I was out on my own today as
Dave and Roger had other commitment. After
the disappointing day at Rutland Water on Thursday I had decided to go
initially to Swithland Reservoir. I
arrived at the northern end of the reservoir just before 08:00 to find the
water level had risen considerably. I
soon found at least four Scaup mid-water but there could have been more as they
were diving constantly and even finding four on the surface at any onetime was
unusual. A Sparrowhawk was observed
flying over Buddon Wood and a Raven was observed perched in the tree that is
normally used by the Peregrines but they were conspicuous by their
absence. Two Green Woodpeckers were
heard calling and a single Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming. I drove around to the causeway on the south
side and found a pair of distant Mandarin but nothing else of note, although
two more Great Spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming.
Pair of Tufted Duck on the northern section of the reservoir
Grey Heron over the northern section of the reservoir
I finally decided to go to
Swithland Wood and after parking walked the short distance to the holly tree
where Tawny Owl often roost. I found one
almost immediately near the top of the holly and after watching it for several
minutes continued to walk around the wood.
I saw a selection of common woodland birds that included two Treecreeper
and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming. A Nuthatch was also heard but could not be
located. After getting back to the car I
decided to go back to the holly tree with the camera and managed to get several
reasonable shots of the owl and on processing them I found that there was a
second bird close to the one I had seen.
Tawny Owl in Swithland Wood
I made a brief visit to
Cropston Reservoir but saw very little just a few Great Crested Grebes and
Tufted Duck.
From Cropston Reservoir I
headed for Eyebrook Reservoir as there had been a Bittern reported in the inlet
stream over the last two days. The
Little Owl was sitting in the old oak as I approached the reservoir but after
about thirty minutes with no sign of the Bittern I viewed the inlet area and
found fifteen Dunlin. There appeared to
be far fewer birds present today and I finally decided to move on to Rutland
Water.
I went to north arm at Rutland
Water and found the four Black-necked Grebes, one of which was showing signs of
summer plumage, just of Dickinson’s Bay.
Despite a good search I was unable to locate any of the Long-tailed
Ducks, although one was reported yesterday.
A single Oystercatcher flew over and a heard a Ringed Plover calling but
couldn’t find it and five Buzzards were showing over Burley Wood. A final scan for a Long-tailed Duck produced
the same result and I headed off to the Egleton Reserve where I had a bite to
eat before setting off towards lagoon four.
There were twelve Curlews on
the right hand island and three Shelduck on the water. As I was scanning round a picked up a large pale gull coming in and watched it land and join several other gulls on one of the islands. I suspected that it might be a first-winter Glaucous Gull but it didn’t look quite right, although I was unsure why. I watched it has it bathed and preened amongst the other gulls and eventually joined Tim, who I had informed of the birds presence, in Dunlin hide as it was much closer. However when I got into the hide all I could see was its head as it was on the back of the island. It wasn’t too long before it took to flight and I was able to get a few shots off as it departed to the south. The photographs showed dark tips to primaries 7 to 9 and Andrew Harrop pointed out from the photographs that it was probably a Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid, albeit quite subtle. It would appear that my initial suspicious about the bird were correct and it shows the value of getting photos in bird identification. I suspect that this bird could easily have been passed off as a Glaucous Gull at longer range.
Probable Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid over lagoon four
Photo showing the dark tips to primaries 7 to 9
Tim had said he would take me
to a part of the reserve not open to the public to hopefully see Jack
Snipe. I agreed to meet at 13:15 at the
centre but went to shoveler hide on lagoon three first where there were four
more Shelduck, a Green Sandpiper and a Redshank.
Drake Shelduck on lagoon three
feeding station. We drove to the southern edge of heron bay
and after checking that the hides were empty Tim walked and area close to the
water’s edge. He initially flushed a
Snipe but then a Jack Snipe took to flight before coming down close to lagoon
eight.
Before we had got to Heron Bay
we had walked a wood between lagoons seven and eight but there was very little
a few Blue and Great Tits and a single Marsh Tit.
Marsh Tit
A walk on Lax Hill initially
produced very little but once on the sheltered side there were a few common
woodland species and there was on the feeders at robin hide.
Tim then drove back to lagoon
four where there had been a Mediterranean Gull yesterday afternoon but there
were very few gulls and certainly no Mediterranean Gull. There were thirteen Shelduck on the lagoon
but we couldn’t find the reported female Smew.
There were plenty of gulls
from the centre but again no sign of the Mediterranean Gull but there were
three Pintail and six Goosanders.
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