I was out on my own today and
spent all of my time at Rutland Water. I
decided to walk to Lax Hill first calling at snipe and harrier hides before
finally reaching Lax Hill and goldeneye hide.
Snipe and harrier hide failed to produce anything of note as did the
walk to Lax Hill. The light at goldeneye
hide was very poor due to the bright sun but trend continued with very little,
although the water level had clearly dropped.
Female Pheasant in the wet meadow
Melanistic female Pheasant in the wet meadow
Male Kestrel alongside the footpath to harrier hide
Female Mallard from harrier hide
I headed off towards heron
hide and heard a Marsh Tit calling but could not locate it. As I entered the field from Lax Hill I could
see that there was very little in Heron Bay or south arm two and decided to go
straight to the 360° on lagoon five.
When I entered the 360° hide on lagoon five there were clearly
more birds on the lagoon than my last visit.
There were thirty-seven Egyptian Geese amongst which I located a single
Shelduck. I then noticed a Curlew on one
of the islands and then found five more on a different island. As I was walking away from the lagoon there
was a large flock of Golden Plover overhead, which had probably been disturbed
from lagoon five where there was some work being carried out today. They circled for quite some time before some
at least decided to land on lagoon five whilst others just dispersed.
Golden Plover over lagoon five
Golden Plover over lagoon five
When I reached the centre,
there was a report of a Whooper Swan on lagoon one and a Red-crested Pochard in
the north arm. I went upstairs to the
viewing area and soon found the single Whooper to the right.
After some lunch I went to the
north arm where I soon found the female Red-crested Pochard feeding amongst a
party of Coot. There were also two Ruff
and a single Green Sandpiper feeding on the recently exposed mud as the water
level was falling.
I returned to the centre and
walked to lapwing hide overlooking south arm three where I located a drake
Scaup moulting out of eclipse plumage.
Other than a large party of Coot, several Tufted Duck and Great Crested
Grebe there was little else so I went to shoveler hide on lagoon three calling
at smew hide on route. There appeared to
be very little on lagoon two, which was not surprising as there was maintenance
being carried out. As I was looking for
a party of Long-tailed Tits I could hear calling a Kingfisher flew up the tiny
water course to the right of the hide.
Eclipse drake Scaup in south arm three
There were numerous duck on
lagoon three mainly Gadwall and Tufted Duck but there was four Pintail and
several Shoveler.
I could also hear a bird
calling close to the hide that I suspected was a Water Rail, which was
confirmed when it gave a more familiar call.
I moved to the other end of the hide and was able to get some very nice
photos before I saw two of them move back into the reeds.
Water Rail from shoveler hide on lagoon three
My final call was to dunlin
hide on lagoon four where evidence of the work carried out was clearly in
evidence with most of the bird being on the western edge of the lagoon. There were two adult Yellow-legged Gulls amongst
the gulls resting in the normal area and at least some of the Golden Plovers
had returned. I then noticed three
smaller waders in flight, which I thought would be Dunlin and was able to
confirm that was what they were when they landed.
It had been a good day in some
rather pleasant if a little cool autumn weather.
There was also quite a few
Common Darter and I saw at least four Migrant Hawkers and there were also
singles of Small White, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Small Tortoiseshell
butterflies. The Painted Lady was my
first and probably last of the year.
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