I was out with Roger and Dave
today and we headed off to Pitsford Reservoir in Northamptonshire as there had
been a Great White Egret reported there yesterday.
There was no sign of the egret
and there was very little else with two Oystercatcher, fourteen Snipe and four
Tree Sparrow being the best. There was a
Snow Goose amongst a party of Canada Geese.
We moved onto Summer Leys
Nature Reserve as there had been up to three Great White Egrets present there
but they weren't reported yesterday.
On arrival we walked the short
distance to the hide overlooking a wader scrape but it was completed
flooded. We found six Little Egrets, two
Oystercatchers and a Shelduck but there was no sign of any Great White Egrets. Another birder entered the hide and asked if
he knew where the egrets had been seen.
His reply was I just seen one over the far side but there was no sign
from the hide. He left and came back a
few minutes later informing us it was still there. We walked towards another hide that
overlooked the same area and we were able to see the egret standing on a pile
of logs. Wherever we looked from it was
difficult to get a clear view due to the vegetation but I did manage to find
place that was better than most. The
whole bird was visible but closer vegetation was the problem but the yellow
bill, black legs and large size were all obvious. It did move around on the log pile a little
and the ‘S’-shaped curve in the neck was also very obvious.
We moved off to another part
of the reserve where we saw a juvenile Long-tailed Duck.
Female Reed Bunting at the feeding station
Male Reed Bunting at the feeding station
With news of a Slavonian Grebe
at Rutland Water we headed off for the north arm where we had lunch before
looking for the grebe. We soon found the
party of grebes but the views due to the distance and heat haze were pretty
awful. There were five birds, four being
Black-necked and the fifth the Slavonian, which was distinguishable by its more
black-and-white plumage as the Black-necked are almost in full summer
plumage. The three Long-tailed Duck were
also located and there were four Barnacle Geese on the north shore.
We paid a brief visit to the
centre and found a drake Pintail on south arm three and two Little Egrets, two
Oystercatcher and a Curlew on lagoon one.
Claims of a Stonechat near lagoon two sent us to redshank hide but we
were unable to find it.
Coot on lagoon two
Returning to the north arm
there were at least ten Brambling in a small roost but nothing else of note was
noted.
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