Dave, Roger and I had
initially been going to either Freiston or Frampton today but with no news from
either site and with the weather not looking too good we decided to stay local.
Our first site was Eye Brook
Reservoir, which is still almost on top water and as such did not produce too
much with a couple of Shelduck being the best.
Even the regular Little Owl failed to show today.
From Eye Brook Reservoir we
drove Manton Bay where we had a single Osprey on the nest. This bird 00(09) is a third-year female that
fledged at site B, Rutland Water in 2009 arrived on the 19th, which
I had observed later that day.
We continued to the Egleton
car park where we bumped into Time the Reserve Manager who gave us a lift to
lagoon four where there had been a Snow Bunting yesterday evening. We entered sandpiper hide to view the lagoon
but there was no sign of the Snow Bunting but there were eight Shelduck, four
Oystercatcher, a Ringed Plover, seven Dunlin, two Snipe and a Green
Sandpiper. We also walked to plover hide
on lagoon four for a different view. We
were still unable to find the Snow Bunting but there was a red-headed Smew and
a first-winter Caspian Gull.
Shelduck in territorial dispute on lagoon four
We walked back along the
service road where we had seven Brambling, two males and five females and a
single Buzzard with a rather well worn tail was observed over the meadows and
there was also a Jay on the seed.
Buzzard with well worn tail
We left the reserve and headed
for Dickinson’s Bay but there was no sign of either the Slavonian or
Black-necked Grebe. We did see a Buzzard
over Burley Wood and there was another pair Oystercatcher present.
From Dickinson’s Bay we went
to the dam where Dave and Roger were hoping the Brent Goose I had seen on the
21st was still present. There
was no sign of the Brent but we did find the elusive Great Northern Diver
towards the north shore and there were two Red Kites over Empingham and three
Buzzards close to the dam.
We moved onto Normanton where
we had good views of a pair of Mandarin and eventually found a Chiffchaff, which
Dave had heard sing on one occasion.
Pair of Mandarin at Normandy
Male Mandarin at Normandy
Female Mandarin at Normandy
We then drove back to the
centre seeing the Osprey still in the nest area as we passed over Manton
Bridge. We later found out the breeding
female, an unringed Scottish bird, had returned this morning to Manton Bay and
had chased off 00(09). So we had almost
certainly seen two Osprey today.
Whilst we were having lunch we
overheard two other birders indicating that they had seen the Slavonian and
Black-necked Grebes in Dickinson’s Bay.
So after we had finished our lunch we went back and were soon observing
the grebes. The Black-necked was
beginning to show significant moult into summer plumage and the golden eared
plumes were visible but the Slavonian was still in full winter plumage. There was also a kettle of six Buzzards over
Burley Wood and the two Oystercatcher seen earlier were still feeding in the
same area.
We returned to the centre
where we saw three Little Egrets on lagoon one and six Curlew feeding at the
back of the lagoon. There were six
Shelduck on the lagoon but wildfowl numbers still appeared to be declining. We had discussed going to Luffenham airfield
where there had been up to four Short-eared Owls but just before we departed
Roger found a Barn Owl resting on a post.
It moved posts on several occasions and appeared to be looking for food
in a ditch close to the wet meadow.
When we arrived at Luffenham
airfield the wing had strengthened and it felt quite cold. We had at least three Red Kites and a single
Buzzard but there was no sign of any Short-eared Owls so we called it a day.
Red Kite at Luffenham Airfield
No comments:
Post a Comment