I was out with Dave and Roger
today and we went to Eyebrook Reservoir first in the hope of finding the female
Ring-necked Duck. The bird had been
reported in the bay to the south of island yesterday but there was no sign this
morning. We did find a single drake Smew
and there were two more drakes towards the plantation and a red-head in the bay
to the north of the island. We drove to
the Little Owl site that is just north of the reservoir seeing both birds
enjoying the morning sunshine. We
returned to the reservoir where we found four Dunlin and a Snipe and a Little
Egret flew over at the inlet. We were thinking of leaving when Roger received a
call informing him that the Ring-necked Duck was at the fishing lodge. We drove back around the reservoir and walked
the short distance to the lodge. We
found the bird amongst a small group of Tufted Ducks and were able to watch it
a fairly close range.
Female Ring-necked Duck
We were also rewarded with a
Kingfisher as it flew by just a few yards of shore and two Red Kites were
observed to the north.
We finally decided to leave
Eyebrook Reservoir and head for the dam at Rutland Water. We walked down to the pumping station but
there was no immediate sign of the Black Redstart that had been present since
last year. I walked further and onto the
dam where I found an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a distant diver, which I
assumed would be the Great Northern Diver but did think that it looked a little
on the small side. Shortly afterwards
the Great Northern Diver was seen quite close to the dam but there was no sign
of the diver that I had seen close to Whitwell.
A group of other birders then picked it up and so we decided to go to
Whitwell to check it out. After a fairly
short time Roger picked it up and we were able to confirm that it was a
Black-throated Diver and probably the bird seen on Christmas Day but not
since. He called the other birders to
inform them of our findings only to be told they were now watching the Black
Redstart. We drove back to the pumping
station and were soon watching the redstart, initially near the building but
then on the rocks.
It was turning out to be quite
a good day and we had hopes of finding a Long-tailed Duck and Black-necked
Grebe in the north arm. Whilst we were
having lunch several birders were leaving and one had seen a Black-necked Grebe
but they hadn’t seen a Long-tailed Duck.
When we walked down to the point Dave soon found a Black-necked Grebe,
which beginning to show signs of summer plumage and it wasn’t too long before
we also had two of the Long-tailed Ducks.
Roger then picked up three more Black-necked Grebes and we then found
the third Long-tailed Duck. The ten
Barnacle Geese were on the north shore and two males and three female Goosanders
were observed close to the bund. While
searching for the ducks and grebes we also found a Curlew and a couple of
Redshanks and two Buzzards were observed over Burley Wood.
On the Egleton Reserve we were
unable to find the two Stonechats that had been present all morning but I
counted seventeen Pintail and there were circa seventy Golden Plovers with the Lapwing
and ten Curlew on the meadow. A visit to
grebe hide on lagoon two failed to produce the Stonechats but there were
another ten Pintail and a Little Egret.
From shoveler hide on lagoon
three there were another three Pintail and a drake and three red-headed Smew
and two Redshanks arrived during our visit and from buzzard hide we nice views
of a Water Rail. Three Green Woodpeckers
were also observed from shoveler hide.
With the light beginning to go
we called at sandpiper hide on lagoon four where there were quite a few larger
gulls, mainly Herring and Great Black-backed Gull but we did find an adult
Caspian Gull and a Lesser Black-backed Gull.
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