Roger and I called at Eye
Brook Reservoir first today but other than the two Little Owls in the old oak
and a single Shelduck there was little else.
At Rutland Water we went to
Whitwell to look for the Great Northern Diver.
There was a pair of Goosander and an adult Yellow-legged Gull and plenty
of Great Crested Grebe but we couldn’t find the diver. Apparently it was close to the dam on the
southern shore and later by the water tower off Whitwell.
A brief visit to the north arm
produced nothing other than a few Goldeneye.
After lunch we signed in at
the centre and spent some time sheltering from the rain whilst looking over
lagoon one. Two male and a female
Goosander flew over and there were two drake Pintail at the back of the
lagoon. Four Snipe flew over and I did
find the male Stonechat on brambles between lagoons one and two.
As the rain eased we walked
towards lagoon four along the service road.
Again there were plenty of birds feeding close to the road as food was
being put out. A Jay was perhaps the
most unusual but there were plenty of Blue Tits, Great Tits and Chaffinch. There were also a few Blackbirds in the
meadow that were joined by a single Fieldfare and two Redwings and two Water
Rail were observed in the meadow on a second meadow. Suddenly there was disturbance and a number
of birds flew into a tree and I was sure that one of them was a Hawfinch. I got the scope on the tree but all I could
find were a number of Redwing and a single Chaffinch. Roger then indicated that there was a
Hawfinch and that he was sure it was a different bird to last week and probably
a male. I eventually managed to get the
bird in the scope and had some nice views of a male Hawfinch. Two Red Kites then flew over and as I watched
the second of the two I picked up a Peregrine flying towards us and another
bird indicated that there were two and I picked up the second bird as it was
flying away. The Hawfinch was still in
the tree but it then dropped down out of site before reappearing further down
the hedgerow briefly and then in a tree a little further down where I found the
female as well and a male Brambling was in the same tree. An excellent forty minutes just standing on
the service road.
We continued down the track
and went t shoveler hide on lagoon three where we had a male a two red-headed
Smew and fourteen Snipe on the islands.
As time passed we decided to go to lagoon four as there had been an
adult Iceland Gull in the pre-roost flock of gulls yesterday. There were quite a few gulls present when we
arrived and then gradually began to increase in number and Roger then saw the
Iceland drop in. It tried playing hide
and seek with us as it was clearly smaller than most of the gulls but with
patience I did get some reasonable views.
An excellent end to the day as it was a Rutland Water tick for both
Roger and I.
What had started as a rather
disappointing day finished on a high with my first multiple sighting of
Hawfinch in the counties and a new bird for Rutland Water.
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