Roger was driving today and
after picking me up we went to David’s before heading off to Rutland
Water. All we saw on route was a Buzzard
just as we were leaving Newton Harcourt and a couple of Red-legged Partridge after
leaving Blaston.
We approached Eyebrook
Reservoir from the northern end stopping to look for the Little Owls in the old
oak, which David saw as it dropped into the hole but both Roger and I
missed. We parked on the Rutland bank
facing the inlet where we found a single Ringed Plover and eventually twelve
Snipe and there was also a Little Egret.
Roger then picked up a Swallow that was quite close as it passed by
flying steadily north. I then picked up
a Barn Owl flying along the Leicestershire side towards the northern end where
it settled on a fence post. When it flew
again it was harassed by some gulls and flew by along the Rutland Water and
disappeared behind the trees edging a stream to the south. The wildfowl numbers were now much depleted
but there were seven Shelduck and a couple of female Pintail on the water. There was a Red Kite and a Sparrowhawk over
Holyoaks and a Buzzard was perched nearby.
There was a second Buzzard over Bolt Wood and another was seen on the
ground to the east as well as another Red Kite over Stoke Dry Wood. We stopped at the feeding station briefly
before we departed, where we had a couple of Coal Tits.
Female Yellowhammer
We headed for Normanton at
Rutland Water seeing a Red Kite just before we turned into Manton village. After parking at Normanton we walked down to
the fishing lodge but there was no sign of the hoped for Mandarin but we did
see a single Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.
On leaving we called at the old Luffenham airfield but saw very little
with a single Meadow Pipit being the best.
Our next stop was at Lyndon
where we had six Tree Sparrows on the feeders and we then went to Teal hide to
scan the south arm. Roger then had a
purple patch finding one of the Great Northern Divers between the Old Hall and
Hambleton Wood, a drake Scaup in south arm two and the Great White Egret in
Heron Bay. We also had a Little Egret
and two Oystercatchers on Lax Hill and another Chiffchaff as we walked back to
the centre. The Manton Bay Ospreys are
still not back, although the female was now in the UK and was expected to
arrive today, which would mean all the breeding females are back. She had been held up in France and would be
the eighth bird to return this year and hopefully the missing males would soon
follow.
From Lyndon we drove to the
end of the Hambleton Peninsula and then walked around to view the north arm and
hopefully the summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe.
However despite a thorough search we were unable to find it, although it
was still present yesterday. As we
walked back to the car a Red Kite was observed but we had seen very little
else. Although it was getting pretty
close to lunchtime we decided to walk from the Hambleton Road along the
fisherman’s track to view south arm three.
There was a low loader parked in the entrance that was actually blocking
the service road, which meant we had to walk along the grass edge to get by
it. As we were doing this a vehicle came
along the service track and sounded his horn to get the low loader to move. As I got level with the truck the guy said to
me your mates fell over. I turned around
to see Roger sprawled on the floor and went back to see if he was OK. He was struggling to get up as he had is
scope on his back, which had partially come off but once we sorted it he was
able to get and said he was OK. However
he was now covered in mud, including his bins and he decided to go back to the
car to at least get his bins clean.
David and I continued on to the south arm and when Roger joined us we
had seen very little but we had heard a Cetti’s Warbler. The light was rather poor as the sun was now
out and many of the birds were no more than a silhouette. We were about to give up when Roger indicated
he had a grebe, which he was unsure about.
David and I both got on it but we could see very little colour and we
remained unsure. To me the silhouette
looked good for a Slavonian Grebe but it was difficult to be certain as it
appeared all dark. We must have watched
for at least fifteen minutes, in which time it did come a little closer and
both David and I were saw that there was a flash of yellow visible on the head
and eventually were all happy that it was the Slavonian Grebe, which was now
probably in summer plumage. Another
surprise, as it was 12:30, was our second Barn Owl of the day flying on Brown’s
Island.
Feeling quite pleased we went
back to the car and went to view the north arm, whilst having lunch, from the
end of the road to the cottage. A
Treecreeper obliged whilst we were having our lunch but other than a few Buzzards
we saw little else. After a bite to eat
we walked down to the end where we saw at least two Red Kites, several Buzzards
and two Sparrowhawks over Burley Wood.
On the water there were two Shelduck and a Little Egret was observed in
the bay to the south and we also found a couple of Oystercatcher and a
Redshank.
Once on the Egleton Reserve we
went to the centre to check the book to find that there were two Avocets on the
Wet Meadow. We scanned lagoon one seeing
four Shelduck, three Pintail and an Oystercatcher. Erik had joined us in the centre and we all
set off for Wet Meadow and hopefully the Avocets. However when we reached Snipe hide there was
no sign of them and all was saw were seventeen Shelduck, three Pintail and a
Little Egret. There had been a report of
two Lesser Whitethroats between Snipe hide and the 360° hide, which was a
little surprising as they would have been the earliest ever by about ten days
for the Counties and in a year when migration is very slow and it wasn’t a
surprise when we didn’t see them. We
continued on to Shelduck hide on lagoon five and viewed lagoon seven from the
entrance ramp where we found four more Shelduck, three Oystercatchers, two
Little Ringed Plovers, two Ringed Plovers, a Black-tailed Godwit and a
Redshank. From Shelduck hide Erik picked
up the Greenland White-fronted Goose at the back of the lagoon and there were
another two Oystercatchers and four Redshanks.
European Hare on lagoon eight meadow
At this point we though our
best option was to go to sandpiper hide on lagoon four before we departed. We didn't see too much as we walked back to the centre and on to
sandpiper hide, just a few Chiffchaffs and a couple of Bullfinch, as well as
hearing several more Chiffchaff and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
Once in the hide we began
scanning then islands finding another pair of Oystercatcher, at least four
Ringed Plovers, a Dunlin and a couple of Redshank. On the west bank Erik found a Snipe and two
Wheatears and there were numerous birds of prey over Burley Wood. Chris Park had now joined us in the hide and
as we scanned Burley we had at least two Red Kites, fifteen Buzzards and a
couple of Ospreys and we also picked up a party of hirundines and were able to
identify Sand Martins and at least two Swallows. Just before we called it a day a Buzzard
passed over lagoon four.
Buzzard over lagoon four
We saw nothing else as we
headed back to the car park and after a quick drink set off for home. We hadn’t gone too far when Tim called to say
the Avocets were back on the Wet Meadow and that there was a female Goosander
on lagoon one.
However despite the
disappointment of missing the Goosander and the Avocets we had had a super
day. Personally I recorded eighty-six
species, which included two year ticks Swallow and Wheatear.
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