A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - May 16, 2015

I called at Eyebrook Reservoir first this morning seeing a Green Woodpecker just after passing through Tur Langton and one of the Little Owls obliged as I approached the reservoir from the north.  I went to the northern coral to view the reservoir where I found three Little Ringed Plovers but other than circa fifty Swift there appeared to be very little else.  I was joined by another birder in the coral who had been observing the reservoir from the Rutland bank but with same result.  As we stood talking he said “what’s this that’s just dropped in, I think it is a Sanderling”.  I got the scope on the bird and sure enough it was a Sanderling but surprisingly it was almost in winter plumage, being very white below and greyish above.  He then said there is a Dunlin just a few feet to the right but when I looked there was another Sanderling but this one was almost in full summer plumage.  I then find five tundra Ringed Plovers and I assumed that they had all just dropped in.  There were four Shelduck and four Common Terns and two Swallows and three House Martins appeared to pass through.  I then received a call from Roger who was in Oakham and I agreed to meet him in the Egleton car park at Rutland Water.

Roger was already in the car park when I arrived and we decided to go to Horn Mill Trout Farm to see if we could catch up with the Kingfisher I had missed on Tuesday.  When we arrived it was quite windy and as we walked along the footpath we had a Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel but there was no sign of any Kingfishers.  We walked down the road to check the stream further down but with the same result although we did see a Whitethroat and heard Chiffchaff and Blackcap.

Having no luck with the Kingfisher we returned to the north arm at Rutland Water but the hoped for Goldeneye was not in the fishponds and there was very little else.  On arrival at the Egleton Reserve we went to the Bird Watching Centre to view lagoon one but other than a pair of Shelduck and a single Oystercatcher it was pretty quiet.  We went next to Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow and saw both Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat briefly before reaching the hide.  The male and female Pintail were on the Wet Meadow flash and we also had a couple of Little Egrets and a single Shelduck.

Swifts over the Wet Meadow

With lunchtime approaching we returned to the car park and were joined by Ken before we set off again to the northern lagoons.  From sandpiper hide on lagoon four we found a single Oystercatcher, three Little Ringed Plovers, twelve Ringed Plovers, four Dunlin and a Redshank and there was also ten Shelduck on the lagoon but there was only nine Common Terns resting on island ten spit.

I had seen a couple of Hobbies hawking over lagoon three and so we went to Shoveler hide next to hopefully get better views.  Ken had gone on ahead and had seen three Hobbies but there were now just two visible.  Roger then found a drake Scaup before he and Ken went to Lapwing hide to view south arm three.  Not too long after they had departed I had four Hobbies over the lagoon but they soon dispersed and only one was visible for most of the time.  Ken and Roger both returned having seen very little and soon afterwards Roger decided to go and look for the Goldeneye again in the north arm, which he did find.  Ken then left a few minutes afterwards to go back to the centre whilst I remained in the hide.  It was some time afterwards that an Osprey flew over the lagoon and passed right over the hide as it did so and I was able to get a few photos of it.

Swifts over lagoon three

Little Grebe on lagoon three

Female Gadwall over lagoon three

Common Tern over lagoon three

Osprey over lagoon three

I called at sandpiper hide on lagoon four again where I counted seventeen Ringed Plovers, a Sanderling and six Dunlin before I called it a day and returned to the car park before setting off home.

Great news today was Leicester’s one all draw at Sunderland and with Hull losing at Tottenham guaranteeing their place in the Premiership next season.  They were considered no hopers just a few weeks ago with just nineteen points before accumulating another nineteen from just eight games.  The greatest escape ever?