I was out with Dave and Roger
today and we headed for Eyebrook Reservoir first seeing a couple of Green
Woodpeckers near Tut Langton on route and a Red Kite along the Great Easton
Road.
We arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir at the southern end and found at least eleven Tree Sparrows around
the old feeding station and there was a Little Egret feeding close to the hide
and two Green Sandpipers at the island.
The Little Owl did not oblige today and we only saw just a couple of
Whitethroats from the bridge. We found
three Dunlin, a single Snipe, five Common Sandpipers and two more Green
Sandpipers on the mud at the inlet.
Roger then found a female Mandarin roosting on the bank of the inlet
stream and there was an adult and immature Shelduck. As we were heading off to Rutland Water an
Osprey was observed over the reservoir and we had also seen a couple of Red
Kites during our stay.
At Rutland Water a brief stop
at the feeding station produced several Blue and Great Tits and also a single
Marsh Tit. From the Bird Watching Centre
we found a nice summer plumage Knot, a Ruff and a couple of Green Sandpipers on
lagoon one and there were at least twelve Little Egrets. As we walked towards lagoon two we heard a
Willow Warbler and found a Treecreeper, which was my first since May 15th. The water level on lagoon two had dropped
quite a bit and there was a nice area of mud in front of grebe hide. We found a Ruff, five Snipe and ten Green
Sandpipers feeding on the area but there was no sign of yesterday’s Garganey.
A single Little Ringed Plover,
six Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin and a Common Sandpiper were found from sandpiper
hide and there was also an adult and juvenile Shelduck and a single
Yellow-legged Gull. Seven distant
Buzzards were observed soaring over Burley Wood but they were not joined by any
other raptors. Whilst the water level on
lagoon three is looking good disappointingly the area was almost devoid of
birds with only a few Moorhen feeding.
There were plenty of ducks on the lagoon, mainly Gadwall and Tufted Duck
but there were also smaller numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Pochard and a
single Shoveler but we were unable to find two Pintail that had been reported
earlier.
There had been a report of a
male Red-backed Shrike at Baston Fen in Lincolnshire early this morning and it
had been reported again mid-morning. As
it was only about twenty miles away we discussed the possibility of going for
it as it is not too often we get the chance to see a male these days. After some lunch in the Egleton car park we
decided it was worth going and we left Rutland Water for Baston.
Although it wasn’t too clear
exactly where the fen was we did find it quite easily and after a walk along
one of the banks we joined a group of birders who informed us it had been seen
a few minutes ago in a not too distant bush.
We trained our scopes on the bush but another birder who had arrived
after us picked it up in a dead bush that was further away in the corner of the
field. As we turned to have a look he
announced it had dropped out but it was soon back in the bush. Although it was rather distant it did remain
in the bush some time and the views were quite adequate through the scope and
what a cracking bird they are. Many
years ago I can remember seeing several of these in Suffolk in a single day but
now they are quite a scarce migrant and mainly coastal and so it was nice to
get one so close to our local patch.
With the weather appearing
rather threatening we set off back towards Rutland but stopped at an area
between the fen and Baston to view an old flooded gravel pit. There were quite a few gulls present, mainly
Black-headed Gull but we also found a few Common and Lesser Black-backed Gulls
and a single Herring Gull. Whilst
scanning we also found a couple of Ruff and a Common Sandpiper and finally had
four Ruff in flight.
We called at Eyebrook
Reservoir again on route home but were unable to find a juvenile Mediterranean
Gull that Andy Mackay had seen near the island but we did find a couple of
Garganey and an extra Dunlin as there were now four present.
We had seen a good selection
of birds today with the Red-backed Shrike being the icing on the cake.
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