A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - September 15, 2015

On reaching Eyebrook Reservoir at the southern end I stopped by the gate to the fishing lodge but it was rather quiet today with just a single Red Kite visible to the north east.  In the bay near the hide there was a Little Egret and a Ruff but there was nothing from the island and so I moved onto the fencing to view the inlet.  There was a single Shelduck, five Ringed Plovers, ten Dunlin and fifteen Ruff feeding on the mud.  A brief stop at the bridge produced a Snipe and a Greenshank but a search from the Rutland bank for a Whinchat drew a blank but I did see Red Kites on both the Leicestershire and Rutland sides.

I eventually moved to Dickinson’s Bay at Rutland Water but there was no sign of either the Red-necked or Black-necked Grebes but there were five Pintails and two Little Egrets and there was another three Little Egrets on the south shore and a single Red Kite and a Buzzard were observed over Burley Wood.  I stopped to view an elderberry bush before returning to the car and was rewarded with a Goldcrest, Chiffchaff and nice juvenile Lesser Whitethroat.

In the north arm there were seventeen Barnacle Geese on the north shore, three Pintail on the south shore and several more Little Egrets. I also found the two Black-necked Grebes towards the north shore and on the spit there was a single Ringed Plover and seven Dunlin.

On reaching the Egleton Reserve I had some lunch before going to the Bird Watching Centre to view lagoon one.  Amongst the more common wildfowl I found four Pintail and three Red-crested Pochard and there were also three Ruff and a Black-tailed Godwit and a single Snipe flew over and dropped onto the Wet Meadow.  A Hobby was observed hawking over Brown’s Island before it moved off towards lagoon three.

From Shoveler hide on lagoon three there was a juvenile Shelduck and Green Sandpiper to the left of the hide, a Buzzard and two Hobbies were observed over the wooded area and a Yellow-legged Gull flew over.

Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

There were six Little Egrets and a Little Grebe from crake hide and from Lapwing hide I found two Goldeneye in south arm three and two more Green Sandpipers on lagoon two.  As I walked back a mixed party of passerines near Smew hide contained five Chiffchaffs.

Little Grebe

Finally I called at Dunlin hide on lagoon four where there was a juvenile Peregrine resting on one of the islands and I counted ninety-seven Egyptian Geese and twelve Pintail.  There were also ten Ringed Plovers and eight Dunlin and the small number of resting gulls included three Yellow-legged Gulls.

I called at Eyebrook Reservoir on the way home and saw a Redshank and Kingfisher from the bridge.