Wednesday 11 April 2012

A day’s birding in Leicestershire - April 11, 2012


Dave, Roger and I had decided to go birding in the Charnwood area today.
We called at Watermead Country Park first to hopefully see a Whooper Swan and Red-crested Pochard.  Both had been present for some time now and Roger had seen both of them yesterday.  When we arrived there was the normal mass of swans close to where people feed them and where the Whooper normally is.  We scanned the swans several times but could only find Mutes.  We walked all the way around the lagoon but the Whooper could not be found although we did locate the male Red-crested Pochard.
We eventually moved off to Beacon Hill and walked from the car park to the summit.  We had hoped to see early migrants but there was little evidence of any migration, although Dave did find a Wheatear, which Roger and I failed to locate.
Warren Hills was our next port of call, which is another location where it is possible to find migrants but like Beacon Hill there was little evidence of migration.
We decide to visit Swithland Reservoir where we had our fist shower of the day, which was quiet heavy.  Just before the rain arrived the wind increased and we had two Sparrowhawk, five Buzzards and a Peregrine fly over.  There was little of note on the water but I did see three Sand Martins and a Swallow passed over the dam.  Two Grey Wagtail also flew over.  Roger also located a Green Sandpiper on the southern side.
We made a very brief call at Cropston Reservoir where there were a number of martins feeding low over the water.  They were mainly Sand Martin but we did locate at least two Swallow.

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