I was out on my own today and after dropping my granddaughter off at school I drove back across Leicester and headed for the dam at Rutland Water. The drive over was uneventful with nothing of real note being observed, the best being a Jay at Lyndon.
When I arrived at the dam I walked part of the way across but there was nothing of note and certainly no sign of the Great Northern Diver. The water was really calm with barely a ripple on it and anything should have been obvious even at considerable range. The water was like a mill pond for most of the day and I did locate the female Long-tailed Duck in the north arm and male Red-crested Pochard was in the fishponds, as were three drake and a female Goosander. There was twenty-even Dunlin and two Ringed Plovers on the north shore of the north arm and a single Redshank was also located along with the two Barnacle Geese. Two Buzzard were observed over Burley Wood and a third was observed as it flew low over the road as I was driving towards the Hambleton Road.
At the centre I decided to walk to fieldfare hide and called at mallard, snipe and harrier hides on route. I paused briefly at the feeding station where there were two nice Lesser Redpolls feeding along with rather nice male Reed Bunting and a single Goldfinch.
Lesser Redpoll at the Egleton feeding station
Lesser Redpoll at the Egleton feeding station
Lesser Redpoll at the Egleton feeding station
There was little of note from
mallard hide but from snipe I found four Snipe and two Little Egrets were
feeding in the wet meadow. Harrier hide
produced the forth Buzzard of the day and there was a pair of Pintail and a
male and female Goosander. AS I walked
towards fieldfare hide two Curlew took flight from one of the meadows below Lax
Hill but fieldfare itself produced very little.
Little Egret over the wet meadow
Canada Goose over the wet meadow
Canada Goose over the wet meadow
Black-headed Gull over the wet meadow
Black-headed Gull over the wet meadow
Moorhen from fieldfare hide
I saw very on the return to
the centre and after talking to Lloyd decided to walk along the service
road. There was clearly more passerines
that were obviously attracted to the feed being left out. It was not long before a female Brambling
dropped onto the path to feed and was joined by rather nice males. There were also numerous Chaffinch and a few
Greenfinch as well as a single Jay.
I continued along the road and
on to shoveler hide overlooking lagoon three.
There were three Green Sandpipers and a single Redshank present and I
eventually found a male and five female Scaup and three male and five
red-headed Smew.
I saw very on the return to
the centre and after talking to Lloyd decided to walk along the service
road. There was clearly more passerines
that were obviously attracted to the feed being left out. It was not long before a female Brambling
dropped onto the path to feed and was joined by rather nice males. There were also numerous Chaffinch and a few
Greenfinch as well as a single Jay.
I continued along the road and
on to shoveler hide overlooking lagoon three.
There were three Green Sandpipers and a single Redshank present and I
eventually found a male and five female Scaup and three male and five
red-headed Smew.
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