I saw a single Red Kite
perched in a tree just of east of Blaston as I travelled to Eyebrook
Reservoir. There were two Shelduck, a
couple of Pintail and a Little Egret at the inlet at Eyebrook Reservoir but
there was no sign of any waders on the exposed mud.
Red Kite at Eyebrook Reservoir
I continued on to the Lyndon
Reserve at Rutland Water and found ten Tree Sparrows on the feeders. As I walked towards shallow water hide the
mist thickened but I did see four Chiffchaffs, a couple of Whitethroat and a
Treecreeper. There was a Blackcap and a
Lesser Whitethroat along the path to the hide but the mist was now quite a
dense fog. When I opened the flap in the
hide I could see the water but not very much of it and I certainly couldn’t see
the Osprey nests or perches. There was a
single Snipe feeding on the shore and I eventually managed to find four Pintail
and a couple of Yellow Wagtails dropped in briefly. The fog eventually began to cleat a little
and I could make out the outline of the Osprey nest but no Osprey. It was a while longer before I could see the
two perches and the two Ospreys, one on each perch. It is surprising that these two are staying as
late as they didn’t breed but they have been clearly holding territory. Two Common Sandpipers dropped in just before
I left and made my way back to the centre.
On arrival back at the centre
there were still quite a few birds at the feeders and a Willow Tit came in,
making two visits to the feeders before disappearing.
As I drove to the Egleton
Reserve I called Erik to see if he was around but he was still at home but said
he would be arriving soon. When I
arrived in the car park Rick was having his lunch and as both Ken and Erik were
due to arrive I decided to have an early lunch.
Erik arrived and he, Rick and
myself went to the centre to view lagoon one.
A Kingfisher had apparently made several visits and it wasn’t too long
before it was seen perched on one of the posts only for a second to flash
across the lagoon. Two Water Rails made
an appearance and provided some nice views.
Ken had arrived and saw both the Water Rails and a Kingfisher. Wader wise there was a Snipe, eight Ruff and
three Green Sandpipers and a Garganey was also observed.
Erik, Ken and I then set off
to sandpiper hide on lagoon four were we eventually found two Ringed Plovers,
two Dunlin, a Curlew and a single Greenshank flew in and Erik picked up a
Wheatear on the island eight sign.
A visit to shoveler hide on
lagoon three produced well over a thousand wildfowl, mainly Gadwall and Tufted
Duck but there was also a few Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and Pochard and three
Pintail. We then had a juvenile Hobby
flying over the reedbed and woodland and was seen to land in one of the trees
providing nice scope views. An adult
Hobby was also observed and a third Water Rail, a Green Sandpiper and a Sedge
Warbler were observed quite close to the hide.
Green Sandpiper
Migrant Hawker
We decided to go to Dunlin
hide on lagoon four to see if there were any unusual but other than a few
Yellow-legged Gulls there was nothing else.
A Peregrine flew over spooking most birds and almost came into the hide
as it flew in front of us before heading off towards lagoon three. Osprey 51 was still present and flew around a
couple of times with his catch.
Osprey 51
Erik and I called at grebe
hide on lagoon two and saw our fifth Green Sandpiper of the afternoon but other
than a Little Egret it was rather quiet.
Back in the centre the first
bird I saw was a Wood Sandpiper just in front of the hide that was presumably
the one that has been present for a while now and there was also a couple of
Black-tailed Godwits.
Another birder informed us
that he had seen a Stonechat from harrier hide but we couldn't make anything
out from the centre. Erik had to go but
I walked around to harrier hide in the hope of finding the reported Stonechat.
On reaching the hide there was a Curlew present and a Blackcap, Lesser
Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler performed well in the bushes to the right of the
hide but there was no sign of any Stonechat.
I went into both snipe hide on the wet meadow and mallard hide on lagoon
one to get a different view of the area but failed to find any chat and
eventually called it a day.
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