Rod's Birding: A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland

Friday 9 November 2012

A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland - October 27, 2012

I was out with Roger and Dave today and we initially went to Eye Brook Reservoir where the water level appeared to have risen again.

We stopped by the road bridge at the northern end where we found six Siskin and five Lesser Redpoll and there was also a few Fieldfare and Redwing. There was little else of note except for eleven Goldeneye and two Red Kite and Buzzard over the fields on the Leicestershire side.

Having had enough of Eye Brook Reservoir, we went to Rutland Water and went straight to lagoon three where we spent some time in shoveler hide. There were eight Pintail, including five males, a female Red-crested Pochard and a eclipse male Ruddy Duck. The Ruddy Duck was our first of the year as the recent cull as almost eliminated them. A single Little Egret and a Redshank were observed in the shallow water to the right and numerous Teal were also present but we couldn’t locate the drake Scaup amongst the large flock of Tufted Duck. I also had very brief views of a Sparrowhawk and a Kingfisher was observed on a post. It was very cold in the wind and Dave succumbed and returned to the centre and Roger and I followed shortly afterwards.

When we got back to the centre Dave had found a Goosander and he thought a second bird was a Red-breasted Merganser. It clearly was a Red-breasted Merganser and we finally decided that it was an eclipse male. There were another five Pintail and six Little Egrets feeding on the lagoon.

Lunch was taken in the car park after which we went to dunlin hide on lagoon four were it was very cold dud to wind blowing directly into the hide. Thirty Golden Plover flew over and we found another Redshank but there were few gulls present and decided to go to shoveler hide. Just after he had left Dave found a single Whooper Swan feeding amongst the several Mute Swan. Ken then called to say that there was a Green Sandpiper on lagoon three, so we decided to go and take a look.

As we walked to shoveler eight Whooper Swan flew over and appeared to come down on lagoon three and before we had gone much further another, presumable the on of lagoon four, flew over calling and also seemed to drop on lagoon three. When we entered the hide we found that the nine Whooper Swans were together and they performed well until they left mid-afternoon. The Green Sandpiper was seen and we also re-found the Ruddy Duck.

Dave, Roger and Ken decided to return to the centre whilst I went back to lagoon four where I found an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a probable forth-year Caspian Gull. There was also a single Shelduck and Dunlin but there was no sign of any Mediterranean Gulls.

When I got back to the centre I had just missed a Barn Owl but with nothing else on show we decided to return home.