I planned to make more normal
Tuesday visit to Rutland Water today but initially called at Dave’s who had put
his moth trap out last night.
There were eight-three months
in the trap but only eighty species were represented. Four were new for the year but there were no
new species.
The following were trapped:
Plutella porecctella [1]; Garden Rose Tortrix [1]; Common Marbled Carpet [1];
Brimstone Moth [2]; Canary-shouldered Thorn [1]; Dusky Thorn [1]; Large Yellow
Underwing [18]; Lesser Yellow Underwing [14]; Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
[2]; Setaceous Hebrew Character [6]; Common Wainscot [2]; Black Rustic [3];
Beaded Chestnut [5]; Lunar Underwing [16]; Copper Underwing [1]; Angle Shades
[4]; Pale Mottled Willow [1]; Silver Y [2]; Straw Dot [1] and Snout [1].
Canary-shouldered Thorn
Dusky Thorn
Lesser Yellow Underwing
Black Rustic
Beaded Chestnut
Lunar Underwing
Lunar Underwing
Pale Mottled Willow
I left Dave’s and headed for
Rutland Water, seeing a Green Woodpecker on route close to Kibworth.
On arriving in the Egleton car
park I decided to head off towards lagoon three and four. I continued beyond the lagoon and called in
crake hide where there were six Little Egrets and a Snipe but little else
except Teal and Moorhens. Lapwing fared
little better, although there were plenty of birds but mainly Wigeon and Tufted
Ducks.
As I walked back I called in
buzzard hide on lagoon three and found a Black-necked Grebe close to the hide,
which present a good photo opportunity despite the mist and poor light. There was also a Common Tern over the lagoon
and two eclipse drake Pintail were feeding nearby.
Little Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Eclipse drake Pintail
Female Teal
From buzzard hide I walked the
short distance to shoveler hide also on lagoon three. A single Little Egret was all that I saw
initially but then a juvenile Hobby flew over as did four Ringed Plovers and a
Ruff and two Greenshanks made a brief visit.
I was then joined by Ken with Bob falling shortly afterwards, we had
further views of the Black-necked Grebe and I also found and additional two
Pintail. Bob then said that he had a
duck behind the masses of Tufted Duck that had a white face. Ken and I were soon on it and agreed with
bird that it was a Ruddy Duck and probably and eclipse male. This was only my second of the year and the
first in the counties since last October.
A Sparrowhawk then flew low over the lagoon.
Drake Gadwall
Steve called Bob to inform him
that he and Terry had found a drake Scaup, a Spotted Flycatcher and two Rock
Pipits at the dam. Ken and I decided we
would go and take a look and when we arrived at the southern end we soon found
several Meadow Pipits amongst a party of Linnets and we were optimistic in
finding the Rock Pipits. As we walked
towards Sykes Lane we found the rather drab looking Scaup and a Common Tern but
on reaching the far side of the dam we had not found the Rock Pipits and there
was no sign of the Spotted Flycatcher either.
A Green Woodpecker was are only consolation. As we walked back across the dam we continued
looking for the Rock Pipits with the same results and the Meadow Pipits we had
seen on arrival had also disappeared and we assumed they had all moved on. A Red Kite was observed soaring over the
southern edge of the dam.
After some lunch we went to
the north arm where we found four male and a female Red-crested Pochard but
other than the ten Barnacle Geese there was little else.
We returned to the Egleton
Reserve and shoveler hide where we saw a Green Sandpiper and female Scaup. From the Bird Watching Centre we found two
Black-tailed Godwits on lagoon one and six Curlew at the base of Lax Hill and a
Hobby was observed hawing around Brown’s Island.
It had not been a bad day with
several new arrivals, although was disappointing to have missed the Rock
Pipits.
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