Dave and I had made a late
start as the forecast yesterday was for dense fog early morning but it never
materialised and it was a very pleasant day with plenty of sun and no fog.
We initially went to Eye Brook
Reservoir where we located six Smew, three males and three red-heads and I also
found a single drake Pintail close to the dam.
A single Buzzard was observed perched from Holly Oaks Farm gate and we
had a total of twenty-eight Red-legged Partridge. There were far viewer birds at the inlet end
and the reservoir was probably on top water an there were no areas of exposed
mud. There was a single Little Owl in
the old oak but with little else we made our way to Rutland Water.
As we were getting our gear
out of the car at Rutland Water other birders told us they had been watching
the female Hawfinch in the car park but it had flown off just before we
arrived. We walked to the centre and had
a quick scan of lagoon one where we located four Shelduck, a drake Goosander
and a Little Egret and there was also quite a large flock of Lapwing.
As Dave has still not seen the
Hawfinch this year we spent quite some time on the service road but the
Hawfinch did not oblige and all we saw amongst the more common species were a
male and two female Brambling and two Water Rail in one of the flooded meadows.
After lunch we walked down to
the normal footpath, which was still impassable without wellingtons to crake and
lapwing hides. A Jay provided some good
views in the large meadow but we saw nothing else of note and continued to
crake hide. Other than numerous Coot and
a few Great Crested Grebes on the water but I did pick up two Raven and Buzzard
over Burley Wood.
Jay in the Egleton Meadows
Great Crested Grebe from lapwing hide
Great Crested Grebe from lapwing hide
Great Crested Grebe from crake hide
Coot from lapwing hide
Lapwing hide produced another
two Buzzards and two Red Kites but again there was little on the water.
We called at buzzard hide on
return where we soon found three drake and six red-headed Smew and there were
to Buzzard visible over Burley Wood. I
then picked up two Bittern flying over the reed-bed but they disappeared behind
a tree and Dave who blocked my view trying to see them. He then indicated that they were coming back
and we watched them both fly quite high before dropping back into the reed-bed. This was my first multiple sighting of
Bittern in the counties, although three have been claimed this winter. Shoveler hide produced five Snipe but little
else and we moved onto lagoon four.
Female Goldeneye on lagoon three
Lagoon four was very quiet but we did find three Oystercatchers and four Ringed Plovers.
We called at grebe hide on the way back to the centre where Dave found a drake Scaup amongst a raft of Tufted Duck. From the centre we found another five Snipe and there were now two Goosander on an island and a Sparrowhawk provided some nice views as it perched on post near lagoon two. I saw two Carrion Crows harassing what I though would be th Sparrowhawk but soon realised it was a Barn Owl. The Barn Owl then flew over quite a bit of the margins of lagoon two before heading off to the poplars at the back of lagoon one and then onto towards the nest box and over the bund and out of sight into south arm three. Dave then announced he had three Green Sandpipers in flight and I watched them fly over lagoon one and drop into the wet meadow area.
Grey Heron on lagoon one
First-winter Herring Gull over lagoon onr
We decided to visit the north arm and after seeing northing special from the fisherman’s car park moved onto the point at the end of Reserve Manager’s road. As I scanned a group of Coot looking for the Long-tailed Duck and found the female Red-breasted Merganser and then Dave found the female Long-tailed Duck further to the right. The light was now starting to go and so we called it a day.
As we travelled home we had another Barn Owl just east of Billesdon.
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