I went to Eyebrook Reservoir
first this morning seeing a rather pale Buzzard near Blaston on route.
Buzzard
One of the Little Owls was in
the old oak on the approach to the reservoir and I parked close to the bridge
over the feeder stream to look for the reported Bittern. I stood on the bridge close to forty minutes
with no sign of the Bittern but I did have some nice views of a Willow Tit,
which is the first have seen here since May 2004.
Willow Tit
I then spent some time
overlooking an area of mud at the inlet and counted thirty-three Dunlin and a
single Shelduck was also present. There
were plenty of gulls on the shore and in the water and I thought it would be
nice to find a Mediterranean Gull. As I
scanned through them with the scope they were mainly Black-headed and Common
and I came across a single Lesser Black-backed Gull and as I got almost to the
end of the gulls and bingo, a moulting adult Mediterranean Gull. It was well into summer plumage with the hood
being well formed, although the forehead was still white and the bill still a
little dull. It was an excellent find that
went someway to easing the disappointment of not seeing the Bittern earlier. It’s always much more rewarding in finding
your own birds, even when they are not particularly rare.
I moved off to the north arm
at Rutland Water and found the two first-winter Long-tailed Ducks before the
rain came. The forecast for the morning
was mainly sunny with an isolated shower.
Well it rained for well over an hour and was pretty heavy at times. I drove to the Egleton car park and
eventually went to the centre and viewed lagoon one until the rain eased. A nice flock of c.250 Golden Plover arrived
whilst I was in the centre and there were ten Shelduck, a single Little Egret,
two Snipe and a single Curlew but very little else on the lagoon.
As the rain eased I set off to
bittern hide on lagoon three where I found another Little Egret and twenty
Snipe flew over and then circled before finally coming down in the reed-bed. There were two volunteers working outside of
plover hide on lagoon four and so I went back to shoveler hide on lagoon
three. There was a Green Sandpiper
feeding on the recently exposed mud and a Redshank arrived during my stay. There were four Shelduck close to the hide
that got involved in a territorial dispute with both pairs holding their ground
and I found a red-head Smew at the back of the lagoon. A visit to sandpiper on lagoon four produced
another four Shelduck, two Ringed Plovers and two Curlews. Two Red Kites also provided some excellent
views.
Whilst having lunch in the car
park Mike Chester informed me that the Bittern had been performing well at
Eyebrook Reservoir and in fact had ventured onto the road at one point. I therefore decided to go back to Eyebrook
Reservoir but the Bittern had disappeared on arrival and was last seen walking
through the trees towards the western edge.
I worked the area with a second birder and eventually saw it moving through
the vegetation and called the other birder over but we couldn’t find it again
and then the heavens opened. After the
shower had passed the other birder found it at the eastern edge of the
plantation and managed to get a rather nice photo before it moved back towards
the stream. He saw it again as it moved
closer to the stream but then it disappeared again. A lady then spotted it towards the back of
the plantation and at last I got some decent views before it disappeared
again. I then picked it up as it headed
closer to the stream and everyone was able to watch until it walked into the
base of a coniferous shrub and disappeared and was not seen again whilst I was
there. Two Red Kites and three Buzzards
were observed and a Kingfisher gave brief views before it flew back down stream
whilst we were looking for the Bittern.
Buzzard
I had not seen Grey Wagtail
this year and with reports of one at the overflow I decided to go and have a
look. As I approached the area where it
had been reported I heard it call and the saw it in flight as it went further downstream. There were also eight Tree Sparrows on the
feeders close to the fishing lodge.
I finally called it a day and
went home rather pleased with successful days birding.
No comments:
Post a Comment