Sunday 2 December 2012

A morning’s birding in NW Leicestershire - November 23, 2012


I was out on my own today and visited Groby Pool first.  I walked the short distance from the car park to the pool and along to the overflow and soon found the female Common Scoter that has been present for a few days.  It was swimming away and began feeding close to the reed-bed to the north.  It began to swim back towards the overflow but then moved in towards the reeds to the east.  I walked further along the footpath and found it feeding close in but it soon swam out again and on walking back to the overflow I was unable to locate it.


Drake Pochard at Groby Pool


Female Common Scoter at Groby Pool


Great Tit at Groby Pool

I decided to go to Swithland Reservoir and visited the south side first but there wasn’t anything of note and appeared to be far fewer birds than usual.  On reaching the north side the two Peregrines were sitting in the tree at the top of Buddon Wood but both had disappeared before I left.  I also found another Common Scoter with several Tufted Ducks and there were three Goldeneye present as well.  A Buzzard flew low over Buddon Wood and a Nuthatch was heard calling.

I was out on my own today and visited Groby Pool first.  I walked the short distance from the car park to the pool and along to the overflow and soon found the female Common Scoter that has been present for a few days.  It was swimming away and began feeding close to the reed-bed to the north.  It began to swim back towards the overflow but then moved in towards the reeds to the east.  I walked further along the footpath and found it feeding close in but it soon swam out again and on walking back to the overflow I was unable to locate it.

I decided to go to Swithland Reservoir and visited the south side first but there wasn’t anything of note and appeared to be far fewer birds than usual.  On reaching the north side the two Peregrines were sitting in the tree at the top of Buddon Wood but both had disappeared before I left.  I also found another Common Scoter with several Tufted Ducks and there were three Goldeneye present as well.  A Buzzard flew low over Buddon Wood and a Nuthatch was heard calling.

From Swithland Reservoir I decided to go to Blackbrook Reservoir.

As I walked down the track to the reservoir it was very wet with a stream running down along the track and into the reservoir.  I did manage to get to the bridge and was able to scope the south west edge of the reservoir but it not possible to see all of it.  There were a lot of Mallard and I did locate a couple of Wigeon and a Teal and eventually a male and female Mandarins.

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