A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - June 8, 2013

Roger and I went to Dave’s initially as he had, had is moth trap out last night.  There were just nine moths in the trap but of eight species two of which were new for me, which were a micro Cochylis atricapitana and a macro Lychnis.

Cochylis atricapitana 

Notocelia cynosbatella

Garden Carpet

Cinnabar

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Lychnis

After we had finished at Dave’s we set off to Eye Brook Reservoir but saw little on route.  The brood of Shelduck at Eye Brook Reservoir had reduced to six, three being lost so far and another six adults were still present.  A couple of Buzzards, an Osprey and an Oystercatcher were also observed and there were plenty of Swift and House Martin present.  With little else we moved off to Rutland Water.

At Rutland Water we initially went to the north arm where it felt quite cold in the north east wind.  We did find a single Greenshank and there were eight Shelduck and several Common Terns present and a brood of six Egyptian Geese contained to abnormally coloured individuals.  We finally decided to go to the Egleton Reserve and walked to shoveler hide on lagoon three.

Brood of Egyptian Geese with two abnormally coloured goslings

Common Tern in the north arm

There were seven Black Terns amongst the more numerous Common Terns feeding over the water and an unusual bird at this time was a female Pintail.  There was no sign of the reported three Garganey but Dave did find a single Snipe.  A male Garganey suddenly appeared to the left of the hide briefly and then we found the other two, also to the left.  A male and two females had been reported but our view was that one of the other two was a male in advanced moult into eclipse plumage,

Male Garganey moulting into eclipse plumage with female

Male Garganey moulting into eclipse plumage

Male Garganey moulting into eclipse plumage

Male Garganey moulting into eclipse plumage

We walked the short distance to bittern hide on lagoon three were we fond a Hobby and a single Green Sandpiper.  We moved into plover hide on lagoon four were there were to Oystercatchers with two downy young, a single Little Ringed Plover and seven Ringed Plovers.  A Red Kite and a Hobby also flew over but there was very little else other than quite a few Swift.  It was now 13:00 and we walked back to the car park for lunch.  During lunch we identified a moth we had caught as a Pseudargyrotoza conwagana.

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

After lunch we settled into the centre overlooking lagoon one before walking to snipe hide overlooking the wet meadow.

On lagoon one, we had further views of a Hobby, a distant Osprey was observed and two Curlews flew over.  There were also numerous Sand Martins and more Swifts but there was little else

.

On the walk to snipe we found another Pseudargyrotoza conwagana and quite a few Nettle-tap moths. The wet meadow produced a couple of Redshanks and two Shelduck but otherwise it was quiet.

It had been a reasonable day but the weather was disappointing and fell well short of the predicted forecast as the cloud should have cleared during the morning.