At Rutland Water we went
straight to the north arm and found the two Great White Egrets close to the
bund along with twenty-one Little Egrets and we found another Little Egret
close to a group of resting Greylag Geese.
Dave then said he had a White-fronted Goose amongst the Greylags but
then wasn’t sure. Roger and I got on the
bird and it was clearly not a Greylag being smaller and slighter in build. Dave’s initial identification was correct and
it was in fact a juvenile White-fronted Goose as there were no bars across the
belly. Its bill appeared more orange
than pink, not as deep as the Greylag’s, but clearly orange and there was also
some white around the base of the bill, although nothing like the blaze of an
adult. The orange bill suggested that it
was in fact a Greenland White-front. I
called Steve to discuss the find and then Andy to tweet the sighting. Tim then called me after missing my call and
came join us when the geese were a little closer on the water and agreed with
our identification. Roger then found the
Slavonian Grebe and Long-tailed Duck and a little later the very distant two
Black-necked Grebes. There were five
Red-crested Pochard to the right along with twenty-seven Pintail and we heard a
Redshank calling but didn’t see it.
Record shot of the Slavonian Grebe
We went to end of the
Hambleton Peninsular in the hope of finding the Cattle Egret but were
unsuccessful and all we saw were ten Fieldfares going over.
From the Bird Watching Centre
we found another thirty-three Pintail on lagoon one and eight on lagoon two. There was also six Curlew on the freshly cut
meadow and a Snipe on the long island.
We called at Lyndon next where
we found a large raft of Tufted Duck and Coot but they were not easy to see do
to the vegetation. We eventually found a
good observation point and found a single drake Scaup, a drake hybrid Scaup and
what was presumably a Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid. It more closely resembled a Tufted Duck but
the tuft wasn’t quite right and it had a deep chestnut cap.
Our intention was to spend
until lunchtime at Rutland Water and then move on to Eldernell and despite the
fresh south-east wind we decided to continue with the plan and headed off to
Eldernell.
On arrival at Eldernell it was
still quite windy and quite dull and the weather didn’t really get any
better. There is work taking place to
reinforce the South Bank Barrier and new public footpath access has been
arranged below the bank on washes side.
The overall project is planned to take four years but will only take
place between the autumn and spring to prevent disturbance to nesting birds.
The new footpath allowed us to
walk east but lacks the height gained by completing the same work along the top
bank and only allows views of the washes and not the fields to the south, which
are often good for wild swans. As we
walked out there was very little in terms of water and consequently few birds
but we did have several sighting of Buzzard towards the northern bank. Dave also picked up four Cranes in flight,
which were quite distant at first but they as they flew west they came closer
and passed us but were still much closer to the northern bank. As we watched the Cranes we also picked up a
Marsh Harrier, which looked like a male we had seen earlier to the west. The Cranes eventually came down but dropped
out of sight and we didn’t see them again.
When we got back to the car park we looked from the bridge that spans
the small river. Dave picked up a male
Hen Harrier that was flying east along the northern bank before it dropped out
of sight almost opposite the car park.
We continuing scanning and I then found the male Hen Harrier close to
the west of the car park and as we watched a ring-tail also appeared, providing
some nice, if a little distant views.
Two female-type Marsh Harriers also came in inducing the ringtail to
take to flight again but eventually they all dropped down and we assumed it was
the area they were using as a roost.
Roger found a male Stonechat perched on a fence post. As they light began there was still no sign
of the reported Barn and Short-eared Owls and so we called it a day and headed
off home.
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