I drove to the southern end of
Eyebrook Reservoir first today where the light was superb. There were a few common passerines and
several Red-legged Partridge but nothing of real note. There were fifty Cormorants resting and
preening on the islands but other than a few Teal and Mallard and a single Grey
Heron there was nothing else. At the
inlet, the only waders I could find were Lapwing and a couple of Snipe and I
could only find seven Pintail today.
Again there was some common passerine activity with several Meadow
Pipits being the best. The cloud rolled
in whilst I was here and shortly afterwards I saw a single Red Kite and a
Kestrel.
I decided to visit the north
arm at Rutland Water and saw circa fifteen Swallow as I drove through
Egleton. There were lots of wildfowl and
Coots in the north arm but I could only find a single Pintail, although many
distant birds were roosting and they could have been more. There were at least twenty-six Little Grebes
spread out amongst the wildfowl and a single Greenshank was observed in
flight. There was a single Red Kite
briefly over Burley Wood and while watching this I saw four Skylarks heading
west.
Tufted Duck over the north arm
Coot in the north arm
Great Black-backed Gull in the north arm
On arrival at Egleton I spoke
to Bob who I had not seen for several weeks and he said he might have had a
juvenile Scaup on lagoon four. I
therefore headed off to sandpiper hide on lagoon four and found the possible
Scaup straight away. It looked possible
and so I took a photo but it then drifted off and eventually went to
sleep. Whilst it was roosting there
appeared to be a short tuft and it was then joined by two other Athya ducks
that looked quite similar and eventually came to the conclusion that they were
immature Tufted Ducks. There were two
Pintail close to the Tufted Duck and a third was found close to island four and
a Ruff and Greenshank were quite mobile around the lagoon. Bob then returned and we briefly discussed
the presumed immature Tufted Duck before he re-found two Ringed Plovers, a
Dunlin and a second Ruff that he had seen earlier.
Presumed juvenile Tufted Duck
Bob and I started to scan
Burley Wood and were joined by Mike and Brian.
We found several Buzzards, a Red Kite, a couple of Sparrowhawks, two
Hobbies, a Kestrel and a Raven and Bob had seen a Peregrine earlier.
We all eventually called it a
day and I went back to the car park for lunch.
After lunch I went into the centre but other than a single Pintail and
three Little Egrets there was little. I
noticed a couple of Hobby feeding quite close to Redshank hide on lagoon two
and decided to go and hope they were still there. On arrival there was no sign but there was
one over Brown’s Island at the back of lagoon one. I moved onto grebe hide on lagoon two where
there were a couple of Pintail and a Greenshank and the Hobby was still visible
over Brown’s Island. A second Hobby then
appeared much closer but flew behind the hide and disappeared.
I continued on to shoveler
hide on lagoon three but there was very little close to the hide as there had
been a working party there this morning.
However they had now finished and birds were slowly returned, although
two Green Sandpipers flew off towards lagoon two. As I was setting my scope up to view the
wildfowl at the back of the lagoon I heard a Grey Plover call. I sat down to look out of the flaps not
really expecting to find it and it called again and as I scanned the sky I
found not one but seven flying over the lagoon to the west. They continued over towards lagoon four and I
called Steve to see where he was as I thought they might come down on lagoon
four. He was at the bottom of the ramp
leading to sandpiper hide and had heard them but couldn’t see them. At this time I could still see them but they
had gone beyond lagoon four and were still heading west and not looking as if
they would come down. This was certainly
the most I had seen in the counties but fell well short of the record of
twenty-one here in 1982. I then picked
up a Marsh Harrier low over the reedbed, which was immediately mobbed by two
Hobbies and dropped back into the reeds.
I did notice the green wing-tags and it was therefore the juvenile from
Norfolk, which had now been present since at least the 8th. Presumably the two Hobbies were the same I
had seen several times throughout the day and were just very active feeding on
the abundance of dragonflies. A Snipe also
dropped in and two Green Sandpipers returned.
A Little Egret then provided some entertainment when it caught a rather
large perch, which looked too big for it to swallow. However after quite some time it did manage
to succeed and the fish could be seen stuck in its neck. The bugle soon disappeared and after a
several sips of water in carried on feeding.
Little Egret with Perch
Little Egret showing neck bulge after swallowing the Perch
Juvenile Hobby over lagoon three
Steve then joined me in the
hide and just after he heard a Water Rail I found it just to the right of the
hide in the base of the reeds.
Steve and I then went to
Lapwing hide where he found three Goldeneye, which were my first of the autumn.
There was then a message
regarding a Stonechat in front of Mallard hide on lagoon one and so I decided
to go and have look before I went home.
On arrival there was no sign and it didn’t appear in the thirty minutes
I spent in the hide but I did find six Pintail on the lagoon.
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