I went to Great Glen first
this morning but found the view of the filter beds at the sewage works mainly
obscured by some new tanks and a couple of portacabins. There were also several workers on site
making plenty of notice and I couldn't see a single bird within the compound
and consequently saw very little during my brief visit.
I headed for Eyebrook
Reservoir seeing a six Redwing near Slawston and a Red Kite as I approached the
reservoir. When I arrived there were
masses of Common Gulls and possibly as many as a thousand with birds at both
the inlet and further down towards the dam.
The water level had also been dropped and there was a good expanse of
mud but all I could find were thirteen Snipe and a few Lapwings. More Lapwings began arriving and twenty
Golden Plover flew around for a while but didn’t land. Malcolm had joined me as he had been looking
for a red-headed Smew that had been present yesterday but had been unable to
find it, although he had seen an Otter near the bridge when he first
arrived. We went and viewed from Stoke
Dry as this was where the Smew had been but there was no sign. I decided to walk through the plantation to
see if the Smew had gone further up the reservoir and was tucked in close to
the Rutland bank. I walked as far as the
end of the first area of trees so I had a good view of the reservoir but all I
found were a few Pochard, Tufted Duck and Coot.
There was also very little in the plantation with Goldcrest, Treecreeper
and a few Bullfinch being the best. When
I got back to the car park a further scan failed to produce the Smew but I did
find the long staying Pink-footed Goose.
It was now about 11:30 and I
decided to go to Eldernell in the hope of seeing some Bewick’s and Whooper
Swans and also for the afternoon roost.
It was 13:30 when I arrived and the weather was beginning to improve
being a little brighter and the cloud breaking.
There is no flood water at present and consequently it can appear very
quiet but patience usually produces some good birds. There were at least four Kestrel hunting over
the fields and a female Marsh Harrier caused some disturbance revealing fast
numbers of distant Lapwings and wildfowl and also about 150 Golden
Plovers. A ditch on the edge of the
first field that had been dredged was providing an attraction to several Pied
Wagtails and Meadow Pipits and there was c.200 Fieldfare flying around and
feeding in the bushes along the main dyke.
A Sparrowhawk was then observed flying low over the ground and a Red
Kite passed almost right overhead. I
then picked up two groups of swans, a four and a six, flying from the east and
was able to identify them as Whooper Swans but they didn’t land and continued
to fly west. Another couple of birders
then arrived and informed me that there was a Barn Owl roosting in a row of
conifers on the other side of the bund.
I went to have a look and it was still there dozing right out in the
open. It had apparently been roosting
there all week probably feeling quite safe now there was little disturbance from
people walking along the top of the bund as the footpath is closed whilst work
is carried out. I joined the couple back
on the bridge and continued scanning the wash.
As we continued scanning a
Green Woodpecker provided some nice views and we found a male Marsh Harrier,
another Sparrowhawk and eventually I picked up two distant Short-eared
Owls. Whilst rather distant they gave
quite a good display as they climbed quite high and were flying around chasing
one another with two Carrion Crows also becoming involved. They eventually dropped lower and a third
individual was seen and one of them then came much closer giving good views
along the back of the first field. The
Barn Owl was now hunting in the field to the right and eventually was seen with
a vole flying back towards the conifers.
A short while afterwards it was back of the field hunting again and a
second was observed to the right.
Fifteen Whooper Swans flew in from the east and dropped out of sight
behind the bund and had presumable come down in one of the fields. A single Whooper Swan was then observed
flying east and then I found twelve Cranes feeding over the far side of the
wash. The Cranes eventually took to
flight and moved off further west and shortly afterwards I had a brief view of
a male Hen Harrier as it came into roost.
After a poor start to the day
at Great Glen and Eyebrook Reservoir, Eldernell had turned up trumps with a
good selection of good birds
No comments:
Post a Comment