A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland - August 14, 2012

I had been asked by Tim Appleton, the Reserve Manager, at Rutland Water to assist in a wildfowl count and was responsible for counting the north arm, Burley fishponds and lagoon one.

I called at Eye Brook Reservoir on route but the water was still very high although I did have a juvenile Marsh Harrier and two Snipe.

Juvenile Marsh Harrier

At Rutland Water I started off at Dickinson’s Bay but there was little in the bay, the highlight being a single Little Egret.  The rest of the north arm produced a Garganey, another eleven Little Egrets, a Common Sandpiper, five Green Sandpipers and two Greenshanks.  The fishponds held quite a lot of birds with almost 200 Tufted Ducks over 200 Coots and there were also four more Little Egrets and a Green Sandpiper.

I walked to harrier hide calling at the wet meadow where there was a juvenile Shelduck, a further seven Little Egrets and a Common Sandpiper.

There was very little from harrier hide although there were plenty of birds on the lagoon it was not a good place to start counting them and I returned to mallard hide.  Most of the duck were again Tufted Duck and there was also a good number of Coot but I did find a female Pintail.

After some lunch and handing in my numbers at the centre I went to sandpiper hide on lagoon four.  There were five Black Terns resting amongst the Common Terns, one being a moulting adult, whilst the others were probably juveniles.  There were fewer waders present with just Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Green Sandpiper being observed, although there was another seventeen Little Egrets.  Two other birders then informed me they had seen a Little Sting in front of plover hide, so I made a swift exit and headed off to plover hide.  When I arrived all I could find was a juvenile Dunlin exactly where they said the Little Stint was.

I am beginning to wonder whether or not I will see Little Stint this year as this was the third disappointment within a week.

After a prolonged stay in plover I decided to move to shoveler hide on lagoon three and found two Garganey not too far from the hide although they did fly further out before disappearing after a few minutes.

I noticed the Black Terns on a couple of occasions as they flew to the main water, presumably to feed, before returning to lagoon four.  A Green Sandpiper was observed briefly and the Bittern flew from the main reed bed into the one to the left of the hide as it had done on the 8^th, this time however it remained hidden the whole time I was in the hide.

I returned to dunlin hide on lagoon four where I saw five Curlew and two Yellow-legged Gulls that had not seen previously.

Little Egret over lagoon four

Bittern over lagoon three

Adult female or eclipse male Garganey on lagoon three

Juvenile Garganey on lagoon three

Small Copper near lagoon four