I was out with David and Roger
today and we headed off to the southern end of Eyebrook Reservoir, seeing three
Red Kites as we drove along Stockerston Road.
When we arrived at the reservoir we parked near the entrance to the
fishing lodge and viewed the fields to the north. At one point we had nine Red Kites in the air
together, which would probably have included the three we saw along Stockerston
Road and we also found four Red-legged Partridges and two Tree Sparrows flew
over. There was also a good selection of
common birds including Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and
Linnet and we also heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
We moved on to the first bay
visible from the road where we found two Common Sandpipers and a Wood Sandpiper
along the shore running to the island.
Walking a little further along the road we were able to view the
shoreline to the south and found two Little Ringed Plovers, four Ringed
Plovers, four Curlew Sandpipers, three Dunlin, five Common Sandpipers and a
second Wood Sandpiper. Before walking
back to the car we viewed the hedgerow running northwest from the reservoir
where there were good numbers of Linnet.
We also saw Chaffinch and Greenfinch and Hobby flew across the field and
then behind us before turning and coming right back over our heads and flying
off over the hedge. Roger then picked up
a Sparrowhawk being mobbed by a Carrion Crow, which induced some of the
passerines to fly out of the hedge as it disappeared on the far side, to only
reappear a few seconds later as it came quite close before disappearing out of
sight.
Happy we had seen most of what
was in this southwest corner we moved along the Leicestershire bank and along
the northern entrance road to view the old oak but there was no sign of the
Little Owls. We stopped on the bridge
before continuing along the Rutland bank and was rewarded with a distant Whinchat
and there were three Greenshank in the stream and also another three Red Kites
over the fields. There was little
passerine activity around the bridge and so we moved further along to view the
inlet. There were ten Dunlin and I
counted twenty-eight Ruff at the inlet and along the Leicestershire shore. David then picked up a single Swift and a
party of circa fifteen Yellow Wagtails flew over. I moved back along the road and saw an Osprey
to the north but it disappeared behind some trees and didn’t reappear. We left Eyebrook Reservoir feeling quite
pleased with what we had seen and headed towards the north arm at Rutland
Water.
There were three Common
Sandpipers on the north shore of the fishponds and we counted eight Ruff on the
north shore of the north arm. Looking
out to the east we found a single Black Tern and five Common Terns and there
was a Little Ringed Plover and Dunlin on the spit. We scanned Burley Wood and found two Red
Kites, a Sparrowhawk, two Buzzards and two Hobbies, although I only managed to get
on one.
The Old Hall in south arm
three was our next location and we found four Ruff and twenty-three Common
Terns just after going over the cattle grid.
We found another nine Ruff and five Common Sandpipers along the green
bank and I found five Black Terns and another thirteen Common Terns over the
far side of the arm. An Osprey was
observed to the north but there was little else and so we went to Egleton.
The car park is still not in
full use as the Birdfair is still being cleared and so we parked in the
overflow area. After lunch we watched an
area in the corner of the field frustratingly watching several birds dive in to
cover as they moved through the area and we managed to just identify a
female-type Blackcap, with Roger and I feeling we also had brief and partially
obscured views of a Garden Warbler.
We finally gave up and went to
the Bird watching centre to view lagoon one.
There were plenty of birds on the lagoon, mainly Gadwall and Coot with
good numbers also of both Mallard and Shoveler.
There were also smaller numbers of Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck and we
did find two Red-crested Pochard and a single Pochard. A juvenile Marsh Harrier was also seen on
several occasions, an Osprey briefly over the lagoon and a Hobby was seen
hawking over the poplars. There were
three Ruff on the long island and Roger found a Snipe and a Common Sandpiper
and just after I picked up a Greenshank.
David then found a juvenile Spotted Redshank but unfortunately the Marsh
Harrier flushed everything just after we had got on to the it and we couldn’t
relocate it after things had settled down again.
We decided to move on to
Shoveler hide on lagoon three where we found a Common Sandpiper, nine Green
Sandpipers and a single Wood Sandpiper but other than an Osprey flying towards
south arm three there was very little else and so we moved on to Lapwing hide.
Calling at crake hide where
two other birders excitedly pointed out two Kingfishers in the bushes near the
sluice. They both remained with one
diving into the water on several occasions without success but they both
disappeared during a rather heavy shower and so we continued on to Lapwing.
There were several very large
rafts of Tufted Ducks and David found a couple of Goldeneye close to one of the
closer rafts of birds but there was very little else other than Tufted
Ducks. A Buzzard was observed over
Brown’s Island and three Black Terns came a little closer as they appeared to
be heading to lagoon one.
Juvenile Black Tern
Juvenile Black Tern
As we walked back along the
path towards Shoveler hide a party of Long-tailed Tits contained a Chiffchaff
and brief visit into crake again produced another Chiffchaff and two Reed
Warblers.
Our last port of call was
going to be lagoon four and I suggested that we should go to Dunlin hide as we
would be closer to any resting gulls and also get a better view of the area
between island six and nine, where any waders had been recently. There were quite a few gulls, mainly
Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gull but there was also several Lesser
Black-backed Gulls and six Yellow-legged Gulls.
To my surprise there were few waders between island six and nine but
Roger did find a Little Stint. David
then noticed that there were a number of waders almost directly in front of
sandpiper and we eventually went there to get a better look. There were at least thirty Ringed Plovers and
fourteen Dunlin but we also found two Little Ringed Plovers, another Little
Stint, four Black-tailed Godwits and two Common Sandpipers. We also had three Ospreys in view with one
perched on lagoon four and the other two off to the east.
After a quick chat with Erik,
who was attempting to count the waders around most of the reservoir, we set off
for home. It had been a pretty good day
with eighty-eight species recorded and a wader tally of 165 birds, excluding
Lapwing.
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