I was out with David and Roger
today and we called at Eyebrook Reservoir first and approached the reservoir
from the southern end. As usual we
stopped at the gate to the fishing lodge where we saw three Red Kites and two
Tree Sparrows. We drove to view the old
oak but as usual there was no sign of any Little Owls but there was another Red
Kite quite close to the tree. We
returned to the bridge at the reservoir where we found a couple of Chiffchaffs
and I heard a Treecreeper as I walked back to the car. I drove and pulled in at one of the farm
gates, seeing a couple of Little Egrets in the stream, and whilst waiting for
David and Roger I viewed and narrow strip of set-aside. There were a few birds in the area and I saw
Dunnock, a Tree Sparrow, several Linnets, a couple of Yellowhammer and several
Reed Buntings. I then joined Roger a
little further down the road as he had found a couple of Snipe. We moved a little further along the road to
view the inlet and although there is now a good expanse of mud the only waders
we could find were Lapwings and a single Ringed Plover. There was plenty of wildfowl on the water
that included Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard and Tufted Duck and there was a
single juvenile Shelduck close to the inlet and a Ruddy Shelduck towards the
island. There was also a small passage
of Skylarks with several small parties observed and three Swallows and thirteen
House Martins were also observed on the move.
We eventually left Eyebrook
Reservoir and headed for the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water. On arrival we checked the feeding station but
found the feeders quite low but there was still circa twenty Tree Sparrows and
a constant stream of Blue and Great Tits visiting. We walked down the track as far as Shallow
Water Hide seeing four Chiffchaffs as we did so but there were noticeably fewer
birds than during my recent visits. As
we approached Shallow Water Hide a Red Kite flew over and from the hide I
counted twenty-six Pintail and David picked up a drake and a female-type
Red-crested Pochard. There was also
seven Ruff and a single Green Sandpiper and three Little Egrets in the
bay. We called at Tufted Duck Hide on
the way back to the centre and found a Yellow-legged Gull on the bund. We could see plenty of wildfowl and
Cormorants and there was a single Wren and two Migrant Hawkers close to the
hide.
Comma near Deep Water Hide
Migrant Hawker from Tufted Duck Hide
Migrant Hawker from Tufted Duck Hide
After some lunch in the
Egleton car park we went to the Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One. There had clearly been a significant amount
of habitat management carried out and on the islands in particular the
vegetation had been cleared. Whilst this
enabled better viewing the disturbance had obviously reduced the number of
birds on the lagoon. There was a Great
White Egret feeding at the back of the lagoon and as I scanned around the area
I found six Little Egrets but there certainly fewer wildfowl and in particular
Shoveler. David found a Stonechat on the
grasses at the back of the lagoon and Roger picked up a Kingfisher, which flew
before anyone else got on it.
Fortunately in landed on a fence post and when we all got on it we
realised that there was another one perched on the wires of the fence. One of the two then came closer to the centre
before flying over towards Lagoon Two. I
then picked up a second Great White Egret coming in from the west and it landed
behind the long island and was then surprisingly difficult to see and at times
completely out of sight. A Sparrowhawk
flew just in front of the centre and a Kestrel was seen a couple of times to
the right and a Buzzard sat on the man-made Osprey platform on Brown’s
Island. Both Great White Egrets were
then seen in flight and the one present when we arrived appeared to chase the
second away as it came back down on the lagoon, whilst the other flew off over
Lax Hill area.
As we walked down to Shoveler
Hide on Lagoon Three we had some nice views of a couple of Goldcrest and a
Treecreeper.
Goldcrest
Goldcrest
From the hide there was a
juvenile Shelduck, two Snipe and a couple of Green Sandpipers to the left and a
Sparrowhawk flew over. A single Reed
Warbler was also observed on the edge of the island reedbed. We continued on to Lapwing Hide where we
found six Goldeneye and a Yellow-legged Gull in South Arm Three and a
Greenshank on Lagoon Two. As I walked
back towards Crake Hide a Kingfisher flew from the sluice gate towards the gap
in the fence before veering off into South Arm Three.
As we walked around to Dunlin
hide on Lagoon Four three Siskin flew over and a Green Woodpecker was observed
briefly in the old elms. From the hide
we found a single Pintail and five Ringed Plovers but there was very little
else and we headed back to the car park.
We had a brief chat with Erik
on reaching the car park before setting off home after an enjoyable day in some
rather nice autumn weather.
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