I was out with Dave and Roger
today and we went to Eye Brook Reservoir first where the road was rather
treacherous with a light covering of snow and ice.
We parked at the entrance to
the plantation and then walked through the plantation towards the dam. We found the male Ring-necked Duck amongst a
small flock of Tufted Duck, which was almost certainly the same bird that I had
seen in November t Rutland Water. There
were plenty of birds as we walked through the plantation and we saw a Great
Spotted Woodpecker and then heard it drumming and also a Siskin and five Lesser
Redpolls. I saw a Grey Wagtail flying
along the shore line but Dave and Roger both missed it. We also saw tow Red Kites and a single
Buzzard and circa twenty-five Dunlin at the inlet.
We left Eye Brook Reservoir
for Rutland Water and I was rather concerned about getting up the hill to Stoke
Dry as we had watched several cars struggle just after we had parked. However I put the car in manual and went up
in second gear without too much trouble.
We went to the fisherman’s car
park in the north arm for hopefully the Long-tailed Duck and a Common Scoter
that had both been seen yesterday.
However despite and extensive search we were unable to find either, so we
went to the end of the road leading to the Reserve Manager’s Cottage. We found a female Scaup amongst a large raft
of Tufted Duck in the fishponds and there was a single Redshank on the north
shore. We walked out to the end of the
spit but still could not find either of the two ducks and were thinking of
giving up when Dave found the Long-tailed Duck.
It was with a group of Goldeneye and was bathing, providing some
reasonable views before it began to feed.
Roger then found the female Common Scoter not too far away. It was difficult to see how we had missed
them earlier and we suspected that they had both flown in from another part of
the reservoir. There were three Buzzards
over Burley Wood and four Pintail on the north shore but little else so we
moved off to the Egleton Reserve.
The Hawfinch had been seen in
the car park but had disappeared early morning so we had our lunch in the hope
it would return. There was still no sign
and after a quick look over lagoon one, seeing six drake Pintail and four
Goosanders we moved off to shoveler hide on lagoon three. There were seven Redshanks and a single Ruff
to the left of the hide and we found two red-headed Smew. Roger then found a Bittern that was difficult
to see but it did provide several reasonable views over a period of time. We walked on to lapwing hide calling at both
smew and crake hides, where we heard a Water Rail screaming. Other than a mass of Coot and a few Pochard
and Goldeneye there was little else in south arm three so we returned to
shoveler hide. We had not been in there
too long before other birders arrived informing us that the Hawfinch had been
showing well in the car park.
When we got back to the car
park there was no sign and it didn’t return during our brief stay. We finished the day in the centre were Dave
found what he thought was a Caspian Gull amongst a small party of gulls
gathering on the lagoon. We all got on
the bird and it was clearly and adult Caspian Gull and a good end to the day.
Four drake and two female Pochard over south arm three
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