Having stayed at my parents near Northampton on the Friday night. I started my weekend's birding early on Saturday (06/05) at Summer Leys, a relatively short drive down the road. With heavy cloud and drizzle beginning to fall, the omens were looking promising! I started from the double-decker hide overlooking the scrape and was soon into some good birds, with a smashing drake Garganey picking it's way through the scrape vegetation. Soon after, a Wood Sandpiper also crept into view too, in the company of a Redshank.
The rain increased a little more as I worked my way around to Mary's Lake, enjoying good views of a Cuckoo en route. Mary's was worth the effort too, holding a group of five Black Tern swooping around in the company of a few Commons. Having worked this side of the reserve pretty well, I hopped back in the car and drove round to the car park and the main Pioneer Hide.
From here, with the rain slightly relenting, more good birds appeared. Scanning the bund and Wader Bay area of the reserve revealed 2 Grey Plover and a Dunlin. Shortly after, a further 2 Grey Plover dropped in to join them, including an absolutely stunning, pristine adult male. A vocal Avocet then flew in from the W and landed briefly on the scrape. It didn't however hang around for long, being chased off by several aggressive Black Headed Gulls. It did though appear to drop down on the E side of the reserve, out of sight.
The 2 Med Gulls also showed within the gull colony before flying past calling loudly and heading E. The other main highlight was the all-too-brief views of an Otter & two kits in the corner, moving quickly through the undergrowth, closely tagged by a concerned group of Black Headed Gulls! Amazing!
Other notable birds included 2 Greenshank, 7 Ringed Plover (including 5 straight through E), a notable group of 15 Redshank through E, 2-3 Cuckoo, 2 LRP, 1 Snipe, 1 Common Sand and large numbers of Swift overhead. The Avocet also re-appeared and was sat on Round Island. With things seemingly slowing down, I left and drove north to look for Nightingale & Turtle Dove in the N of the county.
Arriving at around midday, in on-off drizzle, it wasn't exactly ideal conditions, however I persevered. Eventually I managed to track down and enjoy 1-2 Nightingale and sat and listened for a while with the background sounds of Cuckoo, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, & Blackcaps. Cracking!
This area has a bit of a track record of producing migrant Dotterel and so I spent a good hour or so scouring the surrounding fields in the optimistic hope that I'd get lucky! Didn't really see a lot other than a nesting pair of Ravens (actually just into Cambridgeshire and possibly rather notable).
My last planned visit of the day, was a drive down the A14 to Stanford Reservoir, where it has all been happening this spring. Due to repair work on the dam, the reservoir has been drained, revealing some monstrous areas of mud and shallow water, pulling in a very good variety of waders.
Saturday was no exception and I was soon pointed in the direction of a smart Sanderling, not too far from the inflow end. Also in this area were a single Greenshank, 3 Ringed Plover and several LRP. After a bit of a walk, a good scan across the Blowers Lodge Bay produced an excellent array of birds, including 2 Grey Plover, 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, another 8 Greenshank, 1 Whooper Swan, 1 Dunlin, 2 Common Sand, a couple of Yellow Wagtail, 1-2 Cuckoo & quite literally hundreds of Hirundines.
After being here for some time, I decided to slowly walk back to the car, scanning along the way. This soon produced bird of the day for me (at the time), as my eye caught sight of a small, distant brown blob on the Leicestershire shoreline. Getting the scope on it, I was really surprised to find a cracking little Jack Snipe bobbing up and down on the muddy shoreline. Highly unexpected! By far my latest Jack Snipe and made all the more remarkable by the fact it was nowhere near any cover at all and was bold as brass, just sitting in the open feeding away in the company of a couple of Mallards. A very interesting record! Very poor iphone-scoped photo below
Two Hobby appeared overhead, hunting the swarms of Hirundines for a short while before moving off along the reservoir and out of sight. The Sanderling had appeared to have moved on as I returned to the car.
I had set myself a target of 100 species for the day, to make it all a little bit more interesting. Having totted up, I was still a few species short so I decided I would drop into Pitsford for a look on the way back. Despite it only being about 18:15pm, it was decidedly gloomy.
I made my way down to the feeding station area for a scan of the Scaldwell, Walgrave & Holcot Bays, hoping I may find some waders. Initially, there didn't appear to be much about other than the usual Tree Sparrows, as well as a Greenshank, 2 Redshank & a female Yellow Wagtail. Some of the shoreline was obscured and so I made my way down to the Maytrees Hide to get a better look. I began another scan and immediately latched onto a bird looking directly away from me in the mouth of the Scaldwell Bay. With it's pale flanks my mind briefly wandered to think Red Crested Pochard, but no, it had a pale grey head. It then turned towards side on...holy s**t, summer plumaged Black Throated Diver!!!!!
I couldn't believe it! I immediately put the news out to one and all and thought I'd better wait until the first people arrived, which they duly did some 25 minutes later. What an insanely exciting bird to find and what a brilliant day I had, had, from start to finish. This was the 20th county record and a treasured county tick for me, my second self-found county tick in a row, following on from the Borough Hill Woodlark back in the autumn.
The day's grand total ended on a pretty impressive 103 species and that was without a few relatively straightforward species such as Mistle Thrush, Grey Wagtail & Nuthatch!
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