I was at with Dave today and
the plan was to visit Fermyn Wood in Northamptonshire where there had been
exceptional numbers of Purple Emperors.
However due to the inclement weather we did a quick visit and unsuccessful
visit Ketton and then moved on to Rutland Water.
We had seen a Buzzard near
Tugby on route to Ketton and Sparrowhawk just after leaving as we drove to
Rutland Water. At Rutland Water we went
to the north arm where we found four Oystercatchers and nine Little Ringed
Plovers. There was a single Little Egret
in the north arm and another eight were located in the fishponds.
After a while in the north arm
we moved off to the Egleton Reserve where we had a quick over lagoon. There was another nine Little Egrets on the
lagoon and an Osprey was observed over south arm three and six Snipe over the
wet meadow.
We moved off to shoveler hide
on lagoon three and found that the water level had receded even further. There were a good number of waders present
with and Oystercatcher, a Little Ringed Plover, three Dunlin, four Ruff, two
Snipe, ten Black-tailed Godwits, three Curlew and seven Green Sandpiper. The was a single adult Shelduck and the two
juveniles were also found as was a single Little Egret and just as we were
thinking of moving on a Greenshank flew in.
An Osprey, carrying a fish, was then observed heading in the direction
of the south arm.
Dunlin on lagoon three
Snip on lagoon three
Gatekeeper near shoveler hide
From shoveler hide we moved to
plover hide on lagoon four and again found another Little Egret. There were also at least three Ringed Plovers
and a Little Ringed Plover and several Yellow-legged Gulls were also
present. Bittern hide was quiet and we
saw nothing, except for two Buzzards that we hadn’t seen from shoveler hide.
Moorhen chicks from bittern hide
Adult Moorhen from bittern hide
We called at sandpiper hide on
lagoon four where we counted nine Yellow-legged Gulls and fifty-five Common
Terns. There were also two first-summer
Little Gulls and at least eight Ringed Plovers.
Adult Black-headed Gull over lagoon four
As we walked back to the car
park we had another Osprey over lagoon one and Dave found a Large Tabby moth on
the toilet block, which was a new species for us.
Large Tabby
With the weather prospect
looking better we decided to go to Fermyn Wood for the butterflies.
We had six Red Kites driving
from Rutland Water to Fermyn Wood and another whilst in the wood. The weather on arrival was no better and in
fact the wind appeared to have increased.
We walked down the track into the wood and other informed us they had
seen a number of Purple Emperors but we didn’t hold out too much hope. We did however see eight and also saw a
couple of White Admirals and two Purple Hairstreaks. There were also a few Ringlets, a
Green-veined White and at least one Meadow Brown on the wing and we had a
single Southern Hawker. A Common
Crossbill was also heard as it or they flew over.
On route home we had another
three Red Kites and a Buzzard close to Corby.
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