With easterly winds blowing
all day yesterday and continuing today I was hoping for a few more waders and
possibly a scarce migrant.
I saw very little on route to
Eyebrook Reservoir and it was no surprise that the Little Owls were not showing
but a Buzzard was in flight over the field.
I stopped at the bridge where I had brief views of presumably the same
Marsh Tit I had seen on Tuesday and there were a couple of Shelduck on the
stream. I could see some distant Ringed
Plovers and therefore drove further along the Rutland bank to view the
area. There were nine Ringed Plovers, a
Dunlin and a Curlew feeding at the inlet and two Yellow Wagtails were feeding
on the drier area of mud. I was thinking
of leaving when I saw Andy Mackay on the Leicestershire bank and so I gave him
a call. We had a chat about on
unidentified moth I had sent him photos of and it would appear that is what it
is likely to remain. Shortly afterwards
I drove further along and stopped to view the more southern area seeing a
couple of Ospreys further down the reservoir.
Andy then called to say he had a possible Garganey and so I went back
but couldn’t find it and with the phone no longer working due to a poor
reception I drove around and joined Andy.
He informed me that the bird was now on the bank and that he was now
certain it was a Garganey and I soon found the bird close to the Rutland bank. There were also three Greenshanks feeding in
front of the reedbed at the beginning of the plantation but with little else I
moved on to the north arm at Rutland Water.
I walked down towards the
point seeing a couple of Common Sandpiper on the bund as I did so. There were several waders on the point that
turned out to be a single Ringed Plover and nine Dunlin and there was a
Redshank and two more Common Sandpiper further around on the south shore. As I walked back I found at least four Yellow
Wagtails on the bund and there were twelve Little Egrets still roosting in the
fishponds.
After parking at Egleton I
went in the centre to view lagoon one, planning to take an early lunch before
going to the northern lagoons. Tim had
let more water out of the lagoon and there were a couple of Dunlin feeding on a
freshly exposed area towards the long island.
There were also another nine Little Egrets resting on one of the islands
and a female Tufted Duck was escorting a brood of eight very small ducklings.
With little else visible I
went back to the car for lunch before heading off to Shoveler hide on lagoon
three. There were a few waders on the
lagoon but initially all I could find were four Green Sandpipers and two
Greenshanks. A wader then flew in and
around the island reedbed, which was a Ruff and it that then flew back and was
joined by a second. As I continued to
scan I found the reported Wood Sandpiper and eventually had six Green
Sandpipers. Most of the waders were feeding
at the far end with only the Greenshank coming close on occasions. I then noticed what I thought might be a
Water Rail disappear into the reedbed on the right of the hide and thankfully
it came back out a few second later. I
informed another birder in the hide who managed to bang the side of the hide in
his rush to see the bird. I was still
watching the rail which initially just looked alert but a couple of seconds
later it shot back into the reeds and I didn’t see it again. My patience eventually paid off when the
juvenile Wood Sandpiper eventually came reasonably close and I was able to get
a few shots before it returned to the far end.
Three Little Ringed Plovers then appeared to the left of the hide just
as David arrived and a short while afterwards we went to Smew hide on lagoon
two to hopefully see the Great White Egret.
Teal from Shoveler hide
Lapwing from Shoveler hide
Greenshank from Shoveler hide
Greenshank from Shoveler hide
Greenshank from Shoveler hide
Greenshank from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
Wood Sandpiper from Shoveler hide
As we approached Smew hide
another birder came out saying Great White Egret but when we got in we couldn’t
find initially but I then caught sight of it on one of the nearby tern rafts. Whilst in the hide we also had a couple of
Willow Warbler amongst a party of birds moving through feeding.
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
As I came out of the hide I
disturbed a Red Underwing that then landed on the fencing and I was able to get
a photo in pretty poor light.
Red Underwing
As we were walking towards
Lapwing hide the same birder, who had indicated the Great White Egret was in
front of Smew, came towards us saying Black Tern, three out of three, and
presumably he had come hoping for three birds and had seen all three.
There were masses of Tufted Ducks
in front of the hide and as we scanned we found at least twenty Common Terns
but couldn’t find the Black Tern and nothing else amongst the Tufted. We were about to give up when I picked up a
tern feeding towards the Green Bank, which I was able to identify as a Black
Tern and it was perhaps surprising we hadn’t seen it before. I checked lagoon two and found two Green
Sandpiper and two Greenshanks and so we went back to Shoveler to see if the
Greenshanks were still there. There was
no sign of the Greenshanks from Shoveler and we therefore assumed that they
were the same birds on lagoon two but David then found the Black Tern over
lagoon three, which is perhaps why we didn’t see it initially from Lapwing
hide, although we hadn’t noticed it earlier from Shoveler either.
We moved on to Dunlin hide on
lagoon four to view the gulls and although there were plenty of Black-headed
and Great Black-backed Gulls we couldn’t find the hope for Mediterranean
Gull. There were also a small number of
Lesser Black-backed Gulls and at least ten Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the more
numerous Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gulls. David then noticed some waders to the right
of the hide and as I scanned I found several Ringed Plovers and Dunlin and the
last bird I came to was a juvenile Little Stint, which was a county year
tick. We eventually counted ten Ringed
Plovers and five Dunlin and I also found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers on
the lagoon.
David was keen to go to
Eyebrook Reservoir to try and see the Garganey I had seen this morning and
after getting back to the car park we made our way to Eyebrook Reservoir.
We stopped at the bridge but
there was nothing of note and we drove around to the fencing on the
Leicestershire bank. There were five
Ruff on the Rutland bank and a Redshank at the inflow that I hadn’t seen this
morning but we could find the Garganey and set off for home as the rain
increased.
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