Daventry Country Park :: 09 September 2018

It has been a while since I ventured over to Daventry Country Park but with reports of 2 x pintail and a garganey I thought I would give it a go. Just as was about to leave home, @987jonty posted that he'd had a wigeon, marsh tit, a flower yellow wagtail and a spotted flycatcher at Grimsbury Reservoir. I haven't managed to catch up with a spotted flycatcher and thought about heading there - I haven't seen it there when I have so kept to my original plan.

The sun followed me over and the weather was good on arrival - £2 paid for parking and onto the reservoir for an anticlockwise circuit - it just feels right that way. Quite a breeze off the water as I went along the dam with no slight of the garganey or pintail.

Approaching East Bay I saw some birds catching flies above the tress and stopped to watch - luck was on my side as it turned out to be a spotted flycatcher [#140]. Watching I then saw willow warbler and heard chiffchaff. I couldn't help think that I might be able to get a better view from further into the trees. A path headed in that way but soon ran out - I pushed through and watched to see what I could find. The glade opened ahead and I was treated watching spotted flycatcher, blackcap, treecreeper, willow warbler, chiffchaff, goldcrest, great spotted woodpecker and an array of tits all feeding ahead of me. In the end I stayed quite a while enjoying the show.

Further on I came across a southern hawker dragonfly, resting on some ivy followed by a common darter. Back on the water I spied the water's edge and picked out wigeon, teal, gadwall, shoveler, Canada geese and lapwing.

After a spot of lunch I sat on the dam and looked out to see if I could see the garganey amongst the feeding teal - no joy. Was it going to elude me again? In a last-ditch effort, I circled back to see if I could peer through the gaps in the trees to the feeding ducks. I took a series of photos and on returning home one was confirmed as the drake garganey [#141] in eclipse plumage - result!

Sightings today (34) included: black-headed gull, blackcap, blue tit, bullfinch, buzzard, canada goose, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, cormorant, gadwall, garganey, goldcrest, great crested grebe, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, house martin, lapwing, lesser black-backed gull, little egret, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, moorhen, nuthatch, shoveler, spotted flycatcher, starling, teal, treecreeper, wigeon, willow warbler, woodpigeon and wren.