I called at Eyebrook Reservoir
on route to Rutland Water where I found two Little Ringed Plovers, a Ringed
Plover, a Dunlin and a Redshank on the mud at the inlet. I also found a single Garganey and there was
a Little Egret in the inlet stream and a couple of Common Terns on one of the
rafts.
At Rutland Water I went to the
Egleton Reserve and walked towards the northern lagoons calling at grebe hide
on lagoon two first. On route to the
hide I saw a single female/juvenile Blackcap and two Chiffchaffs.
From the hide there were four
Snipe and five Green Sandpipers but I saw very little else and so I moved on to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four.
There were three Dunlin right
in front of the hide and I eventually found six along with seven Ringed
Plovers. Four immature Shelduck were
resting on island one and as usual there was a concentration of Common Terns on
the area between islands nine and ten, with forty being present. This is fewer than I seen in recent weeks and
I wonder if they are actually starting to move or are they just visiting other
areas of the reservoir. As I was about
to leave the hide two Common Sandpipers flew from right under the hide and
landed on the near shore. I had also
seen four Buzzards, an Osprey and a Raven over Burley Wood.
Despite the water level
looking really good in front of shoveler hide on lagoon three there is very
little with just a few Moorhen finding the area to their liking. There were plenty of ducks on the lagoon,
mainly Gadwall but there were also small numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Mallard,
Pochard and Tufted Duck and an odd Shoveler.
Three Snipe were eventually found feeding amongst the reeds just in
front of the hide and it is amazing how they can seem to disappear.
Snipe
There was also a Reed Warbler
briefly as it moved through the reeds rather quickly and two Ospreys were over
the north arm and shortly afterwards four Red Kites. I moved to buzzard hide on lagoon three to
get a view of the water close to the islands but there was nothing new and I
set off back to the centre for lunch.
I had a quick word with Tim on
getting back to the centre and was joined by Roger for lunch. Roger had been in the centre when I got back
and had seen a Hobby and Ruff and so when we had finished our lunch we went back
there in the hope they were still present.
Roger picked up the Hobby feeding at the back of the lagoon and shortly
afterwards we found the Ruff and four Little Ringed Plovers and a Common
Sandpiper on the nearest spit on the long island. We also found a Greenshank in the right hand
corner and there were nine Little Egrets.
As I called Steve to give him an update a Sparrowhawk flew low over the
water and off towards the wet meadow.
There had been a short shower
whilst in the centre but as the rain stopped we moved off towards grebe hide on
lagoon two. There were now eight Green
Sandpipers present but no sign of any Snipe and it started to rain again and so
we remained in the hide. We were
thinking of going out to the coast with Dave tomorrow but with little being
reported so far today and the weather looking very iffy I called Dave. As we were agreeing that it wasn’t a god idea
to go tomorrow I picked up a Bitter flying quite high over the lagoon as it
passed in front of the hide and headed off towards lagoon three. I called Tim to let him know about the
Bittern and we discussed that it had probably come from lagoon one, an area
they are not normally associated with.
Before lunch I had mentioned to him about trimming a willow tree that
was partially blocking the view from the centre and apparently he had spoke to
Joe and there were now a couple of volunteers doing just that. They hadn’t seen the Bittern but had seen
what they assumed was a heron flying off but was perhaps the Bittern as they
were more focussed on the task in hand.
The rain eventually stopped
and we continued to shoveler hide on lagoon three. Unlike this morning there was no a party of
Teal feeding on what looks like a good area for waders, which was encouraging. We did find two of the snipe right under the
hide and whilst one moved off the other stayed and eventually dozed as the rain
set in again. If I had not seen it
feeding I doubt I would have noticed whilst it was dozing as it almost
disappeared despite it still being quite visible. As the rain eased it started feeding again
and moved away from the hide.
Snipe
Despite Roger’s gallant effort
to find a Pintail on the lagoon we eventually gave up and went to sandpiper
hide on lagoon four.
We could only find a couple of
Dunlin but there were at least seven Ringed Plovers still present and we also
found two Little Ringed Plovers, an additional Common Sandpiper and a Redshank.
On returning to the centre the
view of the lagoon was now unrestricted as the willow and hawthorn bush had
been well pruned. Roger found a second
Ruff, the Greenshank was still present and there were now also two Green
Sandpipers.
We eventually called it a day
and headed off home.
No comments:
Post a Comment