Roger and went to Wistow
Church on route to Eye Brook Reservoir to see if we could locate a Spotted
Flycatcher. As we walked into the church
yard a Green Woodpecker flew up silently from the grass. We began to search the trees where we had
seen Spotted Flycatcher in the past but all we could find was a Song Thrush and
several Chaffinch. I the noticed a bird
perched on a post on the deg of the copse and it was a Spotted Flycatcher,
success. We had a quick look on Wistow
Lake but there was nothing of note.
We continued to Eye Brook
Reservoir seeing a Red Kite just west of Cranoe on route. We approached Eye Brook Reservoir from the
Great Eastern end and spent some time overlooking the fields and the old
feeding station near the entrance to the fishing lodge. We did find a single Whitethroat and
eventually we did see a Tree Sparrow. We
then drove to the inlet where we saw a Buzzard and my first Osprey at the
reservoir this year. The water level is
now very high and the vegetation very lush and it is difficult to see birds
other than n on the water. Something
disturbed the birds feeding in the vegetation and there were three Little
Egrets, several Lapwings and a single Redshank observed. We eventually decided to go to Rutland Water.
We went to the north at
Rutland Water first where we found four Pochard, two Little Egrets, four
Oystercatchers and a single Green Sandpiper.
There was also a Red Kit and several Buzzards over Burley Wood.
It was now lunchtime so we
drove to the Egleton car park where we had lunch before setting off for lagoon
four. It was rather quiet but we did
find four Oystercatchers, which we presumed were the same four we had seen in
flight in the north arm. There were also
three Little Ringed Plovers and a single Ringed Plover and there were two
Lapwing chicks on island ten. I then
noticed what I assumed would be a tern amongst several gulls resting on some
distant mud. However before I could
scope it, it took to flight and turned out to be a first-summer Little
Gull. There was also a party of larger
gulls resting on a distant spit but they also took to flight and settled a lot
closer and there were also eleven immature Yellow-legged Gulls. I then noticed that the Little Gull was also
resting on the same spit but shortly afterwards all of them got up and went
very high not to return. I suspected
that there might be a bird of prey and scanned the sky but saw nothing that
might have flushed the birds.
We returned to the centre and
spent the last thirty minutes overlooking lagoon one. We were told that there had been two adult
Mediterranean Gulls present but that they had flown off towards lagoon
two. There was a Little Egret but little
else of note before Roger picked up the two Mediterranean Gulls flying over Lax
Hill. They then flew towards the new
lagoons below Lax Hill and appeared to come down on either lagoon five or
seven. A Hobby was also observed as it
came in high from the east and beginning to hawk over lagoon three. We eventually called it a day and set off for
home having had much better day than we thought when we set of this morning.
It had been a very good day
with eighty-two species recorded. This
included the first ever June record of Bittern within the counties and a
Peregrine over the house as I waited for Roger.
We had also seen four Red
Admiral, a Peacock, three Speckled Wood, four Meadow Brown and three Ringlet
butterflies and two Azure Damselflies and at least ten Common Blue Damselflies.
Drake Shoveler in eclispe plumage on lagoon one at Rutland Water
Female Shoveler on lagoon one at Rutland Water
Common Tern over lagoon four at Rutland Water
Common Tern over lagoon four at Rutland Water
Common Tern over lagoon three at Rutland Water
Common Tern over lagoon three at Rutland Water
Robin in the car park at Egleton, Rutland Water
Juvenile Long-tailed Tit from the summer taril at Rutland Water