I went to Eyebrook Reservoir
first this morning and walked to the dam seeing three Shelduck, a Little Egret,
Red Kite and a single Tree Sparrow. At
the inflow there was a Buzzard over the field near Stoke Dry Wood and four
Shelduck, which almost certainly included the two seen earlier. There were a few hirundines that included ten
Sand Martins, six Swallows and my first House Martin.
On moving on to Rutland Water
and arriving at the Egleton car park I decided to cover the southern section of
the reserve and set off towards snipe hide on the wet meadow. There was a Marsh Tit performing well at the
Egleton feeding station that provided a good photo opportunity.
Marsh Tit
Walking through the narrow
strip of woodland a male Blackcap provided some nice if brief views but there
was nothing else. From snipe hide there
were eight Curlew quite close on the wet flash and two Shelduck and a Redshank
were more distant. Three Little Egrets
were also present with one showing its plumes off rather well. Scanning the long island on lagoon one there
were two more Shelduck and a couple of Oystercatcher and two nice summer plumaged
Black-tailed Godwits.
Drake Mallard on the wet meadow
Curlew on the wet meadow
A Red Kite was observed over
Lax Hill as I walked from harrier hide and a Willow Warbler was observed close
to fieldfare hide and three Oystercatchers flew over whilst I was in the hide.
Great Crested Grebe displaying in front of fieldfare hide
Greylag Goose in threatening posture in front of fieldfare hide
Canada Geese in front of fieldfare hide
Drake Teal in front of fieldfare hide
I continued onto Lax Hill but
there was very little from both goldeneye and robin hides. As I walked out of robin hide I received a
message indicating that there was a Sandwich Tern on lagoon four.
Cormorant from goldeneye hide
I decided to go back towards
the centre but checked both snipe again and the 360° on
the way but saw nothing of note. On
reaching the centre it was over an hour since the report of the Sandwich Tern
and based on last week’s Sandwich Tern at Eyebrook Reservoir I assumed it would
have gone. Steve and Terry were in the
car park and after checking what they had seen had my lunch and then set off to
lagoon four. As I was getting close to
the hide Steve called to say that the Sandwich Tern was still present on lagoon
four and raised my hopes.
As I approached the hide Bob
was coming out and said he had seen the tern earlier but that he couldn’t find
it now. He came back into the hide and
we were eventually joined by Steve and Terry but the tern appeared to have
gone. Matthew then came in and after a
short while announced that the tern was over lagoon three. It kept disappearing behind some bushes that
partially obscured lagoon three and we eventually decided to go and look for a
reported Redstart close to osprey hide.
With no sign we continued to shoveler hide on lagoon three where I had
much better views of the Sandwich Tern.
An Osprey and Peregrine were also observed. Tim Appleton had joined us in the hide and we
eventually went to have another go for the Redstart. It was not visible from the path but a
Cetti’s Warbler was heard and so we moved into osprey hide. It was very quiet with very little being seen
when Steve received a phone call informing him of a Glossy Ibis at Hicks Lodge
in northwest Leicestershire.
Drake Shoveler over lagoon three
Roger and I had missed the
only other Glossy Ibis in the counties in May 2011 as we were away in Scotland
and Dave had also been away. I called
Roger who carries out grandparent duty on Tuesday but he could be available
after picking them up from school and so I agreed to pick him up. I then called Dave who could also get out for
a while and agreed that he would meet up at Roger’s.
I arrived at around 16:00 and
we set off to Hicks Lodge and arrived just before five. Several birders were leaving but the good
news was it was still there. We walked
around the track and joined some other birders who were watching the bird at
the back of the field. At first all I
could see were Canada Geese but eventually it walked from behind a goose and I
was able to get some reasonable views of an immature Glossy Ibis. It eventual took to flight but came down
close to the lake but out of sight. We
walked a little further along the path and had better views as it was now
feeding on short grass and also came down to the water’s edge to preen briefly.
We eventually had to leave and heard later that it had flown off high to the
northeast.
Glossy Ibis
It was a good end to the day
with our first new bird for the counties that had allowed Roger regain his
number one status as top county lister.
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