I was going to Rutland Water
today to help with the WeBS count but went to the north arm to look for a
Temminck’s Stint seen yesterday first. I
found Steve and Terry already in the north arm but hadn’t seen the stint. We walked into the field to the right of spit
to get a view of the spit where we found four Little Ringed Plovers but there
was no sign of the stint and it wasn’t on the small spit to our right, which is
where it had been seen yesterday. WE did
see a pair of Shelduck with two young towards the fisherman’s car park and
there was a Red Kite over Burley Wood.
Steve and Terry departed to begin their count on the northern lagoons
and I was waiting for Erik before starting the count in South Arm Three. Erik arrived a few minutes later but before
we departed for the south arm we checked the bund and north shore, where we
found nine Little Ringed Plovers, a Curlew and a Common Sandpiper. Erik had a quick look for the Temminck’s
without success but did see five Little Ringed Plovers on the spit, making
fourteen in total.
When we arrived at The Old
Hall there was clearly more birds present in South Arm three than on recent
counts. Most were Tufted Duck but we
also had good numbers of Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose and Egyptian
Goose and smaller numbers of Mallard, Great Crested Grebe and Coot. We also found a single drake Scaup, four
Little Egrets and five Common Sandpipers and five Redshank dropped low over the
water before heading off in the direction of the southern shore.
Steve had called to say that
there was a Caspian Gull on lagoon four and so we decided to visit the new
Volunteer Training Centre to hopefully see it.
When we entered the viewing area Steve said it was still there but after
he had some difficulty shutting a window we couldn’t find it and so we made our
to the Egleton car park. We entered the
centre to count lagoon one and were pleased that there appeared to be fewer
birds than of late, particularly Tufted Duck.
We suspected that the Tufted Duck in South Arm Three would supplement
the numbers on the lagoon once the fishing boats were out. There was still a good number of Tufted Duck
and also Gadwall but suddenly a number of ducks swam from behind the island and
most appeared to be Gadwall but there was also a few Mallard. Erik decided he would count the Gadwall again
and almost doubled his previous count. I
also found a single Shoveler and we eventually agreed that there were at least
four Wigeon and three Pochard. There was
a couple of Mute Swan with two cygnets and a good number of Canada Geese and a
few Greylags.
Satisfied we had done as much
as possible from the centre we moved on to Snipe hide on the Wet Meadow. The Great White Egret was present but the
only wildfowl were a couple of Teal and so we moved on to harrier hide where
there was a Little Egret and two the Avocets with the three young. There was little to add to the count on
lagoon one and as I was considering going to Fieldfare hide a message on the
phone indicated that the Temminck’s Stint had reappeared in the north arm and
so we went back there. I called Terry to
inform him as he hadn’t seen one this year.
We arrived in the north arm
and another birder said he thought that the stint had flown on to the bund with
a Common Sandpiper. Terry arrived as we
were looking when Erik thought he might have it but all we could see was an
intermittent view of its head. We
weren't at all sure about the bird when it suddenly showed its self and
disappointment it was a second Common Sandpiper. We checked the spit but there was nothing and
Erik moved to get a better view of the second spit where he found the Temminck’s
alongside another Common Sandpiper. The
Common Sandpiper then flew but fortunately the stint remained and we had good
views of a nice adult.
Steve then arrived and Terry
stayed with him while Erik and I went back to Egleton for some lunch before we
set off for sandpiper hide on lagoon four.
When we arrived at sandpiper it was pretty full and so we decided to go
to Dunlin, which was closer to the gulls and empty. There were quite a few Yellow-legged Gulls
but they were all sitting down and most were roosting. We spent quite some time observing them and
occasionally odd ones would stand to give a better view but all we were seeing
were Yellow-legged Gulls and not the Caspian seen earlier today. As we continued to observe the gulls more
began standing and two flew off but we were still only seeing Yellow-legged but
as I continued to scan there was a bird appeared beyond a gap in the
vegetation, which I was certain was the Caspian. It then walked more in to view and we could
both see it quite well and alongside a Yellow-legged Gull for comparison. Erik then picked up what he thought might be
a Mediterranean Gull, which was preening amongst a few Black-headed Gulls. It was clearly a first-year bird with dark
primaries but its head pattern resembled that of an adult but was heavily
flecked white, particularly across the forehead. It was slightly larger than the Black-headed
Gulls with a stouter bill, which was dark towards the tip but paler at the
base. It raised its wings briefly on
several occasions showing dark outer primaries and coverts, with inner
primaries paler and noticeable dark secondary bar and pale secondary
coverts. It clearly wasn’t a typical
first-summer Mediterranean Gull having the blackish hood but otherwise it
looked good. After referring to
references it appears that a small percentage of first-years can obtain a full
black hood and even more a partial black hood and I was therefore happy we had
seen a first-year Mediterranean Gull.
Whilst in the hide we also saw three Little Ringed Plovers, a Ringed
Plover, a Common Sandpiper and an Osprey.
We visited Shoveler hide on
lagoon three but other than two Shelduck and an Avocet, which flew off in the
direction of lagoon on and was presumably one of the breeding pair from the Wet
Meadow, there wasn’t a great deal. We
had two Green Sandpipers from Smew hide on lagoon two and then saw presumably
the same two birds from grebe hide but there was nothing else of note on lagoon
two. Finally we made another visit to
the centre but a female Gadwall escorting a brood of six was the only addition
to this morning’s visit.
I called at Eyebrook Reservoir
on the way home visiting the northern coral where I found fifteen Little
Egrets, two Little Ringed Plovers, a single Dunlin and the two Shelduck with
their seven young.
During the visit to Rutland
Water I recorded two Small Tortoiseshell, ten Meadow Brown, ten Ringlet, a
Small Skipper, fifteen Common Blue Damselfly, a Southern Hawker and a Common
White Wave and on route home I called at David’s who had a Dwarf Cream Wave and
a Green Arches to show me.
Dwarf Cream Wave
Green Arches
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