A day’s birding in Leicestershire and Rutland - June 9, 2012

Today Dave, Roger and I decided to visit Rutland Water and had a Buzzard near the bottom of Wardley Hill on route.

When we arrived at Rutland Water we observed the feeders for a few minutes whilst we waited for the centre to open.  There were a few birds using the feeders mainly Great Tits, Chaffinches and Goldfinches.

When the centre opened we signed in and spent a few minutes overlooking lagoon one.  We had a couple of Little Egrets, a distant Osprey over south arm two, an Oystercatcher and a Redshank.

Mallard with two downy young on lagoon one

Female Kestrel from the Bird Watching Centre

Rook from the Bird Watching Centre

We walked to lagoon four via the summer trail and spent some time at a nettle patch were there were plenty of Common Blue and Azure Damselflies and we also found a single Blue-tailed Damselfly.  There was also several Silver Ground Carpets and Roger found a Silver-Y.  I found a rather strange looking insect, which I thought might be a micro moth and was later confirmed as Nemophora degeerella a member of the Longhorn family of moths.  The only butterflies we saw were two Speckled Woods.

Lagoon four produced three adult Avocets and a single young bird and there were four Oystercatchers.  A mixed party of waders on a distant island contained seven tundra Ringed Plovers and six Dunlin and we also found tow Little Ringed Plover and a Redshank.  Two Yellow-legged Gulls were also present, one being the rather large presumed third-summer we had seen and photographed on lagoon one on Wednesday.  The second was noticeably smaller and was slightly more advanced in terms of its moult with more cover feathers being adult.  An Osprey also flew over causing quite some disturbance and there were two Common Terns feeding over the lagoon one.  The number of Common Terns appears to have decreased significantly during the prolonged wet spell and many other young birds appeared to have suffered.  There were sixteen Common Terns feeding over lagoon three but other than brief views of two Reed Warbler we saw very little else; although a Great Crested Grebe did provided some amusement in its half-hearted attempt to build a nest.  A Whitethroat was heard as we had approached shoveler hide on lagoon three and we did have brief flight views but the wind was not helping keeping most birds hiding in cover.

Osprey over lagoon four

Drake Shoveler entering eclipse plumage

Drake Gadwall over lagoon three

We returned to the car park for lunch where we met Ken and after lunch we walked the other way initially calling at mallard hide were we found a pair of Wigeon and a single Teal and the Redshank still feeding in the same area as earlier.  We also had brief views of a Barn Owl peering out of the nest box. Snipe hide overlooking the wet meadow produced excellent views of a Little Egret and at least eight Teal were on the flash and a Little Ringed Plover on the margins briefly.

Little Egret on the wet meadow

Swift over the wet meadow

Harrier hide produced very little and on lagoon six three Common Terns that appeared to be on nests were the only ones we felt were still attempting breed so far.  A Hobby was also observed carrying food as it flew along the northern bund.

Lagoon six produced at least four Little Ringed Plovers, one of which was sitting on a nest on island three.  There were plenty of Swifts about today and I made several attempts to photograph them with some success.  From Shelduck hide we returned to the centre and were rewarded with brief views of the Barn Owl in flight before it returned to the nest box.

Swift over lagoon five

We called briefly at Eye Brook Reservoir on route home but with the exception of three Common Terns saw very little else.