I had a Buzzard perched at the
roadside just before entering Tur Langton and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew
across the road as I started to drop down the hill towards Stockerston.
It was rather quiet at
Eyebrook Reservoir with no sign of the Little Owls, although there were still
circa fifty Fieldfares in the field. At
the reservoir there were six Shelduck and two Redshanks and I saw a distant Red
Kite to the east and a Buzzard to the west.
I went to the north arm at
Rutland Water first but there was very little with just the three Barnacle
Geese worthy of note. When I arrived at
the Egleton Reserve I set off to Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow where there were
fifteen Shelduck and four Pintail on the flash and four Oystercatchers on the
meadow before two flew off towards lagoon five.
There was another Oystercatcher, a Ringed Plover, seven Dunlin, two
Curlew and three Redshanks on the islands on lagoon one and a Snipe flew over.
Wigeon alighting on the Wet Meadow flash
Greylag Goose over the Wet Meadow
I continued to Shelduck hide
on lagoon five but viewed lagoon seven from the ramp to the hide where I found
a Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper.
There were six Shelduck, a Little Egret and a Redshank on lagoon five
and the Greenland White-fronted Goose flew over following a couple of Greylag
Geese towards Manton Bay.
Drake Wigeon on lagoon five
Chaffinch outside Shelduck hide
I decided to continue on to
Heron Bay in the south arm but as I approached it I could see that there was
very little and so I went to Pintail hide on lagoon six but saw very little,
although there were three Oystercatchers on Lax Hill that were displaying.
Oystercatcher over Lax Hill
Oystercatcher over Lax Hill
Oystercatcher over Lax Hill
After some lunch in the
Egleton car park I headed off to the northern lagoons and found a pair of
Bullfinches feeding alongside the path and managed to eventually get a nice
shot of the male.
Male Bullfinch
I went into sandpiper hide on
lagoon four first where there were two Avocets feeding just to the left of the
hide. I stayed in the hide for a while
counting ten Shelduck and eight Pintail and there was a male and female Smew
feeding alongside the western edge of the lagoon. Two Oystercatchers were observed on one of
the islands and I eventually found a couple of Ringed Plovers. Whilst watching one of the Ringed Plovers it
joined a party of waders in flight and they eventually came down on one of the
islands and I could see both Ringed Plovers along with six Dunlin and a
Redshank was found on another island.
The two Smew then flew across the lagoon and landed out of sight close
to plover hide. I decided to walk around
to the hide in the hope that they would be close enough to photograph and on
arrival there were now two red-heads along with the male but they were two
distant to photograph. Whilst I was in
the two hides on lagoon four a Red Kite and a Buzzard drifted over the lagoon
and another three Red Kites and two Buzzards were observed over Burley Wood. I went into Bittern hide where I heard a
Water Rail but there was little else to see.
Malcolm had called me earlier
today to make me aware of a Waxwing in Corby and I finally decided as it wasn’t
too far I would make a detour on route home to hopefully see it.
When I arrived at the site I
found Chris and Colin along with Malcolm observing the bird in a small bush
from just a few feet. I managed to get a
few shots off before it flew over the road and landed in some taller trees and
I called it a day.
Waxwing
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