The early part of the day was
very wet and windy but as the rain cleared Roger and I decided to spend some
time in the Charnwood area of Leicestershire.
I went to Roger’s and we spent a short while observing his feeders,
hoping for a Blackcap. The Blackcaps
failed to appear but there were a few commoner species visiting the feeders,
namely Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and
Goldfinch.
We eventually moved off to the
Barrow upon Soar Sewage Works, which is normally a good site for wintering
Chiffchaffs. When we arrived it felt
quite cool in the bighting wind and there appeared to be very few birds. However persistence paid off and we
eventually found two Chiffchaffs feeding in one of the hedgerows running away
from the sewage works. We also found a
single Goldcrest and there were plenty of Pied Wagtails, a few Blackbird, two
Song Thrushes, a Redwing and several Chaffinches.
Disappointed we had not a Grey
Wagtail we moved off to Kinchley Lane at Swithland Reservoir. We soon found the wintering first-winter male
Scaup, amongst a small party of Tufted Duck and Goldeneye but the reported
Great Northern Diver remained elusive during our visit. There were two Nuthatches visiting the
feeders at the house at the end of the metalled road and a Peregrine was seen
high above the quarry before it plunged down in to the quarry. Finally, whilst having a bite to eat a Grey
Wagtail flew over calling. Having
exhausted the northern section we moved around to The Ridings to view the
southern section, seeing a Buzzard on route.
This section appeared to be more exposed to the wind and whilst
initially there appeared to be very little, scanning with a scope produced
plenty of wildfowl including Mute Swan, Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler and
Tufted Duck but there was no sign of the hoped for Mandarin.
Our last hope for Mandarin was
at Blackbrook Reservoir and after a fifteen minutes drive we parked in a small
parking are at the side of the road.
There was a single Fieldfare feeding in the field to the east of the
road and it was still present in the same area when we returned some forty
minutes later.
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
After a short walk we were
able to view the reservoir and the small section at the southern end produced a
couple of Little Grebes but the main section was really exposed to the elements
and other a few Mallard and a couple of Cormorants there was nothing else. Ten Red-legged Partridge were observed as we
walked back.
Roger suggested that we gave
Swithland Wood a visit to check out a holly tree, which is a regular roost site
of a Tawny Owl. We saw a Buzzard on
route and on arrival the wind appeared to have dropped a little. It is only a short walk to the tree and Roger
soon found a bird close to the top, which was only partially visible and then
when it moved we could see very little.
I walked further on to get a different view and managed to locate in
full view where we had some nice views.
A stop at Cropston Reservoir failed to produce anything of note and so
we called it a day.
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