Monday 14 October 2013

A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - October 8, 2013

I called at Eye Brook Reservoir first this morning after a late start but it was very quiet with two Pintail and a couple of Little Egrets being the best.

After some lunch at Rutland Water I walked to lagoon three where there were six Pintail feeding with other dabbling duck and a Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Grey Wagtail flew over.


A walk to crake hide produced very little and two Little Egrets were the only bird of note but there were masses of duck, mainly Tufted Duck, from lapwing hide.


Drake Teal moulting from eclipse plumage


Juvenile Grey Heron

We called at plover hide on lagoon four were there were two Green Sandpipers and six Little Egrets.  A large party of Egyptian Geese also flew in and landed on one of the islands, although they were difficult to count as they were tightly packed and quite mobile but there was close to eighty involved.

A visit to the north arm produced two nice juvenile Grey Plovers and there were also ten Barnacle Geese and a Pintail.

After dropping Ken back at the Egleton car park I returned to the Old Hall but there were only four Ringed Plovers present.  However over a period of time I began to find a few more and a party of waders dropped in, which included Dunlin and a Little Stint.  I eventually finished with twenty-three Ringed Plovers, a juvenile Little Stint, eleven Dunlin and a Redshank.

As the afternoon progressed the gulls began to increase on the island and an Azorean Yellow-legged Gull was picked out, looking very similar to the bird present on lagoon four last autumn.  What started off as being rather day closed with a flourish of good birds.

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