A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland - December 28, 2013

I went to Eyebrook Reservoir first today in the hope of seeing the female Ring-necked Duck that has been present for about a week.  On arrival there were few birds in the bay to the south of the island where the Ring-necked Duck was being reported but there was no sign this morning.  I noticed that there were quite a few Tufted Duck on the far side and so I walked through the plantation almost a far as the dam.  There were plenty of Pochard and Tufted Duck and I did fine two drakes and a red-headed Smew but the Ring-necked Duck was not seen.  There was very little evidence of birds in the plantation, just a few Blackbirds and Chaffinch and single Blue Tit; Marsh Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Wren and Robin.  I did see two Ruddy Shelduck from the Stoke Dry car park but eventually gave up on the Ring-necked and went to Rutland Water.

Drake Smew

After some lunch I spent a few minutes observing the feeding station close to the centre where there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker briefly and a few Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinch, a Greenfinch and a Goldfinch.

Female Chaffinch

Male Greenfinch

Ken joined me in the centre and we found eight Curlews and a couple of Redshank on the lagoon and two Stonechats were performing well just in front of the centre.  I counted forty-four Pintail, which is a good count for late December and a Red Kite flew over causing some disturbance.

I walk to lagoon three produced some nice views of Fieldfare and Redwing as they fed in the last big meadow.  We went to buzzard hide on lagoon three where we had some reasonable views of a Water Rail and found a drake and three-red-headed Smew.  There were two Redshanks and a single Green Sandpiper feeding to the left of the hide but other than a single Shelduck and drake Pintail there was little else.  A Sparrowhawk flew over and a distant Red Kite was observed over Burley Wood.

Great Crested Grebe and Lapwing

Water Rail

Adult winter Great Black-backed Gull

We called at shoveler hide on lagoon three a found an immature male and four red-headed Smew at the back of the lagoon and had further views of the Green Sandpiper.

We walked back to the centre and found thirteen Curlew on the lagoon and also an additional Redshank and a Barn Owl performed for a while on the far side of the lagoon.

A rather quiet day and disappointing that the female Ring-necked Duck did not obliged.