I went straight to Rutland
Water today and headed for the north arm where it felt pretty cold in the fresh
wind. The main water just held a few
Great Crested Grebes whilst the margins did not provided a great deal either,
the highlights being a couple of Egyptian Goose broods, an Oystercatcher and a
single Common Tern.
Second-summer Great Black-backed Gull over the north arm
Swift over the north arm
As I drove to the Egleton
Reserve a Yellow Wagtail flew up from the road as I turned off the Hambleton
Road. On reaching the car park I headed
for lagoon three, hearing a Cetti’s Warbler close to osprey hide on route. As I scanned the area in front of Shoveler
hide I found three Green Sandpipers and then another seven were seen to the far
left of the hide. However like the north
arm the lagoon was fairly quiet and sadly the Shelduck were escorting just two
birds. There were just eight Common
Terns feeding over the water and other than a distant Buzzard there was little
else of note, although there must have been at least 200 Sand Martin over the
lagoon.
Roger then joined me in the
hide after which I picked up an Osprey over the north arm and then over lagoon
four before it headed off back in the direction of the north arm.
Little Egret over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
Sand Martins over lagoon three
We walked the short distance
to sandpiper hide on lagoon four where we found a Ringed Plover escorting three
chicks and then a couple of Common Tern chicks.
There was also a Little Ringed Plover and we found another seven Ringed
Plovers one being on a nest. There were
also three first-summer Little Gulls and two Yellow-legged Gulls present.
As we began to walk back to
the centre we heard the Cetti’s again and we then went to osprey hide to see if
we could see it. It spent quite some
time in the hide and at times the Cetti’s appeared to be just a few feet away
but we never saw it. We did see three
Whitethroats and a Sedge Warbler from the hide and there was a nice
Four-spotted Chaser just in front. We
also saw two Hobbies over the poplars on lagoon one.
Whitethroat from osprey hide
As we walked back Ken called
to say he had arrived and we met him as we walked back to the car park for
lunch.
After some debate we decided
to go back to osprey hide for another go for the Cetti’s Warbler but this time
all we saw was a Willow Warbler. Roger
then picked up a flock of waders over lagoon one before they flew towards us
when we confirmed their identity as Black-tailed Godwits. They flew over us and headed of towards
lagoon four but as we came out of the hide we saw then heading back towards
lagoon one. We continued to sandpiper
hide where we found four Black-tailed Godwits that had been apparently present
before the flock flew over. I also found
six Curlews and there were now four Yellow-legged Gulls on the lagoon abut only
two of the Little Gulls were present. We
also had two distant Red Kites over Burley Wood.
Yellow-rattle in the Egleton meadows
Nettle-tap along the summer trail
When we got back to the centre
the Black-tailed Godwits were on lagoon one and we were able to count
thirty-seven. The only other birds of
note were six Shelduck and an Oystercatcher.
It had been a rather quiet day
overall but the Black-tailed Godwits were rather nice as most were still in
their summer plumage.
I called at Eye Brook
Reservoir on route home but other than a couple of Little Ringed Plovers and
nine Common Terns there was little else.
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