Roger and I were out today and
we decided to go to Eyebrook Reservoir first.
We stopped on a couple of occasions on route but saw nothing species,
although we did have two roadside Green Woodpeckers.
We approached Eyebrook
Reservoir from the southern end and found a Tree Sparrow and a Lesser
Whitethroat near the first gateway. At
the northern end we found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers on the exposed mud and
two Red Kites were observed perched in a distant tree. Four Common Terns were over the water and
there were still two Shelduck remaining.
After just over an hour on site we moved off to the Egleton Reserve at
Rutland Water.
Male Linnet
Female Linnet
Female Linnet
Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer
On arrival we went straight to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four as there had been four Knot and several Dunlin
yesterday. There was no sign of the Knot
but we did find three Dunlin and four Ringed Plovers. The brood of Shelduck seen earlier in the
week were still present and there were three Little Egrets, an Oystercatcher
and four Yellow-legged Gulls present.
One of the Yellow-legged Gulls was an adult whilst the other three were
all third-year birds. A Red Kite was
then observed towards Oakham and I heard a Lesser Whitethroat on several
occasions but couldn’t find it.
Great Crested Grebe
Common Tern
A visit to shoveler hide on
lagoon three produced a female Gadwall with a brood of nine and several Common
Tern chicks could be seen on the tern rafts but it was difficult to see
precisely how many. A Little Grebe was
escorting three young and I found another with a single young bird. These were presumably the same pair I had seen
on Wednesday when then there were only three young visible. A Great Crested Grebe was observed escorting
a brood of four and it was quite comical seeing the young trying to get onto
its back. Three did manage to get on but
the forth had to be content with staying on the water. There was at least one Reed Warbler singing
and another was observed briefly.
A visit to plover hide on lagoon
four produced nothing new but we did have further views of the Ringed Plovers
and Dunlin and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew over as we started to walk
back to the centre.
Common Tern over lagoon four
Common Tern over lagoon four
As we walked back to the car
park for lunch it started to rain, and with it still raining after lunch we
went to the centre to view lagoon one.
We found a female Shoveler with a brood of seven, two female Gadwall
with broods of ten and nine and a female Tufted Duck with a brood of two and
there was also a pair of Little Grebe escorting four young. There was also ten Little Egrets on the
lagoon. As the rain eased we decided to
go to the Lyndon Reserve in the south arm.
We saw eight Tree Sparrows and
a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the feeders just outside the centre before setting
off for shallow water hide. On route we
saw both Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat and we heard both Chiffchaff and
Willow Warbler. After taking a short
break in Tufted Duck hide to shelter from another shower we continued on to
shallow water hide but hadn’t gone too far when we received a text. Apparently a Gannet had been reported at
Eyebrook Reservoir at 13:00 but as it was now 15:20 and there had been no
further reports we continued on to shallow water hide.
The two Ospreys were observed
on a perch and the nest but eventually one flew off probably to feed. Six Little Egret were observed on the far
shore and there were several Shoveler close to the hide and a pair of Great
Crested Grebe were nesting just a few feet away. The phone then burst into action with message
indicating that the Gannet was still at Eyebrook Reservoir and could be seen
from Stoke Dry car park. We decided to
go and got back to the centre in about fifteen minutes, which is a pretty good
time for two old stagers.
As we approached Stoke Dry car
park young Erik was there but we couldn’t see the Gannet. Erik informed us that it had just flown and
was now out of sight, although he didn’t think it had gone too far. We drove around to the Leicestershire bank
where we met Ken who informed us that it was still there. The adult was sitting on the water just in
front of the plantation and was gradually drifting back towards the car
park. After watching it for a few minutes
we drove back to the car park and went into the plantation to get a better
view. It was still drifting towards the
car park but I managed to get a couple of shots of it before we returned to the
car park. It started to rain again and
so Roger and I decided to call it a day and headed off home.
Gannet
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