A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland - April 30, 2013

I was out on my own today and visited Eye Brook Reservoir first but other than the two Little Owls in the old oak there was very little else, two Shelduck and a Cormorant being the best.

I moved onto the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water and walked to sandpiper hide where I found several Ringed Plovers and Dunlin and a winter plumage Knot. 

There was no sign of yesterday’s reported Turnstone and I had n success with the first-summer Little Gull on lagoon three.  The light was very bad on lagoon three as I was almost looking straight into the sun so I moved off to smew hide on lagoon three where I had some nice views of two Sedge Warblers chasing around.

Robin on footpath to lagoon two

Sedge Warbler

Grey Heron on lagoon two

I moved onto plover hide on lagoon four where there were seven Avocets and counted eighteen Ringed Plover and twenty Dunlin as well as picking up the Knot again.  I had seen and heard a good variety of warblers during the early part of the moving and decided to walk to fieldfare hide on the other side of the reserve to see what I could find.  It appeared quieter but I continued to find more warblers, particularly Sedge Warblers that appear to be well now.

Avocet on lagoon four

Pied Wagtail on lagoon four

There was little from fieldfare hide but pintail on lagoon six did produce a Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper and there were two Oystercatcher and tow Little Egrets on lagoon eight.  Lagoon five was quiet probably at least in part due the construction of a new Sand Martin house being constructed.  I walked back to the centre as was having lunch when Ken arrived and after lunch we went back towards lagoon three. 

As Ken and I were trying to locate a Lesser Whitethroat I had seen earlier we talked to a couple of other birders, one informing us that the female Red-breasted Merganser was on lagoon one.  After having good views of the Lesser Whitethroat we returned to the centre and found the merganser asleep on one of the islands and also a female Pintail and nice orange headed Ruff before a Sparrowhawk caused some disturbance.  Pleased with the result in the centre Ken and I set off for shoveler hide on lagoon three. 

On reaching lagoon three we soon found the first-summer Little Gull feeding over the lagoon but rather distant.  A walk to lapwing hide produced very little and we returned to plover hide on lagoon four.  There were still seven Avocets and we found two Little Ringed Plover and had better views of the Knot as it was feeding just beyond the first island and a second-year Yellow-legged Gull flew over with another immature gull whilst we were in the hide.

Pair of Gadwall on lagoon three

Male Gadwall on lagoon three

Pair of Great Crested Grebe on lagoon four

Pair of Great Crested Grebe on lagoon four

We walked to around to dunlin hide on lagoon four hoping that the regular Ring-billed Gull would come in early.  We did see a Curlew and a Common Sandpiper and there were three Wheatears feeding on western shore and a single Snipe was also observed as were four Yellow Wagtails.  Ken had to leave at 17:30 and there was no sign of the gull although it was there by 18:00.