Dave and I had gone out
slightly later today due to the overnight and early morning rain. The journey to Eye Brook Reservoir was not
uneventful as we had to negotiate some flooding on route and there was a lot of
surface water. The roadside at Eye Brook
Reservoir was extremely wet and parking on any verge would have been risky and
so it was rather a short visit with nothing unusual recorded.
The dam was to be a first port
of call at Rutland Water where we hoped to find the Great Northern Diver. On arrival the water was rather choppy and I
wasn’t very optimistic of seeing the diver following my recent attempts. There was an adult Yellow-legged Gull resting
on a buoy and then the water but as we scanned all we could find where a few
Goldeneye and Great Crested Grebes out on the water with a few Wigeon, Mallard
and Coot feeding closer to the shore.
Dave then saw something dive that he thought was interesting and I we
searched the area the Great Northern Diver suddenly appeared but closer and not
the bird Dave had thought was interesting.
We then had further views as it dived and gradually moved closer to the
northern shore. They were not great
views due to the very choppy water but I had at last caught up with it.
Having succeed with the diver
we drove the short distance to Stanford where there had been a flock of Waxwing
for a few days. When we arrived there
was no sign and they did not appear during our fairly short stay and they were
not reported all day.
Back at Rutland Water we
visited the north arm and found a male Scaup in the fishponds and the seven
Barnacle Geese on the north shore.
Reaching the Bird Watching
Centre was not easy as we had to negotiate a rather large puddle to reach
it. Lagoon one was know quite high and
the channel between lagoon one and two was now part of the main water,
indicating a further rise in the reservoir levels. Lagoon one was generally quiet with seven
Shelduck, a drake Pintail and a Little Egret being the highlights. There had been both Siskin and Lesser Redpoll
at the feeding station yesterday but not today with only common species
visiting, although a party of five Long-tailed Tits proved some good photo
opportunities and a Sparrowhawk made a rapid visit but all the birds had
already taken cover.
Long-tailed Tit at the Egleton feeding station
Long-tailed Tit at the Egleton feeding station
Great Tit at the Egleton feeding station
After some lunch we walked
down the service road hoping to see one of the Hawfinches but neither appeared,
although we did have some nice views of two Jays and a male and two female
Brambling. There was also plenty of
common species but there was no sign of the regular Water Rail, possibly due to
the higher water levels.
Redwing in the Egleton Meadows
We continued onto lagoon three
but after a short while with nothing of note being seen Dave decided to go to
lapwing to view south arm three but I stayed as the water levels on the track
would have resulted in my feet getting wet.
Juts after he had left and
Oystercatcher flew over and headed towards lagoon four and then I picked up a
Bitten flying towards me and saw it drop into a small reed-bed close to buzzard
hide. I informed Dave and he soon
returned having seen a red-headed Smew on lagoon two. We stayed in shoveler hide for quiet some
time and had several sightings of the Bittern, the best being as it came out of
the reed-bed I had seen it go in and then fly right across the lagoon to the
larger reed-bed on the northern edge. We
also found a drake and red-headed Smew, a Sparrowhawk and Green Woodpecker and
the Oystercatcher flew over again.
We eventually went to lagoon
four where there were fifteen Dunlin on a nearby island and a Ringed Plover
more distantly. There were plenty of
Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls present and at about 16:20 the
first-winter Glaucous Gull flew in and provided some good but distant views as
it preened amongst the flock of larger gulls.
We finally decided to call it a day seeing a Barn Owl over lagoon one as
we returned to the car park.
It had been a pretty
successful visit and we recorded seventy-three species at the reservoir and
completed the day on seventy-six, with Red-legged Partridge at Eye Brook Reservoir
and Linnet and Yellowhammer being added during travel.
A Barn Owl was observed as we
drove home towards Great Glen at SP670988.
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