I went to the southern end of
Eyebrook Reservoir first this morning hoping to find a Yellowhammer, which has
eluded me so far this year. I saw
Buzzards as I approached Kibworth and Blaston and found a single Yellowhammer
along the Stockerston Road.
There was little of note at
the southern end of Eyebrook Reservoir but I did find several more
Yellowhammers as I drove along the Leicestershire bank. I parked up close to the bridge at the
northern end of the reservoir in the hope of seeing the Bittern that had been
appearing on and off during the past week.
Andy Mackay was also looking for the Bittern but despite spending almost
an hour looking we had no joy. A Lesser
Redpoll flew over whilst we were looking but there was nothing else of
note. I finally left Andy to it and
moved off to view the inlet area where I found two Snipe and eight Dunlin
amongst the Lapwings. There was a couple
of Shelduck and three Pintail feeding on the water but very little else and so
I moved on to Rutland Water.
I checked the feeding station
first at Egleton seeing a range of common species before a Sparrowhawk flashed
through, scattering everything. On
checking the book I was surprised to see that the Great White Egret was the
only entry, which had been seen in the fishponds early this morning but more
recently on lagoon one but had flown off over the bund towards lagoon two. The light was not brilliant from the centre
but there was no obvious sign of the egret on lagoon two. I decided to go to Shoveler hide on lagoon
three and call at both Redshank and Osprey hides on route to get different
angles of lagoon two and hopefully find the Great White Egret. I had no luck with the egret by the time I
had arrived in Shoveler hide and there was no sign of it on lagoon three either. There was a party of c.20 Snipe flying over
the reedbed and I did find four Pintail and two red-headed Smew before I
received a tweet from Tim Mac informing me that the Great White Egret was back
on lagoon one. I quickly retraced my
steps back to the centre seeing two egrets on lagoon one as I approached the
centre one was clearly a Little Egret but the other was more distant and I
continued on to the centre. Initially I
was hopeful that it was the Great White but a scope views showed it as just a
Little Egret. I spent some time in the
centre searching the area where it had been seen without success but did count
forty-three Pintail and seven Goosanders.
It was possible that the egrets was out of sight close to harrier hide
but I decided I would have my lunch before going round there to check.
I went back to the centre
before heading off to harrier hide only to be told that it had reappeared
shortly after I left. Thankfully it was
still present and negated the need to walk to harrier hide. Steve had called to say there was an
Oystercatcher close to the Old Hall, which is quite an unusual bird to the
counties in January and worth seeing.
Steve and Terry were in the car park having lunch as I walked back to
the car and whilst talking to Steve we had twenty-three Golden Plovers flying
high above the lagoon and Terry and I saw an egret flying off to the north and
agreed that it was most probably the Great White, which had disappeared by the
time Steve and Terry reached the centre.
I went to the Old Hall with
Pat and we soon located the Oystercatcher just east of the hall. Steve had also indicated that there was a
Pink-footed Goose and two White-fronted Geese in the field behind lagoon three
and as we dropped down the hill from Hambleton we could see a flock of geese in
the field. We parked in the fisherman's’
car park and walked back up the hill to view the geese and soon found the
single Pink-footed Goose but we couldn’t see all of the geese and were unable
to find the White-fronts. The weather had
now taken a turn for the worse and the sleet became quite heavy and so we
returned to the car park at Egleton. Pat
departed and almost did the same but decided to have a coffee first and by the
time I had finished the weather had improved and so I walked back to Shoveler
hide on lagoon three. Just after
arriving Steve and Terry arrived and we found a Green Sandpiper and three
Redshanks and a male and four red-headed Smew.
The only other bird of note was a Sparrowhawk, which was observed both
perched and in flight.
We eventually moved on to Dunlin
hide to check on the gulls on lagoon four.
There was a couple of Shelduck and nine Pintail and a few gulls
gathering at the pre-roost. The number
of gulls gradually built up but was mainly Herring and Great Black-backed,
although there were also a number of Black-headed and Common and a couple of
Lesser Black-backed and Steve located a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull. I eventually gave up as I was feeling pretty
cold and the light was beginning to fade.
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