I called at Eyebrook Reservoir
first this morning where there was a single Little Ringed Plover on the narrow
strip of exposed mud. There were also a
few martins present with at least four Sand Martins, four Swallows and a single
House Martin. Two Willow Warblers and a
Blackcap were also heard close to the road bridge.
I went to the Old Hall at
Rutland Water first as I had agreed to help with the wildfowl count.
It was a cracking morning and
the surface of the water was mirror like, which made counting very easy. This area at times can be very difficult to
count due to the pure number of birds present but today it was very
quiet and
there were just 140 birds counted. The
most common was Tufted Duck but there were also Mute Swan, Canada Goose,
Gadwall; Teal; Mallard; Goldeneye; Great Crested Grebe, a Little Egret and two
Oystercatcher. I also saw a Chiffchaff
and heard Willow Warbler and Blackcap.
After completing the count I
went to the north arm where I met Bob but other than a few Shelduck, a couple
of Buzzard and a Red Kite there was very little, although Bob had seen the
female Red-breasted Merganser earlier, which had gone into the fishponds.
Tim then asked me drive around
the Hambleton Peninsular to count any wildfowl that were close in shore. It didn’t take me to long as a lot of the
shore line was inaccessible and there were very few birds, the best being a
single Goldeneye and two more Oystercatcher.
I also heard several Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap as I drove
through the more wooded areas.
I joined Bob again in the
Egleton car park and we walked to shoveler hide on lagoon three where Steve had
seen a couple of Scaup earlier. Two
Osprey were observed flying over the meadows and were joined by a couple of
Buzzards. On reaching shoveler hide we
soon found the female Scaup and shortly afterwards the male joined it, which
was a very smart looking individual. A
single Little Egret was the only other bird of note however.
Stock Dover over lagoon three
We had heard a Cetti’s Warbler
and a Sedge Warbler from shoveler hide and on walking to plover hide on lagoon
four heard two more Sedge Warbler, seeing one rather well. It appeared rather quiet on lagoon four but
we did find a couple of Little Ringed Plover, a Curlew, a Redshank and a single
Common Tern. It was now after twelve and
left Bob and went back to the car park for lunch and to report my count numbers.
Sedge Warbler
After handing in my count
numbers I had a look on lagoon one.
There were three Black-tailed Godwits and three Curlew on the long
island and a male Pintail was feeding just in front of the island. I thought I heard an Avocet call and on
scanning the island again found two, which had obviously dropped in but were
certainly two of the birds usually seen on lagoon four, which have become more
nomadic recently.
Ken then arrived and after he
had seen the good birds on the lagoon we walked to snipe hide on the wet
meadow. On route we saw and heard
several Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, and Blackcaps, having nice views of all three.
Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
On reaching snipe hide the two
Avocets were now on the wet meadow and one of the Black-tailed Godwits came in.
Mike Chester then came into
the hide and said he had seen Knot on lagoon four and so Ken and I made our way
back to sandpiper hide. There were five
nice Yellow Wagtails and a White Wagtail on island ten and I found a second
White Wagtail on island five. There were
also a couple of Ringed Plovers and four Dunlin but there was no sign of the
Knot, which had obviously just made a brief visit. As we were scanning all the birds just
scattered and Ken then picked up a Peregrine over the lagoon, which had
obviously caused the panic. I then went
to shoveler hide with Ken and had further views of the two Scaup.
Drake Mallard on lagoon three
Coots in territorial dispute on lagoon thre
Summer adult Black-headed Gull on lagoon three
On walking back to the centre
we stopped close to the badger hide and were watching a couple of Treecreeper
when a Water Vole appeared from under the bridge and swam a short way down
stream before disappearing, which was a nice end to the day.
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