As there had been no reports
of Nightingales at Rutland Water this year Roger and I decided to go to Castor
Hanglands, near Peterborough where there was supposed to be a good
population. This was a new site for us and
after we parked the car we followed a footpath across a field that lead to the
entrance of the reserve. There was a
single Buzzard observed as we crossed the field and as we approached the
entrance to the reserve there was quite a bit of common bird song, including
several warblers. We entered the gate
into the reserve and it wasn’t too long before we heard our first Nightingale
and during the visit we heard at least six but only got poor views of one. The areas where they were singing from were
extremely dense and they were very reluctant to show themselves, unlike at
Rutland Water. We did fine a nice
Grasshopper Warbler close to where we actually saw a Nightingale and a Lesser
and Common Whitethroat was seen nearby.
We also heard what we thought was a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming but
were unable to substantiate this. It had
been a pleasant visit and at least we did manage to get the target bird.
Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler
Marsh-marigold
From Castor Hanglands we went
to Eldernell and walked west from the car park seeing a pair of Marsh Harrier
and a single Crane. The male harrier
also flushed a single Black-tailed Godwit and a Snipe. As we were walking back we heard cranes
calling and turned to see two drop in the meadows behind us and a single
juvenile Peregrine then passed overhead.
Whilst having lunch I noticed four cranes drop in to the eats of the car
park and assumed that these included the two we had already seen.
From Eldernell we moved off to
Rutland Water.
We called at the dam first
where fourteen Common Scoters had been reported earlier. We did manage to find them but they were very
distant and rather difficult to observe in the now quite choppy water.
There was a Black Tern
reported on lagoon one and people were still seeing it as we entered the
centre. However it had disappeared as
Roger when Roger and i scanned the lagoon.
I could see that there were a few terns feeding over lagoon three so we
decided to go and take a look. We had
brief but nice views of a Lesser Whitethroat near the badger hide as we walked
to shoveler hide. When we entered the
hide we scanned the lagoon and I picked up the Black Tern amongst the Common
Terns feeding at the back of the lagoon.
It was rather distant but they are a superb bird at this time of the
year. There was also a couple of
Shelduck and three Little Egrets on the lagoon and a Reed Warbler was heard
singing briefly but we couldn’t locate the bird.
Primrose
Drake Shoveler on lagoon thre
Little Egret on lagoon three
Little Egret on lagoon three
Little Egret on lagoon three
There were quite a few waders
scattered on lagoon four and amongst a party of Dunlin I found a single winter
plumage Knot. We eventually counted
thirty-two Dunlin after which another fourteen arrived taking the total to
forty-six but over fifty were counted later in the day. There was also two Oystercatcher; five
Avocets, two Ruff and two Redshanks as well as fourteen Shelduck. Remarkably during the late evening c.700
Black-tailed Godwits were on the lagoon and all in summer plumage, what a site
this must have been.
Great Crested Grebe displaying on lagoon four
We called at Eye Brook
Reservoir briefly on route home where we had our first Swifts, seeing two over
Stoke Dry and the Little Owl was in the Old Oak.
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