Rod's Birding: A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Rutland

I called briefly at Eyebrook Reservoir first but the only highlight was a pair of Shelduck. With little of note at Eyebrook Reservoir I went to the north arm at Rutland Water.

It was still overcast and feeing rather cold in the north arm but Malcolm who was already present at seen the three Long-tailed Ducks and both the Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes. It didn’t take too long to locate the two grebes and a first-winter Long-tailed Duck but the other two were proving elusive. Roger then arrived and after locating the grebe found the other two Long-tailed Ducks. There were also two Barnacle Geese, two pairs of Oystercatchers and a Curlew present. Malcolm decided he would go to the dam for the Black Redstart but Roger and I remained in the north arm. As I was scanning the north shore I thought I had a Sand Martin but lost it as it tuned in front of the trees. We both scanned the area but couldn’t find it and I was beginning to feel that perhaps I hadn’t seen one. I then caught sight of it again but disappeared in front of the trees again but a few minutes later I saw it again and this time Roger also thought he saw it but again as it turned it merged into the trees again. Roger then picked it up above the skyline and we were able to confirm our first Sand Martin of the year.

At the Egleton Reserve, Roger and I went to the centre but the light was awful but we did pick up the Black-tailed Godwit, which was on the long island. We decided to head towards the northern end of the reserve and another birder we met on route informed us that there were two male and a female Garganey on lagoon three. We continued to shoveler hide but two birders in the hide hadn’t seen the Garganey and a scan of the water to the left of the hide produced just a few Teal. I scanned the edge of the reeds where there were more Teal and then found the three Garganey roosting amongst the reeds. I telephoned Malcolm who was in the north arm unsuccessfully looking for the Sand Martin but he quickly decided to head for the reserve and shoveler hide. The Garganey then started to move around a little and we had better views but one of the males disappeared behind the island of reeds. When Malcolm arrived we still had a male in view and he managed to see all three before Roger and I headed off to dunlin hide on lagoon four. We also found five Snipe resting amongst some stunted reeds.

From dunlin hide there were two Avocets showing quite well from dunlin hide and we also found two more Oystercatchers, five Ringed Plovers, a Dunlin and three Redshanks.

Great Crested Grebes displaying on lagoon four

Canada Goose on lagoon four

Drake Shoveler on lagoon four

Avocet on lagoon four

As we were walking back to the car park Ken called and we met him as he headed for shoveler hide. We had a quick chat and he continued to lagoon three while Roger and I continued to the car park for lunch.

After lunch I went back to the centre and had further views of the Black-tailed Godwit and also a couple of Curlew on the island. A Sparrowhawk chased, unsuccessfully, a Reed Bunting just in front of the centre but as there was little else and I decided to go towards Lax Hill and Malcolm and Eric joined me. We called at snipe hide overlooking the wet meadow and there plenty of birds feeding on the newly scraped area. An Oystercatcher came quite close to the hide and a managed to get several nice photos as it fed on the edge of a drain capturing several large worms as we watched. There were also four Little Egrets and a single Redshank but there was still no sign of the Pink-footed Goose Dave had seen last weekend. A quick visit to harrier to take a look at the new scrape, which was bird less and there was very little visible on lagoon one.

Little Egret on the wet meadow

Oystercatcher feeding on the wet meadow

Malcolm and I continued to gadwall hide but saw very little and continued on to goldeneye hide, which overlooks the south arm. Eric had joined us again and he picked up the Great Northern Diver just off the point, which was showing a few white spots on the upperparts. There was also three Curlew and a Redshank and a runt juvenile Cormorant, clearly significant smaller than the nearby adults had us guessing for a while. Whilst we were trying to sort out a small bird of prey near the Lyndon Centre, Ken called to inform us that there were three Pink-footed Geese on lagoon two. The raptor turned out to be a Sparrowhawk and so we set off back towards the centre and grebe hide on lagoon two.

When we arrived at the hide Ken was still there as were the three Pink-feet, which were resting on one of the islands. They all raised their heads whilst we watching them and I took a couple of photos. There were also two Sand Martin over lagoon one briefly.

Pink-footed Geese on lagoon two

Apparently the Garganey had been a lot closer as so we returned to shoveler hide. There was a single bird fairly close to the hide but it soon took to flight and appeared to go into the channel leading to bittern hide. We walked the short distance to bittern hide and found all three of the Garganey reasonably close. The light was beginning to go but I did take quite a lot of photos but had to increase the ISO to 1000.