This morning I decided I would
go straight to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water and it was dry when I
arrived after some fairly heavy overnight rain.
I checked the feeders, which were almost empty but there were still six
Tree Sparrows and a Coal Tit making regular visits and there were circa fifty
Goldfinches feeding on the thistles behind the feeders.
I set off towards Shallow
Water Hide hoping that a Garganey that Steve had found on Friday might still be
there. As I walked along the path there
were quite a few birds in the hedges and bushes but there was nothing of
note. On reaching the hide I started to
scan the wildfowl and counted thirty Pintail amongst the more numerous Wigeon,
Gadwall and Shoveler with smaller numbers of Teal, Mallard and Tufted Duck but
there was no sign of the Garganey. There
were also a couple of Little Egrets in the bay and I also found five Ruff and
four Snipe and one of the Great White Egret more distantly in South Arm
Two. I scanned through the wildfowl on a
number of occasions but still didn’t find the Garganey but I did find a single
Green Sandpiper on my last scan before heading back to the centre.
Snipe
Drake Teal
Little Grebe
Having very little on the walk
back I went to the North Arm and viewed it from the end of the cottage
road. There were eight Little Egrets
scattered around the North Arm with another eight in the fishponds. The seventeen Barnacle Geese were in their
normal location on the north shore and I counted twenty-five Pintail in the arm
and another three in the fishponds. Over
Burley Wood there was a small party of House Martin that appeared to have moved
off before I departed and bird of prey wise I saw just a single Red Kite and a
Buzzard and also had a brief view of a Kingfisher as it flew into the
fishponds.
After making a short visit to
the Volunteers Training Centre I drove to the Egleton car park seeing a
Sparrowhawk as I had my lunch. I then
called Steve to see if he and Terry had anything to report and I wasn’t too
surprised when he said they had located the Garganey in Manton Bay. As there might not be too many opportunities
to see Garganey again this year I decided to return to Lyndon and Shallow Water
Hide.
When I arrived at the Lyndon
car park the weather was a little more threatening and so armed with an
umbrella I set off back to Shallow Water Hide.
As I was approaching Deep Water Hide three Swallows flew over and there
were a couple of Chiffchaffs briefly on the wires behind the hide. I met Steve and Terry just afterwards and
after short chat and armed with further information on the Garganey I continued
on to the hide. They had seen the bird
towards Wader Scrape Hide but on opening the flap there were very few birds and
I then noticed a tractor that was obviously being used to cut the
vegetation. I feared that it might have
been disturbed but on scanning the area found the bird where Steve and Terry
had seen it. As I was watching the bird
the grass cutting continued and the bird did flush and flew towards the hide
and I was able to confirm that it was a female and when it landed quite close
to the hide it emerged onto the bank I could see that it was a juvenile. It flew again as the tractor approached the
hide but this time flew over the far side and I lost it. A Redshank was also observed before I started
to walk back to the centre.
Seeing very little on the walk
to the car I went straight back to Egleton and to the Bird Watching centre to
view Lagoon One. There were plenty of
birds on the lagoon but Steve and Terry hadn’t seen much of note but I did see
two juvenile Shelduck, five more Pintail and four Curlew. When a threatening black cloud had passed we
decided to move onto the northern lagoons.
We called at Sandpiper Hide
overlooking Lagoon Four to find there were far fewer gulls, which might have
been due to the rising water levels. There
also appeared to be very little else but Terry found an adult Shelduck and
Steve found three Golden Plovers on one of the islands but there was no sign of
any Ringed Plover or Dunlin. Whilst we
were in the hide the heavens opened and the rain was so heavy that we had to
close the flaps and move to the back of the hide in order to keep dry. Despite having the flaps closed the hide
selves still managed to get very wet as did the seats and with nothing new we
moved on Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.
As we walked down the track to
the hide a Cetti’s Warbler called and Terry and I had brief views as it flitted
through one of the bushes. There were
very few birds on lagoon three as there had clearly been a working party
cutting the vegetation and after a short while we moved on to Lapwing Hide to
view South Arm Three and Lagoon Two.
There were a few Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe on South Arm Three
but nothing unusual was with them. A
Great White Egret was feeding on Lagoon Two and just after Terry had departed I
found a Greenshank, which he then returned to see. I moved off to Crake Hide, whilst Steve
returned to Shoveler Hide but on seeing very little from Crake I also went back
to Shoveler Hide.
Tim was in the hide with Steve
when I arrived and shortly afterwards Tim Mac and Lloyd appeared and with
seconds of sitting down Tim Mac picked up the Bittern in the reeds. I got onto just as it flew and watched as it
circled over the water defecating as it did so before returning and perching in
the reeds. Its head was visible for a
few minutes before it dropped lower and out of sight and was not seen
again. Lloyd then picked up a party of
circa thirty Siskin in flight and saw them land in the alders close to ringing
hut and I was able to see them through the scope as they moved within the
trees.
Tim Mac and Lloyd went off to
view lagoon four and Steve went to the reedbed with Tim and I was left in the
hide alone for a few minutes before I called it a day and headed off to the car
park.
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