My plan this morning was to
view the North Arm at Rutland Water from Barnsdale in the hope of seeing the
Red-necked and Black-necked Grebes and also hoping that yesterday’s juvenile
Arctic Tern would still be present.
However when I reached the Stamford Road it was closed for resurfacing
and it wasn’t possible to get to Barnsdale without following a lengthy
detour. I therefore started at the end
of cottage road and found a Green Sandpiper in the fishponds. As I was scanning the fishponds Steve arrived
and we walked through the gate to view the north arm. There were just two Barnacle Geese on the
north shore and Steve picked up a perched Red Kite in Burley Wood and circa
eighty House Martins over the wood.
There was a Yellow-legged Gull on the bund and eight Curlew were feeding
on the south shore. There was very
little on the main water and we couldn’t locate either of the grebes or the
tern.
Steve went off to do a mini
version of his normal tour of the reservoir and I went over to the Lyndon
Reserve. When I arrived I checked out
the feeders where there few birds, mainly Blue and Great Tits but there was
also a Coal Tit and a single Tree Sparrow.
I checked South Arm Three from Teal Hide but like the north arm there
were few birds and certainly nothing of note.
I then set off to Sallow Water Hide but it was particularly quiet this
morning, although I did find a couple of Chiffchaffs quite close to the
hide. From the hide I found three Ruff
and two Redshank and one of the Great White Egrets was on the Heron Bay
bund. I counted thirty Pintail in the
bay and there was also good numbers of Wigeon, Shoveler, Pochard and Coot with
small numbers of Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe and Great
Crested Grebe. As I walked back I
scanned South Arm Two close to Tufted Duck Hide where there was a mass of wildfowl,
which were mainly Tufted Duck but there was also another Yellow-legged Gull on
the bund. As I approached the centre
there was some activity on the right of the path and few birds were feeding in
several large bramble bushes and after a patient wait I found two more
Chiffchaffs.
Wigeon grazing in Manton bay
Whilst I had been in Shallow
Water Hide Stave had called to say he found a Rock Pipit and Yellow Wagtail at
the dam and a few minutes later I received a text to say that there were two
Rock Pipits. Ken had also called to say
he had arrived and so I went to Egleton and after a brief discussion we decided
to go to the dam to hopefully find the Rock Pipits. Having parked at the side off the road near a
style we walked the short distance to the dam and began scanning the rocks. We could see several Pied Wagtails but
initially we saw very little else but I then noticed some pipits some distance
along the dam. They were out of view for
most of the time and also very distant and so we decided to walk along the dam
to get closer. As we walked across the
dam we saw plenty of Pied Wagtails and also a couple of pipits but mostly in
flight and on the one occasion I did get a view of one perched I was sure it
was a Meadow Pipit. We had several views
of the Yellow Wagtail but most were in flight and all of the birds appeared
very restless. We finally got back to
the pumping station and decided to have another go scanning along the dam from
there. Pied Wagtails were fairly obvious
and eventually I saw what I thought was a good candidate for a Rock Pipit but
it was only showing intermittently and very briefly each time. I got Ken onto the right area and eventually
we managed to get reasonable if distant views of the bird and were satisfied
that it was one of the two Rock Pipits.
Having seen a single Grey Wagtail we eventually managed four.
After returning to the Egleton
car park and having a bite to eat we went to the Bird Watching Centre to view
lagoon one. Steve was also back and
informed me that there was a Greenshank at the back of the lagoon but other
than that and one of the Great White Egrets there was little else. As we sat in the viewing the area a
Sparrowhawk flew over but with little else Steve went off to Wigeon Hide and
Ken and I set of towards the northern lagoons.
We walked around to Dunlin
Hide on Lagoon Four where we found the juvenile female Peregrine devouring a
prey item and there were also nine Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin. There were plenty of gulls to the left of the
hide, mainly Black-headed but there was also Common, Lesser Black-backed,
Herring and Great Black-backed and a single Yellow-legged Gull. There were few other birds on the lagoon
although we did see a single juvenile Shelduck and three Pintail.
Black-headed Gull over Lagoon Four
A Bittern has been reported on
Lagoon Three the last few evenings and I was planning to stay a little later in
the hope of seeing it. Ken and I
therefore set off with a view of calling at Crake and Lapwing Hides and making
Shoveler hide our last port of call. As
we approached the path leading to Shoveler Hide, Ken had a brief view of Jay,
which we then found perched on top of a hawthorn bush and I was able to get a
few photos before it flew off towards lagoon two being followed by a second
bird.
Jay
Jay
Jay
Jay
Other than six Little Egrets
there was very little from crake and a Yellow-legged Gull in South Arm Three was
the only thing of note from Lapwing Hide.
On reaching Shoveler Hide we
found two Green Sandpipers to the left of the hide and there were two juvenile
Shelduck on the far island. At one point
the hide became congested but eventually, after Ken departed, I had the hide to
myself. Scanning the reedbed with the
scope I had picked up two Chiffchaffs as they moved through the edge of the
reeds and as I followed them the Bittern appeared from the opposite
direction. I was then able to follow it
as it moved slowly right, at the edge of the reeds, when it was up to its belly
in water and at times appeared to swimming.
However as it approached a Grey Heron, also at the reed edge, it moved
deeper into the reeds and I didn’t see it again. Just after it disappeared Tim arrived but all
we managed to locate was a distant Reed Warbler and eventually with both called
it a day.
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