Roger picked me up this
morning and we drove to Eye Brook Reservoir seeing a couple of Buzzard on
route. There were two Little Owls in the
old oak on the approach to the reservoir and we found four Shelduck, fourteen
Golden Plover and fourteen Dunlin on the exposed mud.
At Rutland Water we went to
Sailing Club in search of a Black-necked Grebe, which we found with six Little
Grebes in the bay to the west of club house.
A visit to Lyndon was disappointing as there was no food in the feeders
and hence few birds. We also spent some time
scanning in the south arm for Red-breasted Merganser but all we could find was
two Goosander and three Curlew and a Buzzard flew over the arm and headed
towards Manton Bay.
Male Kestrel at the Lyndon nest box
After checking in at the
centre and having a quick look over lagoon one with just three female Goosander
of interest we had some lunch and then set off to look for a flock of birds
that were feeding on the edge of the kale field. However when we arrived at the location there
was no sign of any bird activity and all we saw was a single Reed Bunting as we
walked back to the car park. There had
been a few Brambling and Siskin early today.
On reaching the car park we continued towards lagoon four as the
Hawfinch had been seen again this morning.
It took us quite some time to walk the footpath but there was no sign of
the Hawfinch but there were quite a few commoner species to keep our interest
that included two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a single Fieldfare and several
Redwings.
It was fairly quite as we
entered shoveler hide on lagoon three but a single Green Sandpiper and Redshank
flew in and a second Green Sandpiper appeared later. I counted twenty-two Snipe but there was
probably more as some were feeding at the base of the reeds. A Water Rail was observed walking along the
edge of the reeds to the left until it reached a party of Snipe when it
disappeared into the reeds. Another was
heard to call from the reedbed close to the hide and Shorty afterwards one
appeared and then ran very quickly and disappeared only to be followed by a second
before it too disappeared. There were
four red-headed Smew amongst a party of duck and a single drake Pintail was
observed. A Red Kite and Buzzard were
observed towards Burley Wood.
A visit to dunlin hide on
lagoon four produced four Shelduck and a single Ruff but there were fewer gulls
present this evening and we noticed nothing unusual.
Grey Heron on lagoon three
Green Sandpiper on lagoon three
Redwing in the Egleton Meadows
Another Little Owl was
observed in fading light near Slawston as we returned home.
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