Thursday 25 September 2014

A morning in Leicestershire - September 25, 2014

Dave and I made a visit to Dean’s Lane in the hope of seeing some visible migration.  On arrival Steve was already there and said “I wouldn’t bother getting out of the car”, apparently it was pretty quiet.  We stayed about two hours and had over 150 Meadow Pipits, twenty-two Linnets, twenty-one Swallows and forty-two House Martins, although we weren’t sure if the House Martins were actual migrants or local birds.  Twelve Jays also flew north and it looks as though there might be another irruption.  During our stay we also had three Sparrowhawks, five Buzzards, two Kestrel, at least three Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Raven and a Nuthatch and heard a Chiffchaff and a Treecreeper.

From Dean’s Lane we drove the short distance to Blackbrook Reservoir.  As we walked down the track to the reservoir it was pretty quiet although we heard a Green Woodpecker and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over.  On reaching the reservoir the water was pretty low and there were several Little Grebes around the bridge.  We counted thirty-seven Mandarins, mainly on the southern shore with just a few on the northern shore.  Five Swallows over the water were the only birds of note.


Our next stop was Swithland Reservoir and we stopped on causeway first where we had a Buzzard and plenty of wildfowl, which were mainly Wigeon.  The northern side was rather low and we eventually found a female-type Goldeneye.  There was also three Buzzards over Buddon Wood and two Jay flew over.

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