I was out with Roger today and
we went to Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a Green Woodpecker near Kibworth on
route. We approached the reservoir from
the southern end seeing a Little Egret, an Osprey and three Whitethroats before
we reached the island coral. From the
coral we saw a single Little Ringed Plover but otherwise it was pretty
quiet. We continued along the
Leicestershire side of the reservoir seeing another Whitethroat before we
reached the bridge where we saw a Willow Warbler and a Red Kite. Although the water level is superb for waders
Lapwing was only wader we saw and other than four Common Terns and the young on
the raft there was little else. As we
scanned the area the Lapwings and a few Black-headed Gulls all got up and we
picked up a Sparrowhawk flying low along the Leicestershire bank. A little further along towards Stoke Dry we noticed
pair of Shelduck, which must have had young, attacking a Mallard duckling and
driving it into the grasses. When the
Shelduck backed off the Mallard was attached by a Carrion Crow and so I clapped
my hands, which had the desired effect and the crow flew off. The Mallard then stood but immediately fell
over again as if its legs weren’t responding.
However its legs appeared ok and it did eventually get back to the water
and joined another duckling and they both swam out into the middle to join a
female with presumably the rest of the brood.
We eventually moved on to the
north arm at Rutland Water where we found a Goldeneye and three Oystercatchers
flew over but as it started to rain we quickly went back to the car and drove
to the Egleton car park. We went in to
the centre for a while to check out lagoon one but other then three Wigeon, a
pair of Oystercatcher with a single young bird and an adult Yellow-legged Gull
we saw very little else and moved on to the northern lagoons.
As we approached the ramp to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four we stopped and had a chat with Frank and Stuart
and whilst doing so a Green Woodpecker flew over the path and a Kestrel was
observed to the west. As we approached
Shoveler hide on lagoon three Roger noticed a bird perched on the corner of the
hide, which turned out to be a Green Sandpiper.
There were four very noisy Oystercatchers feeding just in front of the
hide and the pair of Shelduck was still escorting the three young birds. A Green Sandpiper then flew in, which was
probably the bird off the hide roof, and began feeding alongside one of the
exposed islands. A Little Egret was then
observed flying, which disturbed a second bird from a ditch to the left of the
hide and both birds then disappeared into the ditch. There were at least ten Reed Warblers seen
just around the hide and a Kingfisher that flashed across heading towards
lagoon two was my first sighting here this year.
From sandpiper hide on lagoon
four we found two more Oystercatchers escorting a now well grown young, a
Little Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover, an adult and a second-summer
Yellow-legged Gull and two Yellow Wagtails.
We got back to the car for
lunch, which was prolonged slightly due to a heavy shower, before we moved off
to harrier hide. The rain was fairly
light as we walked around to the hide, seeing female and juvenile Great Spotted
Woodpecker at the feeding station and a Sedge Warbler before we reached the
hide. Once in the hide it started to
rain heavy again and although both Avocets were present there was no sign of
the reported young bird and presumably the female was brooding it. As we scanned the small flash I found a
Redshank with two tiny young feeding along the edge and as the rain eased the
Avocet stood up and revealed two chicks.
As these moved away from her see sat down again and was presumably still
sitting on one or more eggs. We called
at Snipe hide on the way back where we had distant views of an Osprey and a
couple of Hobbies.
On reaching the centre we had
one more scan of lagoon one seeing nothing new before heading off home. We had seen seventy-eight species of bird but
not surprisingly fewer insects today with just a Small Tortoiseshell, four
Speckled Woods, ten Azure Damselflies and a single Blue-tailed Damselfly.
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