Dave, Roger and I were
intending to go to Freiston Shore today to hopefully see the Lesser Scaup but
we were unable to get in touch with Roger and Dave and I decided to go local
instead and hopefully visit Freiston on Saturday.
We were driving towards Tut
Langton from Kibworth Harcourt when I spotted a Barn Owl perched on top of the
hedge road. We continued to Tur Langton
and then turned around hoping it might still be there. There had been a few vehicles that had gone
towards Kibworth and as we approached we saw it hunting along the roadside
before it perched on the opposite hedgerow, where I was able to get a few shots
off.
Barn Owl between Kibworth Harcourt and Tur Langton
We continued to Eye Brook
Reservoir without further excitement and on arrival there was no sign of the
Little Owl and two Shelduck were the highlight.
We continued to Rutland Water
and went to the Egleton Reserve as the Hawfinch had been reported again
yesterday after no sightings all month.
We spoke to Tim Appleton who was unaware and decided to walk down the
service road in the hope of perhaps seeing them. At the feeding station there were plenty of birds,
mainly Chaffinch, but we did manage to see a single Tree Sparrow and two female
Brambling. We continued to walk towards
lagoon four seeing a number of Fieldfare and Redwing and also a nice male
Brambling.
On reaching lagoon four we
went into dunlin hide and immediately found five Curlew and two
Oystercatcher. We also found five Ringed
Plover and there was sixteen Shelduck also present. I released the flap on the western side of
the hide to view the hedgerow behind but there was nothing. I looked out on several occasions without
sight of anything when suddenly two birds appeared to come out of the large
tree and fly towards the hide. Hawfinch
I cried as I watched the birds approaching as I initially thought they would
fly, above, but in front of the hide but as they got close they flew directly
over the hide. We rushed outside but
there was no sign and we were unable to relocate them and Dave had failed to
see them.
From shoveler hide on lagoon
three we found a single red-headed Smew and again it would appear that the
wildfowl numbers continue to drop, although Pochard remain in reasonable
numbers.
Drake Teal on lagoon three
Drake Teal on lagoon three
Moorhen on lagoon three
First-winter Common Gull over lagoon three
The new Bittern hide on lagoon three, which will be open soon
As we walked back to the
centre we continued to look for the Hawfinch but without success although there
were plenty of Redwing in evidence and there were thee Water Rails in one of
the wetter meadows. After a brief spell
in the centre overlooking lagoon one, we decided to have lunch.
Redwing in the Egleton Meadows
It was still rather cold in
the fresh northeast wind but we decided to walk to snipe hide on the wet meadow
where there was a pair of Pintail and plenty of Wigeon and a few Teal. We continued on to the 360° hide but there were few birds on this
lagoon and so we continued to pintail hide on lagoon six. Here we found a couple of Oystercatcher and
three Shelduck and Dave picked up a distant Osprey over the north arm. Fourteen Curlew and six Snipe were observed
in flight and the Curlew looked as though they had alighted on the wet meadow,
so we made our way around to snipe hide again.
Sure enough the fourteen birds were feeding amongst a party of Wigeon
and when they were disturbed the Wigeon flew onto the flash and the Curlews
towards the water’s edge.
Female Shelduck over lagoon six
Female Shelduck over lagoon six
Oystercatcher over lagoon six
Black-headed Gulls in territorial dispute on lagoon six
Wigeon and Curlew over the wet meadow
just as we were leaving the
reservoir, Tim called saying that there were two Cranes gaining height over
lagoon four. We rushed back and looked
Church Road but there was no sign. We
finally decided to call a day and gave the Little Owl another ago at Eye Brook
Reservoir but with the same results and the only bird of note on route home was
a Buzzard near Uppingham.
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