I had picked Dave up a little
later today after dropping my granddaughter off at school. We headed off to Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a
Red Kite and three Buzzards on route. One
of the Little Owls was sitting in the old oak and there were good numbers of
Fieldfare with a few Redwings in the northern plantation. I counted sixteen Dunlin feeding amongst the
flock of Lapwing and the two Ruddy Shelduck were also found but we couldn’t
find the reported Red-crested Pochard or Smew reported yesterday. A Red Kite was observed in the direction of
Stockerston and a Great Spotted Woodpecker near the Stoke Dry car park.
Fieldfare
Filedfare
We moved off across country to
Rutland Water and the sailing club at Edith Western with just ten Red-legged
Partridge and a Jay of interest being seen.
When we arrived at the sailing club we walked west to the bay where the
drake Green-winged Teal has been present, although it was seen to fly off on
Saturday and wasn’t reported again yesterday.
When I first scanned with the bins I didn’t think it was there although
I soon found roosting on the bank through the scope. Dave also found a Little Owl as we walked
back to the car, which is a bird we don’t often see here.
At the dam there was a party
of duck to the south of the pumping station and so we initially went in that
direction. There was an adult
Yellow-legged Gull but the party of duck were mainly Tufted Duck with several
Goldeneye and six Little Grebes. We also
scanned a more distant group of birds but only found more Tufted Duck and on
scanning more of the open water found only Goldeneye, Great Crested Grebe and
Cormorant. We walked a little further
along the shore but found just more of the same. We decided to check from the other side of
the pumping station before we departed and found the female Red-breasted
Merganser and a female Scaup amongst the more distant birds and Dave then
located the Athya hybrid.
Adult Yellow-legged Gull
We finally left the dam and
headed for the north arm. There were
numerous birds in the fishponds but they were mainly Wigeon, Gadwall and Coot,
although we did find two male and two brown-headed Goosander whilst we were
having a bite to eat. The ten Barnacle
Geese were on the north shore and I also found a couple of Egyptian Geese. After we had eaten we walked to the end of
the spit and I found the three Black-necked Grebes fairly quickly, although
they were rather distant today. The two Long-tailed
Ducks were also found being a little easier today in the flat calm
conditions. The only Buzzard at the
reservoir today was observed perched on a telegraph pole on the north shore.
On reaching the Egleton
Reserve we had a Red Kite over the car park as we walked toward the
centre. A quick check at the feeding
station where there were a few more birds today produced a Marsh Tit. From the viewing area overlooking lagoon I
found two Snipe and then Dave located two more and there were also two Dunlin
and a Curlew. Two Golden Plovers amongst
a small party of Lapwings was unexpected as surprisingly this species have been
very scarce so far this winter with none of the normal large flocks.
As we walked towards lagoon
three we found a small party of birds feeding at the top of several
alders. Initially we could only locate
Goldfinch but eventually found at least four Lesser Redpolls and a single
Siskin. A brief visit to redshank hide
on lagoon two produced a drake Pintail and a single Redshank. A Jay provided some nice views as it fed on
the path and in the meadow before it flew west being quickly joined by a
second. On reaching shoveler hide on
lagoon three I found a drake Red-crested Pochard, the first in three weeks and
Dave then found the drake Smew and whilst looking for it I found the two
red-heads.
Making a brief visit to smew
hide for a hoped for Green Sandpiper proved unsuccessful although we did see
several more Pintail and a single Redshank.
From sandpiper hide on lagoon four we found two Shelduck and our only
Little Egret on the reserve today.
As the light faded we made our
way back to the centre but on reaching it the light was very poor and it was
difficult getting to grips with anything.
I did find four Curlew and ten Dunlin were observed in flight with a
flock of Lapwing that were disturbed by a Sparrowhawk. The Barn Owl eventually came out of the box
and provided some reasonable views as it sat on the ledge surveying the area.
It had been a good day’s
birding with eight-nine species recorded, eighty-two of which were at Rutland
Water.
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