I visited Eyebrook Reservoir
first this morning and drove in from the northern end where there was no sign
of the Little Owls. There had clearly
been some rain overnight as it was very wet underfoot. I parked overlooking the area of exposed mud
but found only two juvenile Shelduck of interest. I decided to go back to the Leicestershire
bank to get and different view and found three Ruff and a Yellow Wagtail but
there was little else in evidence.
I moved on to Rutland Water
and went to the Lyndon Reserve where there we a few birds on the feeders,
mainly Blue Tit and Great Tit but also a single Tree Sparrow. I scanned the water from the footpath and
found four Black Terns feeding over the south arm just below Lax Hill along
with two Common Terns. I continued to
walk along the top path to shallow water hide seeing a couple of Chiffchaff on
route. On reaching the hide there appeared
to be fewer birds than last week but both Ospreys were still present. I did find a single Ruff and a Green
Sandpiper on the edges of Manton Bay and a single Pintail was feeding just off
shore. One of Osprey flew off,
presumably to fish, whilst the other remained on the perch. After a short while it began calling and
initially I thought the male was coming back with a fish but it was calling as
a Buzzard was close. A small bush to the
left of the hide provided nice views of another Chiffchaff and a couple of
Long-tailed Tits but with little else I decided to walk back to the centre.
Juvenile Lapwing
Juvenile Ruff
House Martin collecting mud
Robin
Chiffchaff
Long-tailed Tit
I saw another four Chiffchaffs
along the first stretch of woodland and then another just past the turning to
wader scrape hide, where there was also a Willow Warbler singing. There had been no sign of the Spotted Crake
this morning and so I continued on to Tufted Duck hide. I hadn’t been in the hide many minutes when I
heard a Kingfisher calling and it flew in front of the disappearing behind some
emergent vegetation. It called again and
flew back across the small pool in to the bushes on the right but wasn’t seen
again. There were plenty of Cormorants
roosting in the tree and bunds and there was a single Little Egret visible in
Heron Bay. I moved back to the centre where
there were know at least seven Tree Sparrows on the feeders but little else.
Cormorant
When I arrived in the car park
on the Egleton Reserve I called Roger who had gone down to lagoon four but as
there was nothing worth rushing down there for I went in to the centre to kill
some time before I had my lunch. As I
sat down a couple were discussing the identity of something just in front of
the centre. I scanned and picked up two
waders close to the first small island and through the scope I identified one
was a juvenile Wood Sandpiper and the otheraa juvenile Redshank. The water level has dropped quite a bit on
lagoon one and is now far more attractive to waders. Chris Hughes came into the hide and whilst
looking for the Wood Sandpiper he found a couple of Ruff and there were at
least six Snipe and three Green Sandpipers quite close and a Pintail fed close
by. We could also see a few waders at
the back of the lagoon and Chris decided he would go and take a look from
harrier, whilst I decided to have an early lunch before going round to harrier.
When I joined Chris in the
hide he had seen several Ringed Plovers, a Dunlin, two Ruff, three Green
Sandpiper and a Greenshank. I soon seen
all that Chris had seen and added a Little Ringed Plover that was with the
Ringed Plovers. Tim then joined us in
the hide and he found a third Ruff as well as picking up the immature Marsh
Harrier as it flew towards the hide and headed off over the wet meadow. I called Roger to let him know about the
harrier and he picked it up from the centre.
Tim then found a Whinchat perched in a bush to the left of the hide and
I was back on the phone to Roger who was able to pick it up from the centre.
When I got back to the centre
I had informed Eric about the increased numbers of waders present and arranged
to meet him in Dunlin hide on lagoon four.
I couldn’t find the Wood Sandpiper or the Redshank from the centre but a
Hobby flew over and headed off to the west.
I was leaving the centre to head off to lagoons three and four Ken
arrived and I waited for him before setting off to Shoveler hide on lagoon
three. There were two more Green
Sandpipers and seven Pintail on the lagoon but despite the number of wildfowl
we couldn’t find anything else of note.
Little Egret on lagoon three
Eric was in Dunlin hide when
we arrived and he had already located an adult winter Mediterranean Gull
amongst the roosting gulls. I short
while afterwards he saw a adult Little Gull arrive but it only stayed very
briefly and I only picked it up as it was flying off to the south. I counted four Little Ringed Plovers and nine
Ringed Plovers amongst the rocky areas and there was also a single Dunlin, five
Ruff and a Greenshank. An Osprey was
observed perched on one of the perches before it flew off.
Osprey
We visited Lapwing hide and
observed five very distant Black Terns feeding close to south arm two. There was a large raft of Tufted Ducks but
other than a few Great Crested Grebes there was little else and we returned to
the centre.
Ann and Richard were in the
centre and had seen most of the waders we had seen earlier but they had been
unable to find the Pintail. We found the
Wood Sandpiper to the right of the hide with a couple of Ruff and there were
now nine Snipe present. Just after Ann and Richard departed I found the Pintail
again and also a single Garganey. Colin
then called to see what we had seen as he and Chris were having a tea in the
car park. They had looked for the Wood
Sandpiper from harrier hide but failed to see it and said they would probably
join us. Ken who was last to get on the
Garganey said he had a second, which was now alongside the other one. Colin and Chris then arrived and after
watching the Wood Sandpiper for a few minutes Colin said that he had four
Garganey and surprisingly there were now four right in front of the centre. As we were looking around the lagoon the
Lapwing and other birds took to flight, with the Lapwing rising quite high and
a few seconds later there was a immature female Peregrine flying over the
centre.
What had started off as a
pretty quiet day and turned out to be an excellent days birding with nice
birds.
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