Today I left home in crystal
clear conditions but as I approached Kibworth a few miles away there was some
mist, which thickened into a fog the closer I got to the Eyebrook Reservoir. As I dropped down to the reservoir the
conditions improved and it wasn’t too bad at the reservoir with reasonable
visibility. I stopped to look for the
Little Owl in the old oak and Malcolm pulled up behind me and we eventually
found the owl when it moved positions slightly.
There appeared to be far fewer birds at the inlet with no Golden Plover
and just a few Lapwings and gulls, although we did find four Dunlin and a male
Stonechat and I saw a Sparrowhawk just before turning up the hill to Stoke Dry.
When we reached the north arm
at Rutland Water the visibility was very poor and so we decided to go the
reserve. The visibility was a little
better although it was quite variable whilst we were looking over lagoon one
from the centre. I managed to count twenty-eight
Pintail, with another seventeen on lagoon two, and we heard a Curlew calling
but saw nothing else of note except for a single Yellow-legged Gull. Roger arrived and after a few minutes we
decided to go to Shoveler hide on lagoon three.
As we walked through the meadows we saw a Fieldfare, three Song Thrush
and eight Redwings, all of which have been quite scare of late. A search for Siskin near grebe hide proved
unsuccessful and we continued to Shoveler hide.
When we entered the hide Norman had found the juvenile Red-necked Grebe,
which had been found two days ago and the visibility was quite good as we were
able to see right across the lagoon.
There were two Black-tailed Godwits, which eventually flew off over the
hide, on one of the islands and we found seven Snipe but there was little else
except for a single Little Egret and a Yellow-legged Gull.
As the visibility wasn’t too
bad Malcolm decided to go to the north arm whilst Roger, Norman and I went to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four. The lagoon
must now be on top water but there were few birds with three Shelduck and two
Yellow-legged Gulls being the highlights.
Malcolm then called and said
he had seen a couple of Siskin with Goldfinches close to grebe hide and so we
decided to go and have a look. We soon
found the party of birds and eventually managed to find the two Siskin. We called in the centre again before we had
lunch and found two drake Goosanders at the back of the lagoon.
After lunch we went to the
north arm where we found Malcolm, Norman and Richard. The two long staying Great White Egrets were
in the far corner of the bund along with twenty Little Egrets. We found a male and two female Goosanders in
the fishponds, seven Pintail, another two Little Egrets in the north arm and the
Slavonian Grebe wasn’t too far off shore and was providing nice views. Two Redshanks were observed flying over the
water and a Tawny Owl was heard.
Eventually there was just Roger and I left and as we were unable to
locate either the Long-tailed Duck or Black-necked Grebes we decided to go back
to the centre.
I initially bought some seed
before going upstairs to view the lagoon but there was nothing new and with the
fog coming down again I decided to call it a day.
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