I called at Newton Harcourt
first this morning where I had a selection of common passerines that included
both Nuthatch and Treecreeper.
A Buzzard was the only bird of
note I saw on route to Eyebrook Reservoir but one of the Little Owls was seen
briefly as I entered from the northern end.
There didn’t appear to be too much as most of the exposed mud was bird
less. As I scanned a large party of
Lapwing and a few Golden Plover took to flight and I observed a Peregrine
briefly as it chased a bird low over the water before disappearing. As I continued to scan more and more Lapwing,
some quite distant, became obvious, presumably as the Peregrine moved
south. As the Lapwing began to return I
noticed seven Dunlin drop in but they like the Lapwing were extremely nervous
and never really settled whilst I was there.
Three Shelduck and a drake Pintail were observed on the water and two
Red Kites were observed over the field at the extreme northern end. When I moved towards Stoke Dry I stopped and
scanned the Greylag Geese flock and found a single Pink-footed Goose amongst
them and a Little Egret flew over.
From Eyebrook Reservoir I
drove across country to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water seeing a couple of
Red Kites as I approached Lyddington. On
arrival at the Lyndon Centre I went to view the feeding station but there were
only Blue and Great Tits visiting regularly and a couple of Chaffinch. As I watched the feeders the birds suddenly
scattered and a male Sparrowhawk flew in and perched on the feeding
station. It stayed for several minutes
flying low around the feeding station on a couple of occasions during its stay
before it flew off towards Manton. I had
left the camera in the car as the light was pretty awful and I didn’t expect
this to happen but it was an opportunity missed of probably getting some nice
shots. Obviously after the Sparrowhawk
left there was very little on the feeders and so I went into Teal hide to scan
south arm three. There was a gathering
of Cormorants on the exposed island and a few Goldeneye but very little else
and I eventually returned to the feeders.
There were more birds visiting now, which included a Marsh Tit and a
Tree Sparrow.
I eventually left for the
north arm and found the drake Smew in the fishponds and a couple of Pintail and
a single Little Egret in the north arm.
There was no sign of the Great White Egrets and so I drove to Dickinson’s
Bay and found them both on the far shore and there were also five Pintail and
two Little Egrets in the bay. The two
Black-necked Grebes were observed not too far out and the three Common Scoters
were also closer then on Tuesday.
After some lunch in the
Egleton car park I went into the centre and counted seventy-six Pintail and
also found four Curlew. Norman joined me
but we couldn’t find the red-headed Smew he had seen earlier. I eventually set off to Shoveler hide on
lagoon three seeing a Tawny Owl in one the owl boxes on route. It was rather quiet on the lagoon but a Water
Rail performed nicely just in front of the hide for several minutes and a
Little Egret flew in. I moved on to
crake hide where other than a couple more Little Egrets there was very little
and so I continued on to Lapwing hide.
Most of the birds were more distant today but as I scanned the shore on
Brown’s Island I found a red-headed Smew, presumably the bird seen earlier by
Norman. Looking on lagoon two I found a
couple of Black-tailed Godwits, one of which was colour ringed, and they were
obviously the same birds observed on lagoon three on Tuesday. There was also a drake Pintail and a female
Goosander. I picked up six Dunlin flying
low over south arm three before they gained height and headed off to the north
arm. I called at sandpiper hide on route
back to the centre but other than two Shelduck there was little else. A final call at the centre failed to produce
anything new and with light and the visibility being rather poor I called it a
day at 15:20.
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