I went out fairly early today
as expected that the overnight thunder storms might have brought some birds
down. I decided to go to Eye Brook
Reservoir first and saw a single Buzzard near Cranoe and a Little Owl at Slawston
on route.
At Eye Brook Reservoir the two
juvenile Shelduck were still present and I did find a Little Ringed Plover and
two Green Sandpipers and there were at least eight Common Terns. There was also a female Gadwall escorting a
brood of nine.
I eventually decided to call
it a day and moved off to Rutland Water where I went straight to mallard hide
on lagoon one where there had been three adult Curlew Sandpipers yesterday
evening. Whilst I was in the hide the
heavens opened and there was a terrific downpour but all I could find was a
single Little Ringed Plover and Ringed Plover on one of the small islets. There were four Little Egrets feeding around
the margins but little else. The rain
eventually stopped and I continued on towards snipe hide where I again took shelter
from some heavy rain. There was a
Oystercatcher and a Little Egret visible and when a second Oystercatcher flew
in a third, a juvenile, appeared wanting to be fed. The rain again ceased and I continued on
towards fieldfare hide seeing a nice mixed party of warblers containing a
number of Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers and a single Garden Warbler, with a
Blackcap singing nearby. I had also seen
a couple of Sedge Warbler and heard a Reed Warbler just before reaching the
turning to fieldfare.
There were three Greenshanks
from fieldfare but very little else and so I walked back and went to heron
hide. After the excitement of the
Pacific Golden Plover last week, which was observed from a full hide I had the
place to myself. I could see three
Osprey in Manton Bay and a Green Sandpiper flew in close by briefly before
flying off in the direction of lagoon eight.
I had seen three Little Egrets on lagoon eight as I walked by but there
was nothing else of note from kingfisher hide.
I continued on to Shelduck hide and looked over lagoon seven from the
entrance ramp finding a couple of Ringed Plovers and twelve Common Terns. There were three Little Egrets visible from
Shelduck hide and I saw a forth from the 360° that
overlooks the lagoon. As I left the hide
it looked as though another storm was brewing so I made my way back to the
centre just managing to get back before the heavy rain set in again. After the storm had passed I had some lunch
before going to the north arm where a Turnstone had been reported.
I was soon watching the nice
summer plumage Turnstone on the north shore where there was also single Common
and Green Sandpipers and there were eight Little Ringed Plover on the spit on
the south shore. There was a single
Little Egret in the north arm and seven more in the fishponds area.
I went back to the Egleton
Reserve and walked to shoveler hide on lagoon three. On arrival a single Black-tailed Godwit, a
Ruff and several Green Sandpipers were visible.
I spent quite some time in the hide seeing many other birders come and
go and eventually had seen eight four Little Ringed Plovers, five Ruff,
Black-tailed Godwits, a Common Sandpiper and twelve Green Sandpipers. Just after the last person had left the hide
I noticed that three waders had come a little closer and as I lifted the bins I
realised that one was an adult Curlew Sandpiper in almost full summer
plumage. I hadn’t noticed any birds fly
in but assumed that it must have, although it disappeared later before suddenly
reappearing and then disappearing again and it may well have been present and
out of sight all of the time. It was
good to find on myself, particularly as the three seen yesterday had
disappeared. Ken, Steve, Colin and Chris
arrived and they all managed to see the bird and just before Ken and were
departing Colin asked how many Greenshanks we had seen. There were now four present but I and no one
else had seen them previously and again we didn’t see any of them fly in.
Lagoon four produced two
first-summer Little Gulls, three Yellow-legged Gulls and a number of Common
Terns but otherwise it was pretty quiet.
I walked back to the car park
with Ken and after a quick word with Tim Appleton, who informed us that last night’s
storms had probably claimed two young Ospreys, we set off home.
When I reached the A47 it was
closed so I decided to go back via Eye Brook Reservoir where I found two Common
Sandpipers and a juvenile Wood Sandpiper that I had not seen this morning. This was an excellent end to a very good
day’s birding on my local patches.
No comments:
Post a Comment