On route to Rutland Water I
had two Red Kites, one near Stockerston and the other just outside Preston.
I arrived at an empty car park
at Egleton and after getting sorted started to walk towards the centre with the
intention of going to snipe hide on the wet meadow. I hadn’t gone too far down the entrance road
when Tim arrived and he kindly gave me a lift to snipe hide, as he wanted to
check out the brood of Avocets. On
entering the hide we were soon able to verify that all three chicks were safe
and busily feeding with the two adults keeping a watchful eye. There had been broods on both lagoons five
and seven but all of the young had been predated, which has been the result of
all previous young hatched at Rutland Water.
The wet meadow provides a better level of cover and hopefully the three
young will survive and be the first fledging for the reserve. There is another nest, also on the wet
meadow, and one of the birds was still sitting tight. I also saw a single Oystercatcher chick along
with two adults but there was no sign of the Redshank brood seen in May but at
least one adult was still present. A single
Little Egret trying to feed on the wet meadow was given a hard time by one of
the Avocets and eventually flew off. I
picked up three distant Ospreys that were soaring over the north arm but they
eventually moved away.
From harrier hide I saw another
Little Egret and had closer views of the Avocet sitting on the nest but there
was very little else. Three
Oystercatchers were seen in area displaying around lagoon six and another
Avocet was feeding at the edge of one of the islands.
Oystercatcher over lagoon six
I continued around the
footpath to the 360° hide before carrying on to Shelduck
hide on the same lagoon. There was an
Oystercatcher and a Little Egret on lagoon five and a Great Crested Grebe was
observed with at least one young on its back.
From the walkway up to Shelduck hide it is possible to look back onto
lagoon seven, where there are apparently twenty Common Tern nests. However although a saw a few terns it was not
possible to see the nests due to the vegetation, which is probably a good
thing. There were two more Oystercatchers
on the lagoon and a Buzzard was over lagoon six as I walked back towards the 360° hide.
Lapwing over lagoon five
I made my way back to the
centre I had some nice views of male Great Spotted Woodpecker that was at the
Egleton feeding station. I then moved on
to plover hide on lagoon four, seeing and photographing two Mistle Thrushes on
the path. Nigel was in the hide and had
already found two Ringed Plovers and a Yellow-legged Gull. I then found a Green Sandpiper and another
two third-year Yellow-legged Gulls and there were two Oystercatchers on island
three.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
A visit to shoveler hide on
lagoon three produced a few Common Terns but very little else and certainly
nothing of note.
A visit into sandpiper hide on
lagoon four proved quite productive.
There were fifteen Little Egrets in front and slightly left of the hide
and four more Ringed Plovers. Steve then
joined us and picked up two Red Kites and four Ravens over Burley Wood and we
found an adult Yellow-legged Gull. Steve
and Nigel both left as I continued to watch a couple of Ospreys over the wood
and I then picked up a distant Hobby. I
then noticed five Ravens over the wood and watched them as they flew towards
the northwest corner of lagoon four before flying directly over dunlin hide and
dropping into the first meadow. I
finally made my way back to the car park for lunch.
Mistle Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Little Egrets on lagoon four
Four-spotted Chaser from the summer trail
Having covered most of the
reserve before lunch I was undecided as what to do next but Steve then said
that there were two Black Terns over south arm three. I went to the centre and soon found the terns
still hawking over south arm three.
Other than a Red Kite passing over and a distant Hobby over lagoon three
there was very little else and I went to the Lyndon Reserve.
Grey Heron on lagoon one
When I arrived at the Lyndon
Centre there were quite a few passerines on the feeders including at least five
Tree Sparrows. A pair of Kestrel had
bred in the box in front of the centre and five birds had fledged. Two of the juveniles were perched on the dead
tree close to the nest box and I decided to go and try and photograph them.
Juvenile Kestrels at Lyndon
The kestrels eventually
disappeared from view and I decided to make my way home but call at Eyebrook
Reservoir on route.
I saw very little on route to
Eyebrook Reservoir and as it was difficult to see from the Rutland bank I went
to the corral on the Leicestershire side to view. There was quite a nice piece of exposed mud
but I couldn't see it too well due to the vegetation. I did manage to find two Redshanks but other
than Lapwings and Black-headed Gulls there was little else. As I scanned the far shore I picked up
eight Yellow Wagtails in flight over one of the fields on the Rutland side and
shortly afterwards noticed two ducks flying from the inlet. They passed right in front of the corral and
I was surprised to see that they were a pair of Garganey. They continued past the corral and dropped
out of sight on the Leicestershire bank.
I called Steve to inform him as I knew he was intending to come over
later. As I was thinking of leaving I
found the two Garganey further along the bank and just as Steve arrived they
flew back towards the inlet and came down behind the island of Juncus. Steve managed to seen them in flight and he
picked them up again as they swam out from behind the Juncus.
It was time for me to leave
and I had a Red Kite and a Buzzard just as I was driving away.
Whilst it appeared to be a
little quieter at first today I had still seen eighty species of birds that
included a pair of Garganey and two nice summer plumage Black Terns. I had also seen a Meadow Brown and Large
Skipper butterflies, a Chimney Sweeper moth and a Four-spotted Chaser at
Rutland Water all of which were firsts for the year.
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