Roger and went to the Old Hall
at Rutland Water as there had been a Pectoral Sandpiper present on the island
in the south arm. The island is quite
distant and it can be quite difficult to in getting grips with waders on the
island. We did see some Ringed Plover
and Dunlin initially and then three Ruff and the Ringed Plover and Dunlin flew
on a couple of occasions but there was still no sign of the Pectoral
Sandpiper. We were scoping a group of
Dunlin from the Old Hall when we were joined by another birder who said I
presume that is it on the end of the island.
He meant the opposite end Roger and I were looking at and so we focussed
our attention to where we had seen the three Ruff earlier. Two Ruff were still visible and a smaller
wader that looked promising and we agreed after a few minutes that it was the
Pectoral Sandpiper and there were eventually four Ruff as well. There was also a single Pintail near the
island and two Common Terns that were flying over the south arm.
Having successfully seen the
target bird we moved to the north arm where we found two Greenshanks but other
than thirty plus Egyptian Geese and ten Barnacle Geese there was little else.
On reaching the Egleton
Reserve we walked to snipe hide and then on to harrier hide as there had been a
Bar-tailed Godwit reported yesterday.
There was a group of tits moving through the bushes near lagoon five and
we found two Chiffchaff and a Blackcap amongst the flock. Three Little Egrets were the only thing of
note from snipe hide and there were another ten visible from harrier hide but
little else.
After lunch we walked to
shoveler hide on lagoon three were there were two Ruff, six Snipe and two
Black-tailed Godwits. I also found a
roosting Pintail and a couple of Hobbies were observed over the wood. Roger then said that he had a Bittern, which was
perched on the edge of the reeds at the far end of the lagoon. Distant but a nice view as it was almost
doing the splits trying to balance on two reeds before it flew to the left and
out of sight.
Hobby over lagoon three
Hobby over lagoon three
We moved on to crake hide
where the conditions are obviously suiting a juvenile Spotted Redshank as it
was still present along with another six Snipe.
There were hundreds of
wildfowl from lapwing hide, which were mainly Wigeon and Tufted Duck but it was
difficult to see most well due the hazy sunshine and we eventually gave up
after only adding a third Common Tern.
As we approached sandpiper on
lagoon four a Greenshank flew over and there were three on lagoon four and we
presumed that they were the four we had seen on lagoon three earlier. There were four Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin
to the left of the hide and a fifth Ringed Plovers joined the others as a Red
Kite flew over the lagoon. There were seventeen Pintail scattered around the
lagoon with most congregated in front of the hide but some distance away.
Lapwing close to sandpiper hide
Lapwing close to sandpiper hide
We called at redshank hide on
lagoon two on route to the centre where we found a couple of Ruff and had
further views of a Hobby and well as a Buzzard.
There were plenty of duck on lagoon one, including over a hundred
Shoveler but we couldn’t find a single wader.
A brief stop at Manton Bridge
as we were leaving produced four Garganey, four Ruff, a Curlew and another
Greenshank.
As we arrived at Eye Brook
Reservoir it was starting to rain but we did manage a few minutes were we found
a couple of Little Egret, three Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin, four Ruff and two
Wood Sandpiper. Like at Rutland Water
the wildfowl had increased and I found a single Pintail amongst them.
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