Borough Hill & Boddington Reservoir : 16 April 2022

When deciding what to do on Saturday morning we considered that there have been a few sightings of early whinchat and resolved to have a go at Borough Hill, Daventry - there were sightings there early in 2021. We met near Grimbsury Reservoir and decided to drop in and see if there was any action before moving on. We made our way up the western side, scanning for any redstart in the hedge by the ditch - no dice. Ahead we could see John Friendship-Taylor doing much the same - the water's edge was devoid of any birds, never mind anything of note. John had reached the corner and started along the northern side while we still scanned the hedge line - just then John gave a "shout" - literally. I must have looked comical as I span around and for him to be pointing up! Above was a great white egret - my photo was very much from behind as I'd got onto it late.

We walked round to talk with John and Gareth Blockley joined from the opposite direction. We had a chat but soon went our separate ways and picked up breakfast on the way. Arriving at Borough Hill we were surprised by just how little scrub remains - the area seems to have been "managed" and there is very little perching structure, other than the concrete blocks and brambles. Finding a whinchat may be a challenge. We walked along the top path and it became obvious that we'd walked into skylark central - just everywhere and occasionally supplemented with linnets and meadow pipits.

We went right to the edge of the golf course before dropping down to the lower path and worked our way back. Kev suddenly called for bird perched on a low bush but as we watched it was a wheatear - good enough but not what we were looking for. To the right we spotted a second. I can't recall seeing wheatear here before but I'm sure the area is well suited.

We worked our way back but didn't add anything else of note. We decided to drop into Boddington Reservoir as there was still time before lunch, and it was on the way home. We parked up and made our way up to the sailing club, perching ourselves on a bench to watch six common terns, three fishing and three on the pontoon or on a distant buoy. These are our first terns of the spring and if we'd stayed a bit longer at Grimsbury we might have seen the sandwich tern that dropped in there after we left. That’s birding.