Monday 3 March 2014

A day’s birding in Leicestershire & Cambridgeshire - March 3, 2013

I started off at Swithland Reservoir today and soon found the six Scaup on the northern section of the reservoir.  A Peregrine was observed both in flight and perched in the usual tree and a Raven was also perched in a tree.  There were far fewer birds on the southern section and nothing of note.

At Swithland Wood I met Roger and found a single Tawny Owl roosting in the holly tree.  We also found a good selection of commoner species including a single Great Spotted Woodpecker, two Nuthatches and a Treecreeper. Two Siskin were also found close to the stream and main path.

Roger was only out for part of the day and I decided to go to Eldernell in Cambridgeshire.  I arrived at the car park around 13:00 and found that there was still plenty of flood water.  There were close to 300 Whooper Swans, mainly towards March Farms and numerous Wigeon.  There were smaller numbers of Teal, Mallard, Pintail and Shoveler and there also several Pochard and Tufted Duck.  A female Marsh Harrier was observed just after I arrived and I observed another female and a male during my stay.


I walked west to just beyond Lord’s Holt and found two Cranes on the opposite bund.  There were also several Buzzards and a couple of Red Kites plus plenty more wildfowl.  On getting back towards the Eldernell car park a Barn Owl was observed, which I saw on another three occasions before the intermittent rain started.  Three Cranes were observed flying southeast over the washes and a few minutes later five were observed flying back northwest.  The rain started to get more persistent and I decided to call it a day a little earlier than I intended.


Cranes

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