I set off for Rutland Water in
what were rather damp but warm conditions and arrived in much the same
conditions but heavy showers soon developed and the wind increased becoming
quite strong and blustery during the late morning.
Having seen both Barn Owl and
Little Owl on route I walked down the service road to lagoon four and joined
Steve in sandpiper hide. There were
quite a few Ringed Plover and Dunlin on the lagoon and I saw twenty and forty
respectively. As I scanned through the
waders I found a nice summer plumaged Turnstone and then a Sanderling and on
hearing what I thought was a Whimbrel Steve picked it up as it flew in from the
east and was joined by a second a few minutes later. I then found a Common Sandpiper on the back
bund and just after Terry had joined us a winter-type Grey Plover and there was
also Oystercatcher, Little Ringed Plover and Redshank on the lagoon. We then moved to plover hide as Steve was
interested in trying to read a ring on an immature gull, that we suspected was
a Lesser Black-backed Gull but the gulls didn’t oblige.
There was very little on
lagoon three, although there were over twenty Common Terns feeding over the
water. Terry and Steve departed to
complete their normal circuit of the reservoir and I stayed before eventually
retracing my steps to sandpiper hide on lagoon four. Despite the inclement weather I had seen or
heard Cetti’s Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat,
Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler so far this morning.
I was in sandpiper hide for
quite some time as the showers became quite frequent but despite seeing the
Grey Plover and Turnstone on a number of occasions I was unable to find the
Sanderling again and as there appeared to be less Ringed Plover and Dunlin, presumably
some waders had left during one of the brighter spells. The water level had also visibly risen during
the morning and suitable habitat for waders was fast disappearing.
Although it eventually stopped
raining the wind was quite strong as I made my way back to the centre, hearing
Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Garden Warbler as I did so. It was very quiet on lagoon one with very
little in evidence with just a few Common Tern, although there were plenty of
Swifts visible for the first time this year.
Steve and Terry returned from their circuit but had seen very little and
certainly nothing of note.
After some lunch I went to
Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow but other than a single Shelduck there was again
very little, although than plenty of Swifts and Sand Martins, with a few
Swallows and House Martins mixed in.
Steve and Terry joined me but after a few minutes we moved on to
Shelduck hide to few lagoons five and seven.
Seven has been quite good for waders recently but the water levels had
risen considerably and sufficiently to cover all the areas of exposed mud. Consequently there was very little on the
lagoon and lagoon five didn’t offer a great deal more. Both of the sitting Oystercatchers were still
sitting tight and a third Oystercatcher and two Redshanks were observed and
again there were plenty of Swifts and hirundines.
Great Crested Grebe on lagoon five
Oystercatcher on lagoon five
Sand Martin over lagoon five
The Greenland White-fronted
Goose had been seen earlier in the week but as it wasn’t on lagoon five I
walked around to the fields at the back of the lagoon to see if it was feeding
there. There were quite a few Mute Swan,
Greylag and Canada Geese but there was no sign of the White-front as so I
returned to the centre.
On reaching the centre I
continued on to sandpiper hide on lagoon five where I was joined by Steve. Steve picked up a Grey Plover in flight,
which he thought might have had a black belly but it disappeared behind one of
the islands. A few minutes later he
found two Grey Plover on the rocky spit, one was the winter-type seen earlier
but the second was showing black underparts but not in full summer
plumage. Steve then picked up the ringed
Lesser Black-backed Gull and it dropped in quite close and amazingly he had
seen the same bird a couple of weeks ago at Albert Village. There were a couple of Red Kites, one over
the lagoon and the other over Burley where there was also a Buzzard and two
Ospreys.
With the weather showing no
sign of improvement I called it a day and headed off home.
No comments:
Post a Comment