I went to the Lyndon Reserve
at Rutland Water first today and walked to shallow water hide in Manton Bay. I saw a single Chiffchaff and Whitethroat
during the walk and there was also a good selection of more common birds. On reaching the hide there was two of the
Osprey still present, the adult male and an immature female.
Whilst I was in the hide the
male went off and returned a short while afterwards with a large pike. It settled on the T perch and began to eat
the fish whilst the young female called constantly begging for food. The young bird eventually went quiet as the
male continued to eat and did not share the food whilst I was there.
Male Osprey (5R) with pike
There were five Garganey in
the bay and three juvenile Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits dropped in for a
shirt while before appearing to depart to the south. Single Little Ringed Plover and Ringed Plover
were also observed and there were also two Greenshanks and six Curlews.
Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits in Manton Bay
Black-tailed Godwits flying off to the south
On the walk back to the centre
had some nice views of a Treecreeper and a Grey Wagtail flew towards Manton
Bay. I had a brief view of the island in
the south arm but there was no sign of any waders but there were six
Yellow-legged Gulls.
On reaching the Egleton car
park I decided to go to snipe hide on the wet meadow and saw three Buzzards
circling overhead before I set off.
There were four Little Egrets
and a Ruff on the wet meadow flash but other than two Buzzards to the west
there was little else, although I did see a single Snipe drop onto lagoon one.
I continued onto harrier hide
where there was a nice juvenile Spotted Redshank as well as another two Ruff
and a single Greenshank. There was a
good concentration of wildfowl from fieldfare hide, mostly Wigeon but also two
Pintail. I walked back to the car park
for lunch before going to the centre and viewing lagoon one. There were three Green Sandpipers just to the
left and at least four more Ruff to the right.
Three Icelandic juvenile Black-tailed Godwits dropped in but I suspect
that they my have been those seen in Manton Bay earlier.
Shoveler hide on lagoon three
was a little quieter today with ten Snipe, a single Common Sandpiper and two
Green Sandpipers. The number of terns
had also decreased with just three feeding over the water and I suspect it wont
be too long before they are all gone.
There was some disturbance on lagoon four and as I scanned the area I
found a juvenile Marsh Harrier. A Hobby
flew just in front of the hide and five Buzzard were observed high over the
lagoon with a distant Osprey towards Burley Wood. A walk to crake hide produced just a single
Greenshank and there was nothing of note from lapwing hide, with most birds
being very distant from the hide.
Lagoon four produced another
two Pintail, a Ringed Plover, a Ruff and two more Greenshank and there were
three Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the roosting flock of mainly Black-headed
Gulls. Whilst in the hide Steve called
to say he had been watching a tern from lapwing hide that was flying with a
faster wing-beat than two Common Terns close by. The bird unfortunately was right across the
Lyndon side but he had seen come down amongst a flock of gulls after appearing
to be harassed by the other terns. He
suspected that it might be a Roseate and so we both went back to Lyndon to
check it out. We managed to get onto the
shoreline and scope the gulls but we couldn’t find any terns amongst them and
all the terns we could see were all Common.
There were three Common Sandpipers on the shore but we could find
nothing else of note and I decided to call at Eye Brook Reservoir on route
home.
There was an Avocet, which is
not a common autumn bird in the counties, at Eye Brook Reservoir but very
little else.
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