I was out with Dave and Roger
today and we called at Eyebrook Reservoir before continuing onto Rutland Water.
There was a lot of shooting
near Eyebrook Reservoir but we did find a Shelduck, a Little Stint, five
Dunlin, a Ruff and nine Snipe and I counted 307 Golden Plovers.
At Rutland Water we went to
the north first where we found three Dunlin on the north shore and Roger picked
up the two Black-necked Grebes close to Dickinson’s Bay. There were four Red Kites and four Buzzards
over Burley Wood and we counted ten Little Egrets scattered around the
arm. There appeared to be fewer ducks on
the water but we found a pair of Pintail and two drakes and a female Goldeneye.
Having exhausted the north arm
we went to the Egleton Reserve and viewed lagoon one form the Bird Watching
Centre. We could see both Redshank and
Curlew and eventually fond eight Redshanks and seven Curlews. There were also a few Pintail on the lagoon
and the Great White Egret was still present and feeding behind the long
island. After some lunch we went to
Shoveler hide on lagoon three, which not surprisingly was pretty full as there
had been two Jack Snipe yesterday and the Ring-necked Duck had also been seen
here recently. There were four
Black-tailed Godwits, two Green Sandpipers and a Redshank to the left of the
hide but there was no sign of the Jack Snipe.
The Ring-necked Duck had also been seen but had been lost and the person
who had seen it couldn’t relocate it. As
people scanned for the Ring-necked a male and female Scaup were found but the
Ring-necked remained elusive. I
eventually found it amongst the masses of Tufted Ducks but it was difficult
giving people direction as I could only see Tufted Ducks and a Mute Swan close
by and the reedbed behind, which wasn’t much help to anyone. Roger had still not seen the bird since its
arrival a few weeks ago and so I got it in the middle of the scope and then let
him look through it. However after a
brief look and twisting of the focussing he couldn’t see it. I looked through expecting to find again but
couldn’t and eventually most of the Tufted Duck had flown off towards South Arm
Three. We eventually came to the
conclusion that it had probably gone off with the Tufted Duck and went to
Lapwing hide to try from there. On
arrival there was a large raft of Tufted Ducks in front of the hide but even
more to the left of the hide, which were in pretty poor light. We were certain it wasn’t in the group in
front but most to the right were just dark silhouettes. Suddenly they all started to fly and went
back on to lagoon three and so we began to make our way back to Shoveler. I called at both crake and Buzzard hides on
route, seeing just a Little Egret from crake and a load of Tufted Ducks from
Buzzard. When I arrived back at Shoveler
hide there had been no sign and I was starting to move on to Dunlin hide on
lagoon one, another birder claimed to have it.
I set up my scope only to find out he was talking about one of the Scaup
but the scope was now up and I started to scan the Tufted Duck flock. I hadn’t been scanning too long when I found
again and this time Roger managed to see it through my scope but when another
birder looked it had disappeared again.
I started to look for it again without any success when I saw it coming
in from the right, got it the centre and the other birder looked unsuccessfully
again and we were then unable to find it again.
We eventually gave up and moved on to Dunlin hide on lagoon four.
Dave picked up a classic adult
Caspian Gull almost straight away and it provided us with some nice views as it
preened showing its under-wing. There
were also Black-headed, Common, Lesser Black-backed, Herring and Great
Black-backed Gulls resting and preening.
Small numbers of Golden Plovers were also observed but there was little
else. As we continued to look through
the gulls there was suddenly a mass panic and we found a female Marsh Harrier
flying low over the lagoon, which eventually passed almost over the hide
heading south. It also became apparent
that there were far more Golden Plovers than we thought and we estimated that
there were at least two hundred.
Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier
We called in the centre again
before going home where we had a second Marsh Harrier, this time a
juvenile. There was also thirty Pintail
and ten Redshank and a male Stonechat was observed on lagoon two.
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