The weather forecast for today
was excellent, warm with plenty of sun.
Roger and I initially went to Eye Brook Reservoir entering from the
southern end but it was pretty quiet until we reached Holly Oaks Farm entrance
when an Osprey flew low over the car and on checking at the next track we found
a second. After watching the second bird
for a while perched at the top of a tree it took to flight and circled to gain
height before heading over us towards the reservoir. We could hear an Osprey calling but didn’t
think it was the bird we were watching, which we were now certain was a
female. As it got over the reservoir a
second bird appeared, which was the one calling but we then lost them as they
flew into the sun. John Wright successfully identified both as local females from the photos I had taken. We also had five Buzzards, two Little Ringed Plover and the Little Owl
obliged today. Close to the northern
inlet we had a Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat and then a second
Whitethroat further on. There was also a
small party of eight Sand Martin and two Swallows closer to Stoke Dry and a
Raven flew over calling. The wildfowl
had all been pushed towards the northern end by the fishing boats and we
located five Shelduck, a pair of Gadwall and four Goldeneye amongst the more
common Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebes.
Female Osprey
Female Osprey
Male Reed Bunting
Whitethroat
Peacock
Having covered the reservoir
fairly well we decided to go to Rutland Water and the north arm.
As we drove to Rutland Water I
checked to see if the Green-winged Teal we found yesterday at Lockington was
present but it wasn’t. There was a
report of a Wood Sandpiper on lagoon four but after calling Tim who was not
aware we decided to continue to the north arm.
The sun was now providing
quite a bit of warmth and it was very pleasant in the north arm, although there
wasn’t a great deal bird wise. There
were however five Arctic Terns, one of which was feeding close to the end of
the spit and I managed to get a few photos but the bright sunlight was making
the conditions far from ideal. We also
had two Red Kites and two Buzzards over Burley Wood but other than a few Goldeneye
there was nothing else.
Arctic Tern in the north arm
We moved off to the Egleton
Reserve and after lunch we moved off to lagoon four. A Blackcap was heard singing as we walked to
the lagoon and whilst we were watching it we had a call from Malcolm who said
that there were two Whimbrel on lagoon four and a further call saying he might
have the Wood Sandpiper but it was rather distant.
When Roger and I entered
sandpiper hide we soon found the two Whimbrel before they disappeared behind an
island. A quick scan as to where Malcolm
indicated he thought the Wood Sandpiper was but all we could see was a
Greenshank. After scanning the lagoon we
eventually found two Oystercatcher, an Avocet, four Ringed Plovers, Grey
Plover, three Dunlin, three Curlews and three Redshank. There was also five Yellow Wagtails and just
three White Wagtail most of which had clearly departed last night. There were twenty-nine Shelduck on the lagoon
and they are clearly favouring this lagoon at present. There had been a couple of Reed Warbler
reported in the reedbed and we asked Tim if we could go into the new Bittern
hide, which is not quite finished as yet, in the hope we might at least hear
them. As we walked towards the hide
three Sedge Warbler were observed and a forth heard. There was either no sign or sound from the
Reed Warblers from the new hide so we moved into plover hide on lagoon
four. Here we had better views of the
Greenshank and also saw a Common Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper. The Green Sandpiper was quite spotted in its
summer plumage and we wondered if it might have been mistakenly identified as a
Wood Sandpiper earlier in the day. Two
Buzzards were perched on poles close to the filter beds beyond lagoon four.
Lapwing on island three, lagoon four
Curlew over plover hide on lagoon four
As walked back to the centre
we had two Whitethroats, another Sedge Warbler and a male Blackcap and we also
had an immature Yellow-legged Gull on lagoon two.
From the centre we had another
eleven Shelduck and our only Shoveler, a pair, of the day but there was little
else.
It had been another good day’s
birding, perhaps not quite as good as yesterday, but still producing two new
birds, Whimbrel and Greenshank, for the year.
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