David and I set off for
Eyebrook Reservoir this morning but saw very little on route.
We arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir at the southern end and stopped briefly near the old feeding station
where we had a Swift and a couple of Tree Sparrows. Moving around to the island coral we found
what initially I thought was a Grey Plover.
It was moulting into summer plumage and the back certainly had some
yellowish spangling, which lead us into thinking it was probably a Golden
Plover. Other birders watching it later
in the day were considering American or Pacific Golden Plover but one of then
saw it raise its wings revealing the black axillaries confirming my initial
identification was correct. There was
also a Dunlin on the island and a Snipe dropped in. We continued to the northern coral from where
we saw a Little Ringed Plover, two Ringed Plovers, another Snipe and two
Greenshanks. We checked out the old oak
but there was no sign of any Little Owls and we returned to overlook the inlet
from the Rutland bank. Andy Mackay was also
on site but had seen what we had seen at the inlet but as we were talking he
picked up a wader coming in that turned out to be a Black-tailed Godwit. On the water there were several Shelduck, a
female Pintail, a female Pochard and a male Goldeneye and there were several
hirundines, which were mainly Swallow but also Sand Martin and House Martin but
there were just four Common Terns. As we
were leaving two Green Woodpeckers got up and flew alongside the car for a
short distance and we had also heard Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap,
Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat as we had driven around the reservoir.
It had been pretty good at
Eyebrook Reservoir and as we drove to Rutland Water we were optimistic of
seeing more good birds. We initially
went to the north arm but it was fairly quiet but we did find a Greenshank and
six Shelduck with ten Common Terns over the water and a pair of Egyptian Geese
with four downy young.
With little else we drove to
the Egleton Reserve and set off to the southern lagoons. As we walked to Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow
we saw a single Blackcap and heard several more as well as hearing Chiffchaff,
Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler. From the hide there were four Shelduck, a
Little Egret, three Oystercatchers and a nice male Sparrowhawk perched on a
fence post.
We moved on to try and get a
look onto lagoon seven hearing a Lesser Whitethroat before reaching the 360°
hide and a Cuckoo and Raven flying over as we approached Shelduck
hide. On Lagoon Seven we found six
Shelduck, two Oystercatchers, two Avocets, two Little Ringed Plovers, a Ringed
Plover, a Green Sandpiper, a Greenshank and two Redshanks.
Avocets
Feeling pretty good with the
selection on Lagoon Seven we went into Shelduck hide to view Lagoon Five. We hadn’t been in many minutes when David
said what’s this wader on the bund, which turned out to be a Wood Sandpiper but
then he found a second on the island closer to us. I called Tim and Andy to make them aware and
Tim joined us when both of the Wood Sandpipers were together on a different
island but shortly afterwards they took to flight gaining height rapidly and
heading off north. The Greenland
White-fronted Goose was also on the lagoon as were five Oystercatchers, a Ruff
and a Redshank.
We visited both Pintail and
tern hides on lagoon six but other than a couple of Oystercatchers on nests
there was little else, although we did flush a couple of Red-legged Partridge
as we approached tern hide.
As we walking towards harrier
hide we could hear Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler singing and as we were looking
for them a text arrived, apparently there were two Hobbies over lagoon
two. We moved swiftly on to harrier hide
where we had a pretty good, if distant view, of lagoon two but there was no
sign of the Hobbies. As we walked back
towards Snipe hide we had good but brief views of a singing Sedge Warbler but
saw little else before we eventually got back to the car park for lunch.
As we started walking towards
the northern lagoons there was a message indicating that there were two Little
Terns on lagoon three. When we arrived
in the hide Lloyd and Tim were having their lunch but informed us that one of
the terns had flown off towards lagoon four but that one was still feeding over
the lagoon. We scanned the area and soon
found the Little Tern amongst the more numerous Common Terns. We stayed in the hide for some time hoping
that the Hobbies might appear over the wood and although we didn’t see them we
did have a couple of Sparrowhawks and the second Little Tern returned.
We eventually moved off to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four were found a Little Egret, two Oystercatchers,
four Little Ringed Plovers, three Ringed Plovers, two Sanderling, six Dunlin,
three Ruff and five Redshank. There were
also twelve Common Terns resting on a spit off island ten, which were joined by
both Little Terns. Scanning Burley we
had two Red Kites, four Buzzards, an Osprey and two Ravens. As I was scanning through some Black-headed
Gulls I found a nice second-summer Mediterranean Gull.
Second-summer Mediterranean Gull
On our way back to the centre
we called at Redshank hide on lagoon two hoping that the Hobbies might yet
appear but we had no joy, although David did pick up a female-type Marsh
Harrier over the Wet Meadow. As we got
back to the centre there was news of three Black Terns but there was no sign
from the centre and with a report of twenty-one Little Gulls at Eyebrook
Reservoir we decided to go back to Eyebrook Reservoir.
When we arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir there was no sign of the Little Gulls and they had obviously moved on
and the only bird we added for the day was a Yellow Wagtail. We also received a message from Erik saying
that the Black Terns were on island ten spit on lagoon four.
Osprey over Eyebrook Reservoir
It had been an excellent day
and I recorded 102 species, which, with the exception of bird race days, was my
highest single days total in the counties.
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