I put the moth trap out last
night and trapped forty moths of twenty species with five new for the year.
The following were recorded:
Light Brown Apple Moth [2]; Bee Moth [1]; Elephant Hawk Moth [1]; Silver-ground
Carpet [1]; Common Marbled Carpet [1]; Mottled Pug [1]; Peppered Moth [1];
Pebble Prominent [1]; Buff-tip [1]; Silver Y [2]; Dagger sp. [1]; Rustic
Shoulder-knot [2]; Hear and Dart [21]; Shuttle-shaped Dart [1]; Small Square
Spot [1] and Large Yellow Underwing.
Elephant Hawkmoth
Common Marbled Carpet
Peppered Moth
Pebble Prominent
Silver Y
Having emptied the trap and
had some breakfast I set of to Eyebrook Reservoir before going to Rutland Water
to help with the Wetland Bird Survey Count.
A Little Egret alongside the River Sence at Wistow was a surprise but the
only bird of note on route to Eyebrook Reservoir.
One of the Little Owls was
observed in the old oak as I approached the reservoir and on parking facing the
inlet I found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper. There were two Shelduck further down the
reservoir and a couple of Common Terns close to one of the rafts and a Red Kite
soaring some distance away towards the dam.
I had a text from Tim requesting I count south arm three and then get
involved on the lagoons. As I was
leaving for Rutland Water an Osprey flew over.
As I approached Rutland Water
Steve called to discuss the count and I agreed to count lagoon one after
completing south arm three and he would count lagoons two, three and four. We would then discuss the strategy for
counting the new lagoons once one of us had finished.
As I was counting the small
number of wildfowl near the Old Hall a Sparrowhawk flew over low causing some
disturbance but other than a few Egyptian Geese the only bird of note was a
single Oystercatcher. I walked along the
shore to view the rest of the arm seeing a couple of Little Egrets and a
Goldeneye but otherwise it was pretty quiet with most of the water devoid of
birds. I saw a Garden Warbler and heard
a Chiffchaff as I walked back to the car.
Having completed my first task
I set off to the Egleton car park to count lagoon one. Fortunately the light wasn’t too bad looking
out from the centre and I was able to complete most of the count from there. There was a large concentration of Coots and
whilst counting these I found a drake Red-crested Pochard that was looking a
bit worse for wear. Other birds on the
lagoon were Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard,
Shoveler, Tufted Duck, an Oystercatcher and several Lapwing. Satisfied I had seen all I was going to see I
called Steve to suggest that I should count the Wet Meadow and lagoon six as I
was going to both Snipe and harrier hides to complete the lagoon one
count. He agreed and said he would do
lagoons six and seven and the first to finish would then do lagoon eight.
On reaching Snipe hide I found
very little else on lagoon one and there was very little on the Wet Meadow with
no sign of the brood of Shelduck but I did see a distant Hobby. I continued on to harrier hide seeing another
Garden Warbler on route and found the Avocet still sitting on the Wet
Meadow. There was a Sedge Warbler in
front of the hide and a small party of Greylag Geese in front of the hide,
which were added to the count figures.
Satisfied I had found most of
what was on the Wet Meadow and lagoon one I moved on to tern hide on lagoon
six. There was a single Oystercatcher on
the island in front of the hide and from Pintail hide I saw a Redshank fly in.
I called Steve who was also
about completed but as I was closest to lagoon eight I walked the short
distance to view the lagoon. As I
approached the only Kestrel I saw all day was hovering over one of the islands
and I found three Little Egrets and three Oystercatchers on the lagoon and
there was also over one hundred Lapwing present.
Having completed the count I
called at the 360 hide on lagoon five where there was at least six Common Terns
that appeared to be sitting on nests.
Steve had mentioned that he heard Redshanks calling on the lagoon but
couldn’t find them but they were now two birds on one of the islands giving a
Jackdaw a hard time. One then flew to
another island and walked into the grass, which is when I noticed two tiny
chicks and there was also a female Mallard with a brood of nine on the lagoon.
I called at Snipe hide again
where I found Steve and Terry who had seen the Shelduck brood but sadly there
are now only four remaining but I could only see one of the adults the others
being out of sight.
We returned to the car park
and after some lunch Steve and I went to the centre to complete the count forms
before going to sandpiper hide on lagoon four.
The water levels on the lagoon are now quite low and really good for
waders but there are now mainly only resident birds present. Steve located an unexpected Arctic Tern
resting on island ten spit amongst a few Common Terns and a few minutes later
he announced that he had the first-summer bird David and I had seen on lagoon
one on Saturday. However he then said I
would have expected a first-year to have a white forehead, which the bird we
had seen on Saturday did have and so it was a different bird. I eventually got on the bird and it looked
like an adult with a faded carpel bar as we discussed the bird we realised that
it was another Arctic Tern and wondered if it could have been a second-summer
individual. There was also the
Oystercatcher and chick on island four, a Little Ringed Plover and two Ringed
Plovers on island ten, a Dunlin on island six and two Yellow-legged Gulls on
island one. On scanning the sky we found
several Red Kites and Buzzards, two Sparrowhawks, three Ospreys and two Hobbies
amongst the gulls that were probably all feeding on insects. Terry and Chris Park had joined us in the
hide and Terry eventually called it a day whilst Chris, Steve and I went to
Shoveler hide on lagoon three.
There were five Little Egrets,
three Avocets and a Green Sandpiper on the lagoon and the number of Teal had
risen to twenty with the pair of Shelduck now just escorting three birds from
an original brood of ten. A Great
Spotted Woodpecker flew over and we had more sightings of both Buzzard and
Osprey and three Reed Warblers were observed just in front of the hide.
Little Egret on lagoon three
Little Egret on lagoon three
The three remaining Shelduck ducklings
Female Shelduck
Avocet
Avocet
Green Sandpiper
Common Tern over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
Common Tern over lagoon three
Reed Warbler
There had been at least one
Painted Lady seen near sandpiper hide and so I went off to look for those
whilst Steve and Chris returned to the centre.
I didn’t find any Painted Lady but I did see couple of Large Skippers
and a single Black-tailed Skimmer. There
were surprisingly still few insects about although I had seen Small White,
Brimstone, Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and a Four-spotted
Chaser during the day and there were quite a few blue damselflies, which were
mainly Azure.
I made a quick visit to Dunlin
hide on lagoon four and found a Curlew on island one and a couple of
Oystercatchers on island eight. It had
not been a bad day with eight-four species recorded and the discussion around
the two Arctic Terns was interesting.
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