I was out on my own today and
decided to visit the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water first. I checked the feeders at the centre before
walking to shallow water hide and found a single Tree Sparrow amongst the Blue
and Great Tits.
As I started the walk I found
two Red-legged Partridges in the first field just off the reserve but saw
little else until I reached deep water hide.
As I approached the hide there was a party of birds foraging in the
trees on either side of the path. I stopped
and scanned the trees, there were clearly plenty of Blue Tits, a few Great Tits
and Chaffinch but there was also a few warblers, which turned out to be mainly
Chiffchaffs but I did find a single Lesser Whitethroat and could hear a
Treecreeper calling. I continued along
the track and found another party of birds and found another Lesser
Whitethroat, a Whitethroat and a Willow Warbler. As I reached the path leading to wader scrape
hide there were more passerines. As they
flew across the path many went into a small bush and over a few minutes I saw
four Blackcaps and a single Sedge Warbler and there were also several
Long-tailed Tits. I eventually reached
sallow water hide and the two adults and three juvenile Ospreys were all
present. I also found four Green
Sandpipers and three Dunlin and I eventually saw nine Little Egrets. One of the adult Ospreys flew off and
presumably returned a few minutes later when it was joined by two of the others
and all three then circled high into the sky.
One eventually returned to the nest but the adult and one of the
juveniles flew off high to the west and had not returned by the time I
departed. Two Buzzard were also seen
just north of the bay but with little else I set off back to the centre.
Grey Heron in Manton Bay
Grey Heron alighting in Manton Bay
I decided to walk back along
the lower track and found another party of birds, again mainly tits,
particularly Long-tailed but I also saw at least on Willow Warbler and a
Treecreeper. I called in both Tufted
Duck and deep water hides but saw very little, three Little Grebes from Tufted
Duck hide being the best.
Lapwing from Tufted Duck hide
Back at the centre there were
now seven Tree Sparrows around the feeders and also a Great Spotted
Woodpecker. I watched the birds on the
feeders for a while but the hoped for Willow and Marsh Tits failed to appear.
I drove around to the Egleton
car park and decided to walk to fieldfare hide calling at both snipe and
harrier hides. An Oystercatcher from
snipe was the highlight on the wet meadow and five Green Sandpipers and a Wood
Sandpiper were observed from harrier hide.
It was quiet when I arrived at
fieldfare hide but after a few minutes I heard a Greenshank call and it dropped
into the bay. I continued round to
pintail hide on lagoon six but drew a blank, so I continued to heron bay. There were two Little Egrets on lagoon eight
as I passed and from heron hide I found three Green Sandpipers and two Common
Terns. Walking back to the centre I
called in the 360° hide but there was very little on
the lagoon and certainly nothing of note.
On reaching the centre I had my lunch before viewing lagoon one form the
centre. The Garganey was still present
and I added Common Sandpiper before moving on to sandpiper hide on lagoon four.
Sedge Warbler from heron hide
Sedge Warbler from heron hide
I soon located the
long-staying first-summer Little Gull and found seven Ringed Plovers and three
Dunlin and a Red Kite and Buzzard were over Burley.
It was whilst in the hide that
Steve called to inform me that three male Chalkhill Blue butterflies and a
Silver-washed Fritillary had been seen at Bloody Oaks Quarry. I had not seen Chalkhill Blue in the counties
and decided to go as it is only a few miles away.
Bloody Oaks Quarry is quite a
small LRWT reserve and it only took a couple of minutes to reach the area where
the Chalkhill Blues had been reported.
It was now unfortunately overcast but it wasn’t too long before I had
seen two. Steve then arrived and he had
seen the Silver-washed Fritillary closer to the entrance. I walked back with Steve and we soon found feeding
on the bank. It performed very well over
the next twenty minutes or so. Andrew
Harrop, the finder of the Chalkhill Blues, joined us and we eventually went
back for another look at them. We soon
found two males and then Steve located a female, could there be a small colony
here? I found out later that it had been
of sixty years since they were last reliably recorded.
Male Chalkhill Blue
Male Chalkhill Blue
Female Chalkhill Blue
Silver-washed Fritillary
Silver-washed Fritillary
I made a further quick visit
to shoveler hide on lagoon three at Rutland Water where there was a Ruff, a
Snipe, seven Black-tailed Godwits and four Green Sandpipers.
Comma
It had been an excellent day
and Dave and Roger on the 7th recorded twenty species of butterfly
including seven Chalkhill Blues at Bloody Oaks and Rutland Water.
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