A day out in Leicestershire & Rutland - July 9, 2015

I visited Eyebrook Reservoir before going to Rutland Water and as usual I checked the old oak for the Little Owls but there was no sign and so I continued to the bridge where I stopped for a few minutes.  There were two Blackcaps singing and a Chiffchaff made a brief appearance.  At the inlet there were four Little Egrets and I then found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers on the now dry mud and two Dunlin amongst the growing number of Lapwing.  There were four Common Terns over the water and at least two were still feeding four young on one of the rafts and the pair of Shelduck was still present with their seven young.  Circa fifty Swift were feeding fairly high above the water but the only hirundine I saw was a single Swallow.  A nice surprise was three Yellow Wagtails, which is a species that has reduced dramatically over the last ten years, both as a migrant and a breeding bird at this site.

On reaching Rutland Water I went to the north arm where there were eight Little Egrets on and around the new bund and a single Green Sandpiper.  On the north shore there were a couple of Little Ringed Plover and I found another four on the end of the spit.  I checked the fishponds where I found a female Mallard with a brood of seven tiny young and another nine Little Egrets resting in the trees below the Cormorants.  As I was thinking of going to the Egleton Reserve a tweet from Tim arrived indicating that the Great White Egret was on the Wet Meadow, which hastened my departure.

When I arrived at Egleton I set off for Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow only to be told on arrival the egret had flown on to lagoon one but was out of sight.  After I few minutes I did see it in flight as it moved across lagoon one before continuing and coming down on lagoon two.  There was very little on the flash but a Red Kite was observed over the trees to the west of the hide.

I eventually went on to harrier hide and was delighted to see that there were still three Avocet chicks, which were looking rather different to the last time I saw them.  They were losing their down and acquiring feathers, which is probably more advanced than in previous years.  They were also seen exercising their wings so hopefully they will fledge and be the first successful breeding of Avocets for the counties.  The adults were particularly aggressive towards a Little Egret and did manage to drive it off although they less success with a Shelduck.

Avocet chick on the Wet Meadow

Whilst I was in the hide an Oystercatcher flew over and a Sedge Warbler was singing and seen in display flight and the Great White Egret flew back towards Snipe hide.

I decided to continue on to Fieldfare hide and the found the water level had fallen sufficiently to exposure some nice feeding habitat.  There were four Little Egret, an Oystercatcher, a nice summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit and three Green Sandpipers taking advantage of the conditions.  Having not been to Goldeneye hide for some time I continued to Lax Hill and on arrival found the water level to be inviting.  However a careful scan produced just another Little Egret and a single Oystercatcher.

Lapwing from Fieldfare hide

Green Sandpiper from Fieldfare hide

Carrion Crow from Fieldfare hide

Lapwing from Goldeneye hide

I walked over the top of Lax Hill before dropping down towards lagoon eight and could see three Little Egrets in Heron Bay and the two Ospreys and the three young in Manton Bay but there was no sign of the Great White Egret and so I continued on to the 360 hide.  There was just two Common Terns visible on the lagoon and no sign of any young, although they and other adults could have been hidden in the long grass.

Brown Hawker on Lax Hill

I continued back to the Wet Meadow and was pleased to find that the Great White Egret had returned.

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

With little else I made my way back to the car park where I had my lunch during which time I was joined by Erik.  Having finished my lunch we set off to lagoon three and specifically to Shoveler hide.  The area that was so attractive to birds just a short time ago was now dry and although Tim has closed the sluice gate it will be a while before the water level comes back up and consequently there was only was a single Oystercatcher.  There was still a good number of wildfowl on the lagoon, mainly Tufted Duck but there was also Gadwall, Mallard and Pochard and Erik found a drake Scaup.  With little else accept for a few Common Terns we headed off to check out the water level from crake hide, but was still too high to attract waders although we did have some nice view of several Reed Warblers and two Ospreys flew over.

Great Crested Grebe and chick from crake hide

Osprey from crake hide

Male Common Blue Damselflies attempting to mate with just a few females

Reed Warbler from crake hide

Having established that the water needed to drop further at crake hide we went to sandpiper hide on lagoon four.  As we started to scan Erik noticed that there were some godwits between islands seven and eight.  We could see that they were Black-tailed Godwits but it was difficult to determine how many there were and so we moved to Dunlin hide.  It still wasn’t easy to count them as they were standing in small groups and also amongst the gulls.  After numerous recounts we managed to count thirty-seven on several occasions and decided that would be our final tally.  There were two Oystercatchers, two Little Ringed Plovers, a Ringed Plover, six Curlew and ten Yellow-legged Gulls also on the lagoon.

Three Curlew on lagoon four

Curlew on lagoon four

We called at grebe hide on lagoon two as we made our way back to the centre where we found another Oystercatcher, a Green Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail but called it a day on reaching the centre.

During the day I had seen plenty of butterflies mainly Ringlet and Meadow Browns but also Large White, Green-veined White, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper and Large Skipper.  The Gatekeepers were the first of the year and the Comma was my first for the year.  There was also hundreds of Common Blue Damselflies and also I saw a single Brown Hawker and Emperor Dragonfly as well as two moths a Beautiful Hook-tip and a Large Yellow Underwing.