and see the pair of Red Necked Grebe discovered at the end of the week. Pleasingly, both birds were still present and I spent quite a bit of time watching them cruising about and calling a bit too, in the company of a decent gathering of Northants birding folk!

While watching the grebes, we were all dead chuffed to see a Sandwich Tern drop in, together with a single Common Tern. This is only my second ever Northants 'Sarnie' and a great surprise. This was part of quite a significant movement of Sandwich Tern through the country that morning, including a county record of 20 birds at Clifford Hill GP!

I couldn't find the Black Necked Grebe that had been around for a while. The White Fronted Goose was still there though and certainly wasn't shy, mingling with the local wildfowl just off jetty by the visitor centre, competing for bread! Two LRP were flying around too and I also spotted my first Speckled Wood in the car park. What an excellent visit!