I went straight to the north
arm at Rutland Water this morning seeing very little on route. I parked along the cottage road and whilst
changing my boots two Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew over but all I saw from
the end of the road were three Shelduck and a Buzzard. I therefore moved to south arm three and
walked west along the track where I found the Slavonian Grebe fairly close in
and was surprised to see how much it had changed since last Thursday. I then found three Scaup, a male, an immature
male and a female but there was no sign of any of yesterday’s Sand
Martins. I then noticed that the
Slavonian Grebe had come in closer and so I walked further to try and
photograph it and managed to get a record shot.
Slavonian Grebe
As I started to walk back I
found a red-headed Smew, two Oystercatchers flew by and four Curlew were
visible at the base of Lax Hill. I
called Terry, who was in the north arm, to let him know what I had found and he
had found the two Pink-footed Geese and seen a couple of Sand Martins. After getting back to the car I drove the
short distance to the fisherman’s car park and scoped the far shore and found
the two Pink-footed Geese resting on the grass bank with several Greylag
Geese. I then went back to the end of
the cottage road but all I found was a single Redshank and there was no sign of
the Sand Martins. There were now four
Ospreys back and so I remained in the north arm scanning Burley Wood in the
hope that one might appear. I saw a
couple of Red Kites, two Sparrowhawks, at least six Buzzards and two Kestrels
but there was no sign of an Osprey.
I eventually moved on to the
Egleton Centre and started to walk towards the Wet Meadow when Terry called to
say that he had found the Red-necked Grebe back in its normal place and it was
now in full summer plumage. I did an
immediate about turn and drove the end of the Hambleton Peninsula, seeing ten
Fieldfare in the field to the right, before I walked to overlook the north
arm. I couldn’t find it initially but
eventually found it further into the north arm and what a superb bird they are
in their summer glory.
On my way back to the centre I
parked near the fisherman’s track and walked back into the south arm as Terry
had seen several Sand Martins earlier. I
saw a single Chiffchaff as I walked along the back of lagoon three but there
was no sign of the hoped for Sand Martins.
On reaching Egleton I set off
for the wet meadow again seeing another Chiffchaff just after leaving the
centre. There were just eight Shelduck
on the meadow and a single Pintail, another three Shelduck and fifteen Pintail
were visible on lagoon one and I also found six Dunlin on one of the exposed
areas of the long island. As I left the
hide two Chiffchaffs were observed trying to establish their territories with
one either side of the path from the hide.
I continued on to Shelduck
hide on lagoon five and viewed lagoon seven from the hide ramp before entering
it but all I found was a single Shelduck.
From Shelduck hide there was a Little Egret and a Redshank on the close
islands and as I scanned I found the Greenland White-fronted Goose feeding with
some Greylag Geese on the top of the bank.
They were then disturbed by someone walking around the cycle track and
came onto the lagoon when I had some nice views of the Greenland before they
flew off onto the field behind the lagoon.
There were also two Shelduck and a single Oystercatcher on the
lagoon. I informed Terry about the
White-fronted and decided to walk around to see if I could get any better
photos, whilst it was in the field.
Although it was one of the closest birds it was a little too far away
and seemed quite lazy as it sat eating vegetation just around it. Terry and Mike joined me but as we were
watching it we had the first of several afternoon showers.
Greenland White-fronted Goose with two Greylag Geese on the bund
Greenland White-fronted Goose on lagoon five
Terry went off to Snipe hide
whilst Mike and I returned to the car park where I had my lunch before setting
off to the northern lagoons. As I
approached Redshank hide on lagoon two another shower passed through, which was
quite wintery, and I took shelter in the hide.
Another birder was in the hide and after a few minutes he spotted a bird
of prey over lagoon one, which turned out to be a female Marsh Harrier. I called Terry who was in grebe hide and was
able to pick it up but a call to Tim didn’t have the same result as he was
unable to find it from harrier hide. As
the hail and rain eased the harrier had gained height and was joined by a Red
Kite and both were then watched interacting as they continued to gain
height. I eventually lost both of them
and I presumed that the harrier had moved on.
I continued on to sandpiper
hide on lagoon four where I joined Terry and we found twelve Shelduck, four
Pintail, a Little Egret, an Oystercatcher, five Ringed Plovers, a Dunlin, a
Snipe and two Redshank. Scanning Burley
Wood we saw Red Kite, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard but still no Osprey but the Sand
Martins eventually gave themselves up and I had at least six. Whist we were in the hide the worst of the
afternoon weather occurred when we had a rather prolonged wintery shower, which
brought down quite a few gulls but there was nothing unusual, with most being
Common with smaller numbers of Black-headed and a single Lesser Black-backed.
At the first opportunity we
set off back towards the car cark and I went into the centre whilst Terry went
back to the north arm. There was nothing
new in the centre and so I also went back to the north arm and arrived just as
Terry was leaving. He stopped briefly
when he found our only Goosander of the day, which was a female. I had a coffee before I set off for home
seeing nothing of note.
It had been a pretty good day
as I had recorded seventy-eight species, which included a year tick, Sand
Martin, and a County year tick Marsh Harrier.
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