I called at Eyebrook Reservoir
first today but only visited the inlet.
There was a Green Sandpiper feeding in the inlet stream and I found
three Dunlin at the mouth of the inlet as well as a Common Sandpiper. There were plenty of gulls at the inlet;
mainly Black-headed but I did find a couple of Common and a single adult
Yellow-legged Gull. There were quite a
few Sand Martin and several House Martins over the water and at least fifteen
Swift were observed. An Osprey was
observed further down the reservoir and a Sparrowhawk flew over the inlet
flushing most of the birds. As the birds
began to settle I saw a forth Dunlin but there was nothing else of note and so
I moved onto Rutland Water.
On reaching Rutland Water I
went to the north arm where there had been a Black-necked Grebe yesterday. There was no sign of the grebe but I did see
four Greenshanks and a Common Sandpiper.
I spent some time trying, unsuccessfully, to photograph Sand Martins
that were numerous and flying low over the water. Two Red Kites and two Ospreys were also
observed over Burley Wood. I called Steve
to see if he had found the grebe but he had also had no luck but informed me
that there were four Red-crested Pochard and a Black-tailed Godwit in
Dickinson’s Bay.
Canada Geese over the north arm
Sand Martin over the north arm
I drove around to Barnsdale
and walked into Dickinson's Bay and found the Red-crested Pochard almost
straight away and also the Black-tailed Godwit, which was quite close to the
Pochard and there was a Greenshank a little further round.
Eclipse Mallard over the north arm
Juvenile Common Tern over the north arm
I walked to harrier hide once
on the Egleton Reserve but a single Little Egret was the highlight from there
and so I continued to fieldfare hide to see if the receding water level had
attracted any waders. The water level
was such that there was some exposed shoreline but there were no waders but I
did see a Clouded Yellow butterfly.
Lagoon six was pretty full and there was very little on it but from the
360° hide I found four Curlew, a Common
Sandpiper and five Greenshanks. I
assumed the Greenshanks were probably the five I had seen earlier as I had seen
four fly in the direction of the reserve.
Southern Hawker near snipe hide
Whilst I was having my lunch
Ken arrived and we then went into the centre to view lagoon one. There was a Green Sandpiper just in front of
the centre but there were fewer birds on the lagoon than of late although there
was noticeably more Shoveler today.
Steve then called to say that he and Terry were back in the north arm
and had found the Black-necked Grebe.
Ken and I decided to go and
take a look and Steve and Terry were still there when we arrived. As we walked towards them and Osprey flew
down the north arm and then went towards Burley. We were soon watching the Black-necked Grebe
that was starting to moult and looked a little drab. Steve then picked up a Hobby over Burley and
there was also a distant Buzzard.
On returning to the reserve
Ken and I set off towards sandpiper hide on lagoon four but called at both
redshank and grebe hides on lagoon two on route. We had nice views of a Sparrowhawk from
redshank and there was another Green Sandpiper from grebe hide.
On reaching sandpiper hide we
soon found two Black-tailed Godwits and five Dunlin on island seven and there
were two Little Ringed and seven Ringed Plovers between islands nine and
ten. A third Common Sandpiper was also
observed towards island eight and three Common Terns flew over.
Lagoon three is now full again and whilst
there were plenty of wildfowl there was nothing unusual.
As we walked back to the
centre Ken received a text informing him that there were two Whinchat at
Eyebrook Reservoir. We called in the
centre again as Terry had seen two Garganey and we did managed to find one,
albeit rather distant before moving onto Eyebrook Reservoir.
On reaching Eyebrook Reservoir
the Whinchat had disappeared and did not reappear despite a thorough search in
ninety minutes. I did see a fifth Dunlin
and a Peregrine flew over and a nice juvenile Little Gull was also observed as
it flew along the Leicestershire bank.
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