Roger and I were out today and
we decided to go to Great Easton first.
We walked quite a long way along the old railway line path seeing two
Cuckoos and possibly hearing another two, including the bubbling call of the
female. We also had a single Green
Woodpecker, several Willow Warbler and Whitethroat and heard a single
Blackcap. A Little Egret flying over was
a surprise, although I have seen one here previously.
We moved off to Eye Brook
Reservoir where there had been twenty-one Ringed Plovers and three Black-tailed
Godwits yesterday but there was no sign of any waders other than two Lapwings. There were five Shelduck and a Little Egret
at the inlet and we saw three distant Buzzards but there were only two Common
Terns. There were c.150 Swift over the
reservoir but quite a few of these had departed by the time we left.
We next went to the north arm at Rutland Water but again
it was very quiet with just six Shelduck, two Buzzards over Burley, an
Oystercatcher and two Little Gulls.
Common Tern in the north arm
We eventually moved off to the
Egleton Reserve were we had lunch before heading off to sandpiper hide on
lagoon four. I noticed a small moth on
the edge of the last meadow and was able to identify it as a Small Yellow
Underwing having initially thought that it was a micro due to its small size.
There was another six Shelduck
and a Little Egret was feeding along the western edge of the lagoon. There were four Oystercatcher, a single
Little Ringed Plover, six Ringed Plovers, a Grey Plover and two Curlews around
the exposed mud and islands. Surprising
the Grey Plover was almost still in winter plumage and only showing a small
amount of its beautiful summer plumage.
There were three Little Gulls resting on one of the exposed spits and
probably included the two we had seen earlier in the north arm and a second
winter/summer Yellow-legged Gull was also bathing. A Hobby was observed high over the lagoon and
passed right over the hide.
Two of the three Little Gulls on lagoon four
We moved off to shoveler hide
on lagoon three but it was rather quiet with just a few Common Terns, four more
Shelduck and the Yellow-legged Gull. We
called at bittern hide, also on lagoon three, where we saw the three Little
Gulls again over the lagoon and had quite a few Reed Warblers and Reed
Buntings.
Second winter/summer Yellow-legged Gull over lagoon three
A quick call in plover hide on
lagoon four and we could see that two of the Oystercatcher observed from
sandpiper were escorting two chicks.
Pair of Shelduck on lagoon four
We walked back to the centre via the summer trail but saw very little although we had either seen or heard most of the warblers by the end of our visit.
Song Thrush near redshank hide
We called it a day and returned home via Eye Brook Reservoir, although only checking for the Little Owl unsuccessfully again. As we approached Blaston Roger noticed our first Red Kite of the day and then thought he had an Osprey as we passed through the village. We doubled back and sure enough a Osprey was feeding over the small lake in the village. We stopped just outside the village as a partridge had flushed off the road but we were unable to find it. As we were getting back into the car Roger had a tweet indicating that a Golden Oriole had been heard along the Hambleton Peninsular at Rutland Water. A brief discussion we decided to turn around a go back.
Osprey over the lake at Blaston
When we arrived back at
Rutland Water several birders were there but they had not heard or seen the
oriole. We stayed until 19:00 when we
had to leave and left the others who were hoping that it might still be
there. As it was last heard at 17:20 and
we felt it had probably moved off and it was not heard again that evening or
the following morning.
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