I went to Eye Brook Reservoir
first this morning seeing two Red Kites on route near the reservoir and circa
twenty Tree Sparrow near Blaston. There
were three Buzzards flying around the old oak used by Little Owls but there was
no sign of any owls. The reason for the
visit today was to see if the pair of Ring-necked Ducks and the Yellow-browed
Warbler were still present. There was no
sign of the ducks at the island, which is where they had been on Saturday and I
was unable to find them elsewhere. I had
the same result with the Yellow-browed Warbler in the area of the plantation it
had been seen. The twenty-one Whooper
Swans were still present and I counted ten Pintail close to the inlet. The only other birds of note were two Little
Egrets, two Green Woodpeckers and two Tree Sparrows.
With no luck at Eye Brook
Reservoir I decided to go the dam at Rutland Water but found very little,
although a Rock Pipit had been seen earlier.
Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
I then visited the Old Hall
where there had been a few waders on a recent visit but only found a single
Little Egret. The north was better with
the juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper being on the spit at the end of the road. The two juvenile Grey Plover were also still
present close by as was a single Ringed Plover.
The ten Barnacle Geese were amongst a party of Canada Geese on the north
shore and two Pintail were also observed.
I joined Ken in the Egleton
car park where we observed a couple of Chiffchaff whilst we had lunch. We then walked to shoveler hide on lagoon
three where the water level had risen considerably since my last visit. There was a single Greenshank and Redshank
and a Snipe was also found amongst some grass.
There were noticeably fewer duck present but two Pintail were roosting
on one of the islands and two Buzzards flew over the wood on the northern edge
of the lagoon.
Drake Teal
There was just a couple of
Little Egrets from crake hide and masses of ducks from lapwing hide. The light was not good but Ken did find a
male Scaup amongst the masses of Tufted Duck.
We started to walk back
towards lagoon four but called in smew hide on lagoon two where we found nine
Pintail and a couple of Little Egrets.
Little Egret
From sandpiper hide on lagoon
four we found seven Pintail, a Little Egret and sixteen Golden Plovers but
otherwise it was quiet.
We met Steve and Terry as we
walked back to the centre and they had the same result as me at Eye Brook
Reservoir, except they had found three Red-crested Pochard. They also informed us that they had seen a
couple of Stonechats and a Garganey on lagoon one. We hadn’t been in the centre too long before
I had located one of the Stonechats and the Garganey but it was some time before
Ken fund the second Stonechat, when we then had them both in the same view and
confirmed they were a male and female. A
then picked up a Peregrine that made two half-hearted stoops before flying off
to the south. Tim then appeared and
whilst talking to him he received a phone call from Steve who had found a
female Ring-necked Duck from lapwing hide.
Ken and I decided to go and
take a look and walked back to the hide.
When we arrived Steve and Terry were still there and Steve commented
that there was also a male Red-crested Pochard but that we would have to find
them. He did say he couldn’t find any
Scaup and then indicated where the Pochard was.
When I searched for this I immediately found the male Scaup and then got
Steve and Terry on to it. I then saw the
male Red-crested Pochard and both Steve and Terry then said they couldn’t find
the Ring-necked Duck. Apparently it had
hardly moved whilst they had watched and was still in the same place just
before Ken and I arrived. We all scoped
the area they had seen it without any joy so I broadened my scan and found it
quite quickly well to the left of where it had been. It was now quite mobile within a party of
Tufted Duck but we did get some excellent views of this rather attractive
female duck.
After a light shower had
passed Ken and I retreated back to the car park to make our way home, having
enjoyable a good day with a particular exciting close to it.
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