I drove to Eye Brook Reservoir
and had a Barn Owl between Kibworth and Tur Langton as it hunted along the
roadside before disappearing over a hedge.
It was very close to the area where I had seen it, or another, on March
28th. I also saw a Little Owl
near Slawston, which was my first sighting in this area since January 9th.
It was very quiet at Eye Brook
Reservoir and there was no mud even around the edges today. There was a single Shelduck and eight Common
Terns present and a good number of Swift and hirundines, mainly House Martins
with a few Swallows. The only warbler I
saw was a Whitethroat but I did hear another Whitethroat as well as a couple of
Willow Warblers and Blackcaps.
From Eye Brook Reservoir I
went to the north arm at Rutland Water where it was also very quiet and the
wind was now quiet fresh and very cold.
There were seven Shelduck and three Common Terns but very little else
with water being almost devoid of birds.
I went to Egleton Reserve and
walked to plover hide on lagoon four but found very little, a single Little
Ringed Plover and eight Ringed Plovers being the best. There were a few Common Terns present and I
noticed that they several more were flying over and on looking found two
first-summer Little Gulls amongst them.
I eventually moved off to the new Bittern hide where there were eighteen
Common Terns feeding over the lagoon and these were joined by the two Little
Gulls.
Little Egret from bittern hide
Little Egret from bittern hide
Little Egret from bittern hide
From bittern hide I went to
osprey hide on lagoon three where I had good views of a Sedge Warbler but very
little else, although I did hear a Cuckoo.
Sedge Warbler from osprey hide
I walked back to the centre
and a brief look on lagoon one produced nothing but two distant Osprey. I had seen or heard Chiffchaff, Willow
Warbler, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler an Reed Warblers and there were
plenty of Swift over the reserve but did appear to very quiet. I had my lunch before deciding to walk the
other way this afternoon as it did appear to be a little warmer with a abating
wind.
I walked to snipe hide on the wet
meadow and then on to fieldfare hide before returning to harrier hide on lagoon
one. Other than more Shelduck, Common
Terns and warblers nothing of note was seen.
A Hobby was then noted sitting on a post not too far from harrier hide
after which it performed over lagoon one for some time.
Swift from snipe hide
Orange Tip from fieldfare hide
Orange Tip from fieldfare hide
Orange Tip from fieldfare hide
Hobby from harrier hide
I walked to tern hide and then
pintail hide on lagoon six where there is a substantial Black-headed Gull
colony on the island with a few Common Terns and an Oystercatcher but there was
no sign of last week’s Little Ringed Plovers or Redshanks.
Oystercatcher on lagoon six
Cuckoo Flower on Lax Hill
European Hare around lagoon six
As I walked past lagoon eight
towards the 360° hide a saw two Oystercatcher and a
single Common Tern on the lagoon. I
continued past the 360° hide and went on to shelduck hide on
lagoon six. I checked out lagoon seven
before entering the hide and counted sixteen Common Terns on one of the
islands, which they will hopefully nest on.
With nothing of note from the shelduck hide and went to the 360° where there were two Redshanks and a heard
a Little Ringed Plover on a couple of occasions but couldn’t locate it. There were a number of Common Terns feeding
over the lagoon and some provided good photo opportunities.
I called at snipe hide on the
way back to the centre where I found a pair of Wigeon and being told that a
Short-eared Owl had been seen near fieldfare hide and lagoon five I decided to
go into mallard hide on lagoon one. All
I saw was my only Shoveler, a drake, of the day but there were no further
sighting of the owl.
Common Tern over lagoon five
Common Tern over lagoon five
Common Tern over lagoon five
It had been a fairly quiet
day, particularly for mid-May but it did provide several photo opportunities.
No comments:
Post a Comment