I went straight to the Egleton
Reserve at Rutland Water and walked to lagoon four where there had been a
Spotted Redshank and Greenshank yesterday.
It felt quite cold walking down to the hide and there was little bird
song, particularly in the copse behind lagoon two, which was almost
silent. Tim joined me briefly in
sandpiper hide on lagoon four but all we could find was six Ringed Plovers,
four Dunlin, two Curlew and three Redshanks on the lagoon and a distant Red
Kite towards Oakham. There were three White
Wagtails and a pair of Egyptian Geese with two small young but most of
yesterday’s birds appeared to have gone.
Tim left and I eventually moved to plover hide but found nothing new
although the Egyptian Goose with nine young, was brooding them on the bank and
a Cetti’s Warbler was calling close to bittern hide. I went to shoveler hide on lagoon three where
three Common Terns flew over and headed towards south arm three.
Little Grebe on lagoon three
Greylag Geese over lagoon three
Drake Wigeon on lagoon three
Drake Shoveler on lagoon three
Adult summer Black-headed Gull over lagoon three
Lagoon three looking towards bittern hide
I walked back to the centre
where I saw Stuart and Frank and after a brief chat I moved onto to snipe hide
on the wet meadow. There was more song
now and on the wet meadow flash there were two Curlew and a Redshank along with
a couple of Shelduck. There was a lot of
Sand Martins over lagoon one and I managed to find three Swallows amongst them.
Chiffchaff from the footpath to snipe hide
European Hare from snipe hide
Continuing on to Lax Hill I
saw several Chiffchaff and a single Willow Warbler and heard more as well as
several Blackcaps. There were two
Shelduck, two Oystercatchers and a couple of Curlew from goldeneye hide but
there was no sign of the Great Northern Diver and so I moved to robin hide,
where there is a feeding station. The
feeders were almost empty but there were some birds coming and going. There were a few Chaffinch and Blue Tits and
I then found a nice female Brambling in the bushes, although it didn’t actually
visit the feeders but a male Great Spotted Woodpecker did but appeared rather
nervous. A Red Kite and Osprey were also
observed above the wood.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Chiffchaff
Female Brambling
Roger called asking what I had
seen and I met him as I walked back to the centre and after a brief chat he continued
to Lax Hill and I went to pintail hide on lagoon six and then onto Shelduck
hide on lagoon five. There was nothing
new on lagoon six and I saw nothing of note on lagoon eight as I walked by. A couple of Shelduck were on lagoon seven and
two more on lagoon six as were a two Oystercatcher and a Buzzard was observed
just to the west of the lagoons. I saw
two Black-tailed Godwits drop in from Shelduck hide and decided to check the
wet meadow again. The Redshank was still
present on the flash as were the two Black-tailed Godwits but there was nothing
else of note and I returned to the car park for lunch.
Black-tailed Godwit
Whilst having lunch, Terry,
who I had seen earlier, informed me that he had seen three Little Ringed
Plovers, fourteen Dunlin, Yellow Wagtail and twelve White Wagtails on lagoon
four, which more than I had seen earlier indicating that some birds may have
arrived.
Ken had now arrived and he,
Rick and I walked to dunlin hide on lagoon four where Roger joined us. There were now twenty-two Dunlin present and
we did find two Little Ringed Plovers, a Green Sandpiper and at least two White
Wagtails but there was no sign of the Yellow Wagtail and from plover hide we
saw the same species. There were two
Little Egrets now feeding on lagoon three and we had further views of the
Common Terns seen earlier and a Buzzard was observed over the northeast corner
of the lagoon.
Female Tufted Duck on lagoon four
MaleTufted Duck on lagoon four
Little Grebe on lagoon three
Little Egret on lagoon three
A walk back to the centre
produced nothing of note and there was little else on lagoon one and so I
decided I would call at Eyebrook Reservoir on route home.
Female Pheasant on lagoon one
One of the Little Owls was
sitting in the old oak as I approached the reservoir and as I got out of the
car a Lesser Whitethroat burst into song.
I heard it on at least another five occasions but it eventually went quiet
and I failed to see it. It was however
my earliest ever record of this species and probably the first for the counties
this year. From the first viewing area I
could see four Shelduck and there was a single Little Ringed Plover on the
small area of exposed mud. There was
also circa fifty Sand Martins over the water and at least three Swallows and a
single House Martin amongst them. At the
southern end I found another two Shelduck and a single Oystercatcher but with
little else I finally headed off home.
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