I decided to go to Warren
Hills today to see if there were any Ring Ouzels. As I arrived another birder was leaving
indicating that he had only seen a Wheatear.
There was very little in the top fields but there were clearly more
Willow Warbler present today. I
eventually reached the bottom of the hill where I saw two Wheatears and my
first Cuckoo of the year. Roger had now
joined me but had failed to see the Cuckoo but had heard it calling. A Sparrowhawk and Raven where observed
soaring to the west. We walked back to the cars seeing a few Buzzards over the
woods and I picked up the Cuckoo in flight, which Roger managed to get on to.
Male Yellowhammer at Warren Hills
Male Kestrel at Warren Hills
Male Kestrel at Warren Hills
Roger and I made a brief visit
to Charnwood Lodge Nature Reserve but found very little.
Roger was now going home and I
decided to go to Swithland Reservoir for my lunch. As I was driving to Swithland Reservoir there
was a tweet from Rutland Water indicating that there was a Black-winged Stilt
on lagoon four.
I spoke to Tim the reserve
manager as I was arriving and he advised me to drive to dunlin hide as the bird
was on the first island giving good photo opportunities. When I got to dunlin hide the stilt had moved
back to island five and was now some distance away. It did return to the close island and I
managed to get several good shots of the bird.
This was only the third record for Leicestershire and Rutland, the
others both being of two birds, where in 1945 at Eye Brook Reservoir and 1987
at Orton-on-the-Hill. I did not visit
any other part of the reserve but did see two Oystercatcher, four Avocet, four
Little Ringed Plover, two Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, two Ruff, two Curlew and
four Redshank and there was also two Common Tern bathing.
Black-winged Stil on lagoon four at Rutland Water
I made a brief stop at Eye
Brook Reservoir on route home where there were two Yellow Wagtails and at least
six White Wagtails.
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