A day’s birding in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire & Rutland - May 17, 2014

Dave, Roger and I met at Dave’s and decided to go to Willow Tree Fen in Lincolnshire as there had been a couple of Black-winged Stilts present for a couple of days.

We called at Eyebrook Reservoir on route and found the water level down a little.  There were two Little Egrets, a Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, two Ruff and a Redshank all at the inlet.  The two Ruff were in their splendid breeding plumage and at one point they flew up high and disappeared from view.  We thought they had gone but they were suddenly back feeding in the shallows a few minutes later but apparently they did leave at 09:00 after we had departed.

Satisfied we had exhausted Eyebrook Reservoir we moved off to Willow Tree Fen but on arrival the Black-winged Stilts had not been seen and had obviously moved on.  We did eventually see the Glossy Ibis and there were also a couple of Shelduck, four Little Egrets and two Redshanks on the marshy area.  Dave was also fortunate enough to see a Turtle Dove rise from the edge of the wetland and fly some distance but Roger and I failed to get on it.

From Willow Tree Fen we went back to Ketton in the hope that the warm weather would be good for butterflies.  On arrival we walked from the car park down to the cutting and found Grizzled Skipper on the area adjacent to the car park.  We also had our first of two Brown Argus and we had several more Grizzled Skippers, a couple of Green Hairstreak and plenty of Brimstone in the cutting.  We dropped into the barbecue area on the way back where we had a second Brown Argus and several more Grizzled Skippers and a nice Broad-bodied Chaser.

Grizzled Skipper

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

Broad-bodied Chaser

After some lunch we made our way, with Andy Mackay, down into the quarry area.  We saw several Dingy Skippers and another Green Hairstreak in this area and also a couple of Common Marsh and Burnet Companions.

We finally called it a day at Ketton and went to Rutland Water.  Ken had called and said that he had seen a couple of Sanderling and a Greenshank on lagoon four and so we made our way to dunlin hide where we had good views of the Sanderling and Greenshank and there was at least fifteen Ringed Plovers and two Dunlin on the lagoon.  We also saw a Jay and heard a Cuckoo, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap’ Garden Warbler and Whitethroat as we walked to the hide.

It had been a nice day, despite missing out on the stilts, with a good selection of birds and insects.