David and I had decided to go
to a site near Guyhirn in the hope of seeing two Bean Geese that were reported
yesterday from the A605. Dawn was just
breaking when I picked David up and we set off to Guyhirn. We saw six Red Kites between Wardley Hill and
the Northamptonshire boundary, which was a bit unusual as we would normally see
one or two along this stretch of road at best.
Perhaps, even more surprising, was that we didn’t see any more between
there and the Guyhirn site. As we drove
along the A605 towards Whittlesey we could see a concentration of swans in a
field to the south and parked in a convenient lay-by that allowed access to
view the swans, which is where we hoped the Bean Geese would be. When we were parked we were able to see that
there were three distinct groups of swans in three different fields and after
kitting out we walked along a dyke to get a better view. There were two other birders already viewing
the swans and they had located some grey geese amongst the distant flock. We scanned the area and we soon found some of
the grey geese to the left of the flock and there were four Roe Deer close
by. The other birders indicated that
they had seen six grey geese and were certain that they were either Pink-footed
Geese or Bean Geese. It was difficult
getting good views as the birds as they were not always in view and the wind was
constantly making it difficult to use the scope. The good news was that there were five
Pink-footed Geese and two Bean Geese yesterday and therefore we were hopefully
that there being at least six the Beans would still be present. However David and I could only ever find five
birds which we felt were Pink-footed Geese.
The other birders eventually came to the same conclusion that there were
only five and that they were Pink-footed Geese and that the Bean Geese were not
there. Most of the swans were Whooper
Swans and but we did find several Bewick’s Swans and we estimated that there must
have been close to 500 Whooper and circa twenty Bewick’s. At least two Kestrels were also present and a
single Buzzard was observed.
We eventually called time and
headed off towards Whittlesey, turning right to Thorney and then heading west
on the A46 before taking the A1 north to Stanford and finally heading west
again to Rutland Water. We saw two more
Red Kites around the tip at Eye and then yet another from the A606 between the
A1 and Empingham and two Jay flew over the road, one at Coates and the other at
Thorney.
We arrived at the dam at
Rutland Water where Frank and Stuart informed us they had seen a Great Northern
Diver to the west of the tower. We had
parked the car facing the water and David picked up the diver as we sat talking
to Frank and Stuart. Young Erik then
joined us who had also seen the diver but having seeing it from the car we were
reluctant to go any further. Frank and
Stuart departed and we spent a while talking to Erik whilst he waited for his
mother to pick him up, when we saw another Red Kite over Empingham and a
Buzzard just south of the village.
When Erik’s mother arrived we
drove to the north arm where Erik joined us again and then remained with us for
the rest of the day. We passed through
the gate at the end of the road and walked out to the spit. Frank and Stuart were scoping the north shore
and Roger was down on the end of the spit.
The two Great White Egrets were on the northern end of the bund and
there were five Little Egrets along the length of the bund. As we scanned the far shore we found two
Barnacle Geese and five Dunlin and there was a Redshank on the close
shore. We continued along the spit to
join Roger who was looking unsuccessfully for the Black-necked Grebe but he had
seen a single female Common Scoter. It
wasn’t too long before we had all seen the scoter but like Roger we couldn’t
find the Black-necked Grebe. Yet another
Red Kite was then seen over the fishponds when it disturbed the Lapwing and
Dunlin on the far shore and we realised there were more than five Dunlin and
counted eleven. The Red Kite then headed
off over Burley Wood where it was joined by a second and we also found a single
Buzzard. Whilst scoping a party of
Greylag Geese looking for the Greenland White-front we saw twelve Pintail in
flight but there was no sign of the white-front.
We all then went to Egleton car
park and whilst we were having lunch we saw another two Red Kites over lagoon
one area and a Grey Wagtail in the area sluice.
From the Bird Watching Centre I counted fifty-three Pintail on lagoon
one and eleven Curlew flew off the Wet Meadow and onto the meadow around lagoon
one when they were disturbed by one of the Red Kites. There were a couple of Shelduck on the lagoon
and we found a single Dunlin amongst a party of Lapwing.
Having exhausted lagoon one we
moved off towards lagoon three and found nine Redwings and two Song Thrushes
amongst the more numerous Blackbirds feeding in the meadows. We decided that we should visit Redshank hide
on lagoon two as there had been a Ruff reported yesterday, although we were a
little sceptical as the same observer had also seen a Merlin and a Common
Sandpiper. As we approached the hide
Erik noticed a Marsh Tit and we all eventually got reasonable views. From the hide we found a single Green
Sandpiper but very little else and we moved on to grebe hide. One of the Great White Egrets was on the
lagoon as were four male and three female Goosanders and as I scanned I noticed
a second egret briefly before it disappeared behind some vegetation. I decided to move on to Osprey hide, leaving
the other three in grebe hide, to check it out.
When I got into the hide there was no sign of the second egret but there
was a Green Sandpiper, which may well have been the bird seen from Redshank
hide. I could still see the Great White
Egret to the left and there was a Little Egret on the far shore, which I
presumed may have been the egret I had seen from Redshank hide. The birds on lagoon one were suddenly all in
flight and on scanning a picked up a Sparrowhawk as it flew high over the lagoon
and disappeared on Brown’s Island. The
others joined me in the hide and after a few minutes a Cetti’s Warbler called
and Erik saw it briefly in some of the reeds.
He eventually got us all on the appropriate area and surprisingly it
came out in full view for a few seconds before it flew to the right and
disappeared into some more reeds and was not seen again. The views whilst brief were rather nice as it
is not often I have seen one quite so well, particularly at this site.
We eventually reached Shoveler
hide on lagoon three where we found another nine Pintail, a red-headed Smew,
five Snipe and three Redshanks. We
walked out to Lapwing hide but saw very little and returned to sandpiper hide
on lagoon four. The water level on
lagoon four is still very high but a few gulls still use it as a pre-roost site
but there were very few when we arrived.
Gulls gradually began to arrive, mainly Herring and Great Black-backed
Gulls but also a few Black-headed and Common Gulls and a couple of Lesser
Black-backed Gull. Dave then picked up a
single very white headed bird amongst the long line of Herring and Great Black-
backed Gulls at the back of the lagoon.
Our first impression was that it was probably an adult Caspian
Gull. Its head-shape was less angled and
noticeable smaller than the nearby Herring Gulls and also appeared to be pure
white with no noticeable streaking, whereas the Herring Gulls were either
heavily streaked or were at least showing some streaking around the eye and on
the hind neck. The eye was small and
dark, which contrasted strongly with the surrounding plumage and the bill, was
long and slender, again noticeably when compared to the nearby Herring
Gulls. The upperparts colouration did
not appear to be different from the nearby Herring Gulls. As it was preening it raised its wings on
several occasions when the long white tip to primary ten was clearly
visible. It eventually flew to island
one and landed behind most of the gulls; however it was surprisingly easy to
see whenever it raised its head due to the stunning white head, small eye and
long and slender bill. Other birds of note
on the lagoon were two Shelduck and three Little Egrets.
With the light beginning to
fail we walked back to the car park and after a coffee headed off home.
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