After receiving tweets of a
Leach’s Petrel and Grey Phalarope at Rutland Water Roger and I decided to go
over.
The Leach’s Petrel was being
seen in the area of Normanton Church and a phone call from Ken as we were
arriving saying he was watching it just to the left of the church. As we approached it appeared that those present
what not watching anything and we were informed that it had flown over the
reservoir towards Whitwell and that they had lost it. Ken scanned the area to the east of the
Hambleton Peninsular and said he thought he had seen it, which another birder
the confirmed. Roger then got on it but
I was struggling but eventually caught a glimpse and then had better views as
it was harassed by a gull. It was along
way off and appeared all black most of the time although I thought I caught a
glimpse of the white rump on one occasion.
It appeared to have long, fairly pointed wings and seemed at ease in the
bad weather. With the petrel in the bag
we moved to the dam where the Grey Phalarope was far more obliging giving
excellent views just to the west of the pumping station as it fed along the
shoreline, although it flew quite frequently.
While informing Tim Appleton
that it was still present he passed a message on that there was a Great Skua on
the water in the north arm. We quickly
returned to the car and drove to his cottage and then walked out onto the
spit. Matthew Berriman was already there
and had located the bird resting on the water close to the northern shore. The weather was slowly beginning to improve
and the skua suddenly took to flight, circling quite a few times to gain height
and then head off towards the dam. It
upper-wing pattern was quite unusual, in not only showing the white bases to
the primaries but also the secondaries, which gave it a white mid-wing panel.
We called at Eye Brook
Reservoir on route home making only a very brief stop where we counted
twenty-one Whooper Swans.
What a great mornings birding
with some very special birds particularly in the counties.
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