I went straight to Rutland
Water this morning in the hope of finding the Hawfinch that has been seen a few
times this year to the north of the car park and there were two reported
yesterday.
I walk along the western
track, which is not public access and saw very little until I was approaching
the last field before the cattle grid.
There were a few thrushes in the hedge row and I decided to scope
them. There were three Redwing and a
Fieldfare near the top of the hedge and as I lowered the scope there was
another Redwing and a Hawfinch. I
started to increase the magnification on the scope but the Hawfinch flew off to
the east. I saw where it went but
couldn’t find it but a few minutes later it flew back over the hedge and headed
for Church Road to the west and appeared to drop down in a hedge, which I
couldn’t see clearly. After a short time
without a further sighting I moved on to shoveler hide on lagoon three.
I soon found five Smew on
lagoon three and eventually finished with seven but they were all red-heads. I spoke to Tim Appleton to inform him about
the Smew and he suggested that he showed me the work that had been completed on
the new bittern hide. There area had
been cleared and there was now access to embankment that the hide will go
on. From the embankment a small pool had
been created within the reedbed and the hide will have an excellent vantage
point over the reeds and also part of lagoon three.
I paid a brief visit to plover
hide on lagoon four but other than eight Shelduck there was little else
visible. I then walked to lapwing hide
but there was little in south arm three and what there was, was very distant.
Mute Swan on lagoon four
Greylag Geese over lagoon four
Drake Gadwall on lagoon two
I spoke to Roger who was
looking for the Hawfinch in the meadows so I joined him, Frank Pickering and
Stuart Gill to see if I could see the bird again. Roger had already been there some time and
had not seen it. There were quite a few
birds in the far corner of the field and we eventually had Fieldfare, Redwing,
Robin; Dunnock; four Tree Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch;
Greenfinch and Linnet but there was no sign of the Hawfinch. A Buzzard and Peregrine were also observed
and four Dunlin flew over.
After lunch I spent some time
in the Bird Watching Centre overlooking lagoon one where I had a female
Goosander, five Little Egrets, two Buzzards and five Curlew.
I eventually called it a day
at Rutland Water and headed off for Eye Brook Reservoir.
I approached Eye Brook
Reservoir from the north and had a single Little Owl in the old oak. I parked by the fence on the western edge
where I counted forty-two Dunlin but could not find the Ruff reported earlier
in the day. I drove to the southern
watch point where Mick Kettley informed me that there were two Bewick’s Swans
present but he thought they must have swam behind the island. He then picked out what he thought was a
possible Caspian Gull and we went over the style and walked to the island to
get closer. Most of the gulls were
facing into the easterly wind and were therefore back on and we had to give up
as we just couldn't get enough on them to identify them. There was no sign of the Bewick’s either and
a check at the inlet also failed to produce them and it would appear that they
had gone. A nice surprise as I was
leaving the reservoir was a Barn Owl set on a fence close to the turn to the
bridge. It eventually flew off the post
and around for a few seconds before it disappeared into the trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment