I decided to go to Great Glen
first this morning and walked the footpath south of the village. As I walked towards the sewage farm I heard a
Buzzard calling but was unable to see it.
On reaching the sewage farm I immediately located two Grey Wagtails and
eventually had five, which was likely to be a family party. I heard a Green Woodpecker and a Whitethroat
as I walked back and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over. Just before I got back to the road I found a
small party of passerines that included several Long-tailed Tits and a couple
of Goldcrest. I also checked out the
small lake, which had Canada Geese, Mallard, Moorhen and Coot on it and I heard
a Nuthatch call but was unable to locate it.
I arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir at 08:20 just as Andy MacKay arrived as well. We stopped at the side of the road that
overlooked the area of exposed mud.
There were plenty of geese both Greylag and Canada and a few Mallard but
there were few Lapwing and initially very little else. I then found a couple of Black-tailed Godwits
feeding amongst some of the geese and Andy picked up an Osprey that was flying
off with a nice sized trout. A Snipe
then appeared and I noticed two more Ospreys over the far end of the plantation
and Andy picked up a Sparrowhawk circling above them. There had been a report of Mandarin on the
stream and so we walked the short distance to the bridge but there was no sign
of the Mandarin. There was a Green
Sandpiper and two Snipe visible just beyond the tree in the stream and
eventually we found two more Snipe, another Green Sandpiper and a Common
Sandpiper. A Kingfisher then flew from
under the bridge and appeared to land on the far side of the tree but
unfortunately out of site. Andy was
intending to stay at the reservoir until lunch but I set off to Rutland Water.
Osprey with fish
There had been a report of a
Little Gull on lagoon four at Rutland Water and so I set off to the lagoon in
the hope of seeing it. I did see Steve
in the centre who informed me that it was a nice second-summer bird but had
flown off. I was hoping that it had only
gone off to feed and that it would either comeback or perhaps I would see it on
lagoon three. On reaching the hide there
were plenty of Common Terns on the spit and Black-headed Gulls scattered
around, however despite a good search there was no sign of the Little
Gull. Bob had joined me in the hide and
we eventually found a couple of Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin, a Common Sandpiper
and a Green Sandpiper. Three of the
juvenile Shelduck and one of the adults were still present and a female Tufted
Duck was escorting seven young. I
counted seventy-five Common Terns but could only see a single Yellow-legged
Gull.
Juvenile Common Tern over lagoon four
Juvenile Common Terns on lagoon four
Scanning over Burley Wood we
found two Red Kites, at least four Buzzards and three Ospreys but having felt I
had exhausted lagoon four I moved off to shoveler hide on lagoon three.
Although the water level
was now looking quite good again on lagoon three other than a few Moorhen there
was nothing else feeding in the area. I
did locate a single Snipe that was in the reeds just to the left of the hide
and was able to get some nice shots of it.
It was now approaching lunchtime and so I made my back along the summer
trail finding a very ragged Chiffchaff as I did so.
Snipe on lagoon three
Whilst have my lunch Steve and
Terry arrived and informed that there was a Redstart and Wood Sandpiper from
shallow water hide in Manton Bay.
I drove round to the Lyndon
Reserve and walked to shallow water hide seeing very little on route. When I got into the hide I peered out of the
flaps to look to the left, which is where the Redstart was being seen. I couldn’t see anything in the bush but it
then dropped onto the ground briefly as it snatched an insect before returning
to the bush. I few minutes later it
dropped to the ground again and almost immediately went back to the bush. I looked for it in the bush but couldn’t see
it and wasn’t sure where it was. Steve
and Terry then arrived but the Redstart was still out of sight. Steve then picked up a Green Sandpiper
perched on one of the posts that go into the water but there was no sign of the
Wood Sandpiper. I then picked up the
Redstart again on the ground and this time it remained for longer and both Steve
and Terry managed to get on it. The
Green Sandpiper then called a Terry saw it fly further into the bay and out of
sight. As I scanned the area near the
fence I found a juvenile Little Ringed Plover and a second Green Sandpiper and
then Terry found another sandpiper to the left of the hide, which turned out to
be the Wood Sandpiper and it was very nice juvenile.
Wood Sandpiper
Steve then picked up a Common
Sandpiper further into the bay and there was suddenly a lot of House Martins
over the water that had presumably come from the village on mass. There was also six Little Egrets in the bay
but there appeared to little else so I decided to leave Steve and Terry and go
back to the Egleton Reserve.
Steve had told me that there
were a few waders in front of harrier hide as so I set off to have a look. He had also mentioned that they had seen a
Painted Lady near the sluice on lagoon five and surprisingly as I walked around
it was still there.
On reaching harrier hide there
were four Green Sandpipers visible on the first area of mud and three more
distant waders turned out to be two Ruff and a Redshank and a Greenshank was
observed also. There were six Little
Egrets near the Green Sandpipers and I eventually found fourteen on the
lagoon. Whilst scanning the area a
Common Sandpiper appeared close to the two Ruff before it flew to one of the
islands. I called at snipe hide on the
way back but other then another Little Egret there was little else and I
decided to go back to the car park and head off home. I stopped briefly at the Egleton feeding
station seeing a Marsh Tit and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over the car
park as I was preparing to leave.