The Birdfair volunteers’
meeting was being held at 10:30 today and so Dave, Roger and I went straight to
the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water and walked to sandpiper hide on lagoon
four.
There were clearly a few birds
on the lagoon and close by were three Little Egrets and a number of Ringed
Plover and Dunlin and we eventually had ten Ringed and eight Dunlin. A number of gulls at the back of the lagoon
were mainly Black-headed and Great Black-backed but there were also seventeen
Yellow-legged Gulls. There were also
quite a few Common Terns scattered around the lagoon and I counted
twenty-eight, most being adults but there were also a few juveniles. Roger then picked up a first-summer Little
Gull as it flew around one of the islands and there was also a Little Ringed
Plover close to the roosting gulls. A
number of duck feeding just of island seven were mainly Teal and Mallard but
there was also a female Pintail and two Shoveler. A Red Kite was also observed distantly over
Burley Wood.
We eventually moved off to
shoveler hide on lagoon three but two Green Sandpipers appeared to be the only
waders although we did eventually see four Green Sandpipers and a single
Ruff. The two juvenile Shelduck were
observed but there was no sign of the adults today and these may be the only
two now at the Rutland Water. A Garden
Warbler and a couple of Reed Warblers provided close views as they were feeding
amongst the seeded hemlock.
It was finally time to go to
the Volunteers’ Meeting and we walked back to the centre. The meeting lasted about ninety minutes and
was followed by a barbecue in the meadows.
Migrant Hawker
Common Darter
After we had eaten we decided
to go to the north arm where there had been a Wood Sandpiper and Greenshank
earlier today. We walked to the on
beyond the gate and into the field to the right were we found nine Little
Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin but there was no sign of any other waders. We moved to where we could observed the north
shore and found another ten Little Ringed Plovers and a Ringed Plover roosting
on the spit but there was till no sign of any other waders.
Dave suddenly announced that
he had an Otter, which was feeding amongst some weed in the north arm. We watched it feeding for a few minutes and
then made several phone calls informing others of the find. Quite a few people managed to get to the
north arm and have some superb views of the Otter as it fed amongst the weeds. It then went over the first bund and was
feeding just on the other side before briefly returning to the north arm. It then went back over the bund and started
to make its way towards the second bund and the fishponds and was eventually
lost from sight. We must have watched
for about forty-five minutes and in bright sunlight much to amazement of all
present. This was a county for first for
all three of us and was only my second English sighting, a wonderful moment.
Whilst watching the Otter I
had noted two Common Sandpipers and a Hobby was observed towards Burley House
just before we went back the Bird Watching Centre.
From the centre we found three
Snipe, a Black-tailed Godwit, a Common Sandpiper, two Green Sandpipers and two
Redshanks. There was also a single male
Wigeon resting on one of the islands we over towards Lax Hill we had our first
Buzzard. There was also thirteen Little
Egrets feeding around the margins of the lagoon.
We stopped at Manton Bridge on
our way to Eye Brook Reservoir where found seven more Little Egrets, two
Curlew, a Common Sandpiper, seven Green Sandpipers and two Wood Sandpipers The two adult and three juvenile Osprey were
also present and another Buzzard flew over.
It had been an excellent day
at Rutland Water with my first Otter and twelve species of wader.
At Eye Brook Reservoir we found four Dunlin, three Snipe a Common Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper at the inlet. There was also a distant Red Kite and Buzzard and an Osprey flew over carrying a rather large trout.
Osprey
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