I was out on my own today and
called at Eye Brook Reservoir on route to Rutland Water but it was rather quiet
and the water levels were very high. There
was a single Little Owl in the old oak and there was thirteen Tree Sparrows
close to the inlet bridge, two Shelduck were on the water and an Oystercatcher
was observed in flight.
At Rutland Water I headed
straight to the north arm in the hope of seeing an Osprey that had returned to
site B on the 19th, the earliest date of any retuning Osprey. I found the Whooper Swan roosting close to
the north shore but couldn’t find either of the grebes or the Red-breasted
Merganser and there was little activity over Burley Wood. There was a single Little Egret and I did
find the two Barnacle Geese and there was at least eleven Egyptian Geese on the
north shore. A change in the tone of
calls from some corvids alerted me and as I looked behind a Sparrowhawk was
flying along the southern shore. I was
about to leave but having one last scan of the water I found the Slavonian and
Black-necked Grebes close to Dickinson’s Bay and assumed that they had been out
of sight in the bay during earlier scans.
The light was rather poor looking up the north arm and so I wasn’t
surprised that I didn't see the Long-tailed Duck. I returned to my car to find my exit blocked
as two vehicles, one with panels for a new hide and the other moving livestock
parked along the road. I scanned over
Burley Wood and saw five Buzzards and another Sparrowhawk.
Cormorant over the north arm
Cormorant over the north arm
Male & female Wigeon over the north arm
Male & female Wigeon over the north arm
Female Wigeon over the north arm
Female Wigeon over the north arm
Coot over the north arm
Coot alighting on the north arm
Coot alighting on the north arm
Goldfinch in the north arm
Goldfinch in the north arm
First-winter Common Gull over the north arm
First-winter Common Gull over the north arm
As I was about to leave I saw
Tim Appleton, the Reserve Manager who suggested that I visited the reedbed
where there had been a Cetti’s Warbler singing.
This is not an area open to the public and he accompanied me in and gave
me a brief tour before leaving me to explore further. I had a good walk around the area but there
was no evidence of a Cetti’s Warbler but I did have two Water Rails, at least
three Jays, a Mash Tit and three Lesser Redpolls.
Just I was coming out of the
reedbed Tim called to say Steve Lister had found a male Wheatear on the dam, so
that was to be my next port of call.
Robin in the reedbed
When I arrived at the dam Steve had just reached the road and indicated that the Wheatear had been a good way towards the Sykes Lane car park but that it had been disturbed. I had seen a Red Kite in Epingham village and a Raven flew over just to the eats of the dam. I walked a fair way across the dam looking for the Wheatear, seeing just a few Pied Wagtails and was about to give up when it suddenly appeared on the grassy area between the dam and the path. Males are cracking birds at this time of the year and it was also my earliest ever, which was surprising considering the cold weather. Mike Chester then joined but the Wheatear had been disturbed again by two cyclists and as we waited he casually said I suppose you have seen the Brent Goose, What Brent Goose I replied and apparently he had seen one near the pumping station as he approached the dam sitting on the water. I found the Wheatear on the rocks on the dam and then left him looking for it whilst I went for the Brent Goose. There was no sign of the Brent on he water where he had said and it was not visible nearby. Mike the caught me up and was also looking for it when he indicated that he thought it was on the rocks. I scanned a sure enough there was a dark-bellied Brent close to a Mallard. It could easily have been missed as it blended in very well with the rocks. I called Steve and then
Tim informing them of the goose and just afterwards it flew off but fortunately landed in a field to the east of the dam but could not been seen from the dam. We waited for Steve to arrive and informed him where it had gone down and then set off Normanton where Tim had, had a report of six Mandarin.
Brent Goose at the dam
Brent Goose at the dam
Mike and I couldn't see any
Mandarin but then noticed Steve and Terry looking into bushed we couldn’t see
properly. We joined then on and were
soon watching a male and female under the bushes. Even where Steve and Terry were they could
easily have been missed. Terry then
found another bird on the water, which turned out to be a female Wood Duck.
Wood Duck at Normanton
There was a report of a second
Osprey in Manton Bay, which Mike and I saw from the road bridge. It was a female that had been present last
year but was not one the one breeding in Manton Bay and hopefully would find a
male to breed with.
After some lunch Mike and I
walked to lagoon four, which was pretty quite but there were three Curlew
briefly and eight Shelduck.
From shoveler hide on lagoon
three we found three Smew, a drake and two red-heads and two female Scaup. A Green Sandpiper flew in, there were two
Snipe on one of the grassy areas, an Oystercatcher flew over and a Little Egret
was resting on one of the islands.
Adult summer Black-headed Gull over lagoon three
I went to dunlin hide on
lagoon four as I walked back to the centre and found two Ringed Plovers and a
Dunlin.
I walked back along the
service road and found a nice party of fifteen Redwing in one meadow and two
Water Rail in another.
I intended to stay late tonight
and after a coffee set of to the Old Hall and the gull roost. I stopped near the fisherman’s car park on
the Hambleton Road and soon found the Long-tailed Duck in the north arm.
I continued onto Hambleton and
having parked the car I walked out to the bench beyond the Old Hall. There was a Redshank feeding at the water’s
edge and on reaching the bench and scanning to see the gulls, I couldn’t
believe how many there were and estimated probably in excess of 10,000 and to
make matters worse they kept flying. I
sat down on the bench and started scanning from the left working back towards
the right. They were mainly Common and
Black-headed Gulls with just a few Lesser Black-backed Gull and I saw to
Herring Gulls. There had been a couple
of adult Mediterranean Gulls present yesterday but I didn’t think I had much
chance of finding any as the birds kept coming in and swelling the
numbers. I kept scanning slowly left and
suddenly bingo there was a very nice adult Mediterranean Gull amongst a group
of Common Gulls, success when I least expected it. Tim had asked me to have a go at counting the
Goldeneye that roosted in the south arm and I counted 218 but suspected that
there would probably be more to arrive.
A male a female Goosander just off the Old Hall was my only sighting of
the day. As the light faded I finally
called it a day and what a day with ninety species recorded with eighty-six at
Rutland Water. Apparently Steve had
managed to amass ninety-two and hadn’t seen Goosander, Redshank or
Mediterranean Gull. Tim tweeted later
that 102 species had been recorded on the day, which is some day total for
March.
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