I left home before dawn this
morning working on getting a full day in the field and get the year list off to
a good start. The first bird of the year
was a Robin that was singing as I was leaving home but the second was a Barn
Owl that was hunting along a hedgerow just after leaving the cross roads at
Wistow and heading for Kibworth. I then
caught a second owl in the headlights as it flew over the road and disappeared
into a field but didn’t see it well enough but suspected it was a second Barn
Owl. As I drove along the entrance road
to Eyebrook Reservoir a Little Owl flew off one of the roadside fence posts and
disappeared into the field.
When I arrived in the north
arm at Rutland Water it was still pretty dull and although the light did
improve it was a pretty dull day, although it did stay dry. There were obviously quite a few year ticks
in the north arm area but unfortunately there was no sign of either of the
Great White Egrets. Erik joined me and
we walked down to the end of the spit seeing a Treecreeper and a Great Spotted
Woodpecker as well as six Little Egrets in the fishponds. A party of Canada Geese feeding on the north
shore contained the two Barnacle Geese and I then picked up a Raven over Burley
House and then realised it was being mobbed by a Peregrine. I got Erik on to them and the Raven and we
watched the Peregrine perch in one of the more exposed trees. Roger then arrived and fortunately the
Peregrine was still perched although the Raven had disappeared. As I continued scanning a party of
Red-crested Pochard flew in front of me before heading off down the north arm
and settling towards the fisherman’s car park and they were all males. Two Sparrowhawk were then observed one almost
overhead and the other towards the south shore. Erik then found a Pink-footed Goose amongst a
party of Greylags but we had been unable to locate the Black-necked Grebe. Roger then said he thought he had seen the
Black-necked Grebe out towards Barnsdale and with some instruction Erik and I
were on the bird and not surprisingly Roger was right and had found the
Black-necked Grebe. We added another
eleven species from the road before we left and headed along the Hambleton
Peninsula.
After parking at the end of
the road we walked down the peninsula to find a few Greylag and Canada Geese
but there was no sign of the European White-fronted Geese, although we did add
Starling and Fieldfare to the list. We
went back towards the car and walked along the rack to the north and found some
Wigeon in the bay with quite a few Great Crested Grebes just out on the main
water. A third Sparrowhawk of the day
flew low over the bay and a Redshank was observed on the shore. We continued on the track to overlook the
north arm, seeing our forth Sparrowhawk as we did so. Hopefully we would find a Red-necked Grebe
that has been present since early December but as we started to walk down the
hill to the water Eric and Roger alerted me to a group of geese feeding in the
field the other side of the path. There
was a mixture of Greylag and Canada Geese and as I scanned them I found the
juvenile Greenland White-fronted Goose, which now appears to be showing more
white at the base of the bill. After
adding Lapwing, Jackdaw, Rook and Pheasant we continued down the hill and Eric
picked up the Red-necked Grebe quite close to the shore and shortly afterwards
he found a Great Northern Diver.
With targets in the bag we
returned to the car and headed for Lyndon to view the feeding station and the
south arm. We checked out Dickinson’s
Bay in the hope of finding one of the Great White Egrets but no joy but
surprisingly added Coot to the list.
On arriving at Lyndon we entered
the reserve to the right of the centre to view the feeding station where we
found two Marsh Tits but there was no sign of any Tree Sparrows just a few Blue
and Great Tits and a single Coal Tit and a Chaffinch. As we stood watching the feeders we heard
sparrows calling and on checking them out, we had a list six Tree Sparrows in
the scrub on the right to Teal hide.
From Teal hide Roger picked up three Shoveler in flight and Erik found
at least sixteen Dunlin feeding at the base of Lax Hill. As we drove around to the Egleton Reserve for
lunch we added House Sparrow and Collared Dove in quick succession as we passed
through Lyndon.
We went to the Egleton Centre
to view lagoon one after lunch and found our first Pintails of the day and Erik
found a single Golden Plover amongst a party of Lapwing on the long
island. There were twelve Curlew on the
southern meadow and we could see two Shelduck on the Wet Meadow flash.
As we walked towards lagoon
three and Shoveler hide we found a Jay in one of the meadows but there was no
sign of any birds feeding amongst the alders behind lagoon two.
From Shoveler hide we added
Green Sandpiper, which was feeding to the left of the hide and there were three
red-headed Smew on the lagoon. Another
Sparrowhawk flew low over the lagoon and caused some disturbance and I then
picked up a single Black-tailed Godwit fling amongst the Lapwing. We then saw a male and female Peregrine over
the lagoon, which were probably responsible for most of the disturbance. Despite a prolonged search there was no sign
of any of yesterday’s three Bitterns and we eventually moved off to Dunlin hide
on lagoon four.
There were more Pintail on the
lagoon and I counted thirty-nine on the edge of island eight. More gulls were in the pre-roost on the
lagoon than of late, mainly Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls but also a few
Black-headed and Common Gulls. Eric then
picked up a nice adult winter Mediterranean Gull and the last bird of the day
was a single Lesser Black-backed Gull.
I finished the day on eighty
species, which is not a bad start to the year, particular locally and in what
were rather windy and overcast conditions.
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