I arrived at the southern end
of Eyebrook Reservoir just before 08:00 where I found a Tree Sparrow and a
Yellow Wagtail but there was little else of note with just a single Dunlin at
the inlet being the only wader other than a few Lapwings. There was an adult and a juvenile Shelduck at
the inlet and five Common Terns nearby and a Red Kite and a Buzzard were
observed.
On arrival at Rutland Water I
initially decided to walk to snipe hide on the wet meadow where there was a
Little Egret and a Green Sandpiper but there was no sign of any Wood Sandpipers
today. I continued onto harrier hide
where I Sparrowhawk flashed by causing a panic of the few birds that were on
the wet meadow. With little else visible
at harrier I moved onto fieldfare hide but there was very little on the main
water. As I walked back along the track
from the hide there was a party of Long-tailed Tits and I stopped to try and
see them. As I watched two of them I
also had a brief few of a warbler flash through the foliage and then found a Garden
Warbler, which was my first in nearly a month.
Grey Heron from harrier hide
Peacock along path to snipe hide
Jackdaw from snipe hide
European Hare from snipe hide
I called at tern hide on
lagoon six and found a female Tufted Duck with a brood of four close to the
hide. There was also a single Egyptian
Goose and Oystercatcher on the lagoon and four Red Kites were observed in the
distance. Little else in evidence I
moved on to the 360°
hide. Again it was fairly
quiet but I did find a single Oystercatcher with a chick but worryingly a Red
Kite was still circling the lagoons. As
I moved back along the track towards the centre a Red Kite flew over quite low
being pursued by several Black-headed Gulls.
Tufted Duck duckling
Tufted Duck duckling
Female Tufted Duck
Female Tufted Duck with two of her brood of four
Red Kite
Black-tailed Skimmer
Ruddy Darter
During the walk around the
southern half of the reserve I had also seen a good selection of butterflies
and dragonflies that included a couple of Essex Skippers.
As I was having my lunch and
considering going to Bloody Oaks, Bob returned from the northern end of the
reserve but he hadn’t seen too much although he had seen an adult Mediterranean
Gull on lagoon four. Mike Chester then
arrived and so Mike and I set off for lagoon four and decided to go to dunlin
hide as we were likely to get a better view of the gulls. I scanned the area on island one where Bob
had seen the Mediterranean Gull and soon found sitting roosting amongst a party
of Black-headed Gulls. Whilst we were
watching it, it stood up and moved about on several occasions and could easily
have been overlooked as it often sat facing us with its head on its back and
showing very little of the key identification points. The larger gulls were resting on the islands
closer to the hide and there was fourteen Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the
Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls. There were six Ringed Plovers, a Green
Sandpiper and a Redshank close to island ten and an Oystercatcher on island
one. There was a large gathering of
Common Terns on the exposed area between island nine and ten and I counted
sixty-six with many juveniles. Two Buzzards
and three Ospreys were observed in the direction of Burley.
We moved on to shoveler hide
on lagoon three where there were two Curlew and several Green Sandpipers. I eventually counted ten Green Sandpipers and
a Greenshank appeared from behind the reed island and a Snipe on the edge of
the reedbed.
As I walked towards the centre
I heard a Whimbrel calling on several occasions and it flew directly over me
and off towards the east. I wondered if
it might have come down on lagoon one but there was no sign from the centre,
although I did find another Oystercatcher and two more Yellow-legged Gulls.
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