I started out a little later
today due to the weather, which had been very wet yesterday with the rain not
forecast to clear before 09:00. When I
arrived at Eyebrook Reservoir the rain had almost ceased and did so shortly
afterwards but there was a brisk north-easterly wind, which raised expectations
for the day. I started at the southern
end of the reservoir but the highlight was a single Little Egret on the island
and numerous Swallows over the water. It
was quite at the inlet as well and only waders I located were two Green
Sandpipers. Three Shelduck were still
present but the wildfowl were mainly Mallard with just a few Teal. Again there were plenty of Swallows with a
few House Martins and I did find a single Yellow Wagtail.
As I drove to Rutland Water I
spoke to Steve who was in wader scrape hide but had not seen the Spotted Crake or
very little else. I then called Erik who
was in dunlin hide on lagoon four who informed me that there were juvenile
Little Stint and a Sanderling but I decided to check out the north arm before
going onto the reserve. This proved to
be pretty unproductive as other than a few Lapwing there wasn’t another wader
to be seen. There was a Little Egret in
the fishponds and two Ospreys were attempting to fish further down the arm,
which must have been difficult due to the rough weather. I counted forty-nine Egyptian Geese, with
most on the bund, and twenty Little Grebes.
When I arrived in the car park
at Egleton Lloyd informed me that both the Little Stint and Sanderling were
still present on lagoon four. I walked along the service road and joined Erik
in dunlin hide but initially all I saw was a Little Ringed Plover, a few Ringed
Plover and a couple of Dunlin. Further
scanning produced more Ringed Plovers, five more Dunlin, a Ruff, a Black-tailed
Godwit and a Greenshank and eventually the Little Stint. As we continued to scan Steve called to say
that there was a nice summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe off the dam. This is now quiet a rare bird for the
counties and new bird for Erik and so we walked back to the car park and drove
to the dam. The bird had moved further
across the dam but after a quick walk we soon had some excellent views of the
bird. It was quite obliging and came
close enough to get obtain a few decent photographs. It was my first sighting in the counties
since January 15th, 2011. As
we returned we had a Hobby fly over the dam.
Summer Red-necked Grebe
Having had good views we
returned the Egleton Reserve and after some lunch went into the centre to view
lagoon one. There were four Ruff on the
long island but other than a Little Egret there was little else of note. As we were scanning the lagoon the Lapwings,
the Ruff and some of the wildfowl took to flight and we then picked up a
juvenile Marsh Harrier, which then flew over the lagoon before heading off
towards lagoon three.
Juvenile Marsh Harrier
We returned to dunlin hide on
lagoon four but were unable to find either the Little Stint or Sanderling,
although what I thought was a distant roosting Greenshank turned out to be a
Bar-tailed Godwit. Terry had gone off to
plover hide in an attempt to find the Little Stint and when we joined him and
Steve in the hide they had located the Stint on one of the islands. It was a little closer then this morning and
offered better views but there was still no sign of the Sanderling. From plover hide I saw four Little Ringed
Plovers, a Curlew and a Common Sandpiper and there were at least fifteen Ringed
Plovers and three Greenshanks on the lagoon.
An Osprey was observed on the ground with a large trout and then on one
of the perches still eating the fish. A
Hobby flew over causing some disturbance before moving off towards lagoon three
and there were three Yellow Wagtails briefly on island three.
Common Sandpiper
The water level on lagoon
three was still high and although there were plenty of wildfowl nothing of note
was found. An Osprey flew off towards
the north arm carrying a fish which we assumed would be the bird on lagoon four
and a Hobby was observed on the northern edge of the lagoon.
I made one more attempt to
find the Sanderling from sandpiper hide on lagoon four but there was no sign
but Erik thought he had a Curlew Sandpiper that took to flight. Tim then found it on the strip of land
between island seven and ten, confirming Erik’s initial identification. It was a nice juvenile and a first for the
year for me but it had flown again before Colin and Steve entered the hide but
after some searching I found it again back in the same place. The Little Stint was also observed briefly
and the Osprey was still present minus the fish, which perhaps suggested it was
bonding with a female, which was almost certainly the bird we saw from lagoon
three.
Despite not seeing the
Sanderling it had been an excellent day with a year-tick, the Curlew Sandpiper,
and two county year ticks with the Red-necked Grebe and Little Stint. Steve had also had a Little Gull and a couple
of Sandwich Terns but they all just headed off east early this morning.
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