With the threat of rain today
I arrived in the south arm at Rutland Water at about 08:45 to begin the
wildfowl count. When I started the count
it was dry and I was able to complete the south arm before the rain
started. There were plenty of birds but
not a great variety with most being Tufted Duck of which I counted 1850, but
there were also smaller numbers of Mute Swan, Egyptian Geese, Mallard, Teal and
Pochard. There were thirty-two Little
Egrets scattered around the arm from the Old Hall to Goldeneye hide and I
counted twenty-eight Common Terns. I had
a brief view of a Black Tern, which flew through the scope whilst I was
counting the Tufted Ducks, but I couldn’t relocate it once I finished counting
the Tufted Duck.
Having completed the count I
drove to Egleton and went into the centre to count lagoon one. There was a better variety on here with over
300 Coot and good numbers of both Gadwall and Mallard. There was also three Wigeon, a few Teal, Shoveler
and Tufted Duck and I found an eclipse drake Red-crested Pochard and there were
twenty-seven Little Grebes, which is a good number for the lagoons. There was also a single Dunlin on the long
island and several more Little Egrets.
Whilst I had been counting the
rain started and I was given permission to drive to Snipe and harrier hides to
complete the count. There were only a
few birds on the Wet Meadow flash the best being three Shoveler and a single
Teal and from harrier larger numbers of Teal were counted.
Whilst at the southern end of
the reservoir I visited lagoons five, six, seven and eight but there were very
few birds, particularly on six and eight and certainly nothing of note. I also went into heron hide and saw two of
the Manton Bay Ospreys, a Yellow-legged Gull on one of the signs on the Manton
Bay bund and three more Common Terns.
After returning to the centre
to submit my count figures and seeing the Great White Egret on lagoon one,
which hadn’t been present earlier, I had my lunch. After lunch I returned to the centre as it
was still raining but other than a Snipe I saw else nothing new.
As the rain began to easy I
set off for lagoon three but it was still raining when I reached the hide and
did so all the time I was in the hide. I
was surprised on looking out of the hide, considering the weather, to see an
Osprey carrying a fish and heading off towards the south arm. There were three Green Sandpipers to the
right of the hide and a Greenshank flew in but was harassed by a Black-headed
Gull and departed towards lagoon two.
The juvenile Wood Sandpiper, present for a few days now, had been seen
early morning but not since but it did reappear during my stay and provided
some nice if distant views. Another good
bird was a single Swift, which was my first for a few days. Whilst in the hide I called Steve to see if he
had seen anything but was surprised when the phone was answered by someone
else. It turns out someone had found the
phone in a hide and returned it to the centre.
I called Terry expecting him to still be with Steve but he had returned
home being fed up with the weather but whilst talking to him Steve came into
the hide. Steve had realised he had lost
his phone when he thought about calling me and had comeback to look for it
being relieved when I confirmed that it had been handed in at the centre.
I eventually moved on to
sandpiper hide on lagoon four but saw very little except for a single Common
Sandpiper and so I moved on to Dunlin hide to get a different view. There were plenty of Black-headed and Great
Black-backed Gulls to the left of the hide and the number of Lesser
Black-backed Gulls was increasing, although there were only six Yellow-legged
Gulls present. I then found five Ringed
Plovers resting near island one and noticed more between islands six and nine
and on scoping these I counted fourteen along with thirteen Dunlin. I scanned the gulls again I picked up an
adult Little Gull amongst some of the Black-headed Gulls, which was a nice
surprise. Just before leaving I checked
the area where the Ringed Plover and Dunlin had been but could only find a few
Ringed Plovers and on looking for the Little Gull afterwards that had also
disappeared. Steve and Terry hadn’t seen
any Dunlin earlier and presumably they had dropped in and probably left again
as the weather improved.
I thought I would check out
the north arm before heading off and found three Red-crested Pochard, a Little
Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover and two Yellow-legged Gulls. One of the Red-crested Pochard was an eclipse
male and presumable the same bird I had seen earlier on lagoon one and one of
the other two was beginning to get some red on the bill and is presumably a
young male.
I had spoke to wife earlier
and was surprised to find out there hadn’t been any rain in Leicester but was
even more surprised when visiting Eyebrook Reservoir to establish that there
had been very little there also and it only a few miles from Rutland
Water. I stopped briefly at the bridge
seeing a single Ruff in the stream but went to the fence on the Leicestershire
bank as I could see other waders. There
were eleven Ringed Plovers, two Sanderling, twelve Dunlin, eleven Ruff and a
Snipe and there was a single Yellow-legged Gull close to the Rutland bank. I drove to the southern end to check the bay
where the Wood Sandpipers had been on Saturday and found four Little Ringed
Plovers, a Common Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper.
Perhaps not one of my best
days out but considering the weather there had been a few highlights in
Sanderling, Wood Sandpiper, Little Gull and Black Tern.
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