Today I was out locally with
David and Roger and we headed off initially towards Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a
party of circa eighty Fieldfares just after passing through Slawston and a Red
Kite as we approached Blaston. As usual
there was no sign of the Little Owls at Eyebrook Reservoir and I think it is
highly likely that they have now deserted the old oak. We only stopped very briefly at Eyebrook
Reservoir seeing a couple of Shelduck and Little Egret but very little else.
From Eyebrook Reservoir we
headed off to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water seeing a Buzzard before
reaching Uppingham and then another Red Kite over the town. As we were getting kitted out in the car park
we saw a single Fieldfare feeding on some red berries and a heard a Song Thrush
singing. An inspection of the feeders
produced a Marsh Tit along with several Blue and Great Tits and a single
Goldfinch. From Teal Hide there was a
couple of distant Little Egrets and a Grey Wagtail was observed just in front
of the hide. Another inspection of the
feeders as we returned produced a Willow Tit and we also found a Tree Sparrow
perched in the bushes. As we started to
walk towards Wader Scrape Hide we flushed several birds that were feeding on
the willow herb. They only flew a little
further along the track and we could see that there were two Lesser Redpolls
along with several Goldfinch. A Green
Woodpecker then flew west just the other side of the hedgerow and we had a nice
mixed party of Fieldfare and Redwing as we approached Deep Water Hide. One of the Great White Egrets was observed in
Heron Bay and a second Grey Wagtail flew over.
A Red Kite was observed as we walked down the path to Wader Scrape Hide
and from the hide we found a Black-tailed Godwit in Manton Bay along with a
couple of Little Egrets but there was little else as the water level in the bay
is now considerable higher than the reservoir.
Not long after we had arrived a party of volunteers appeared near Deep
Water Hide with the aim of getting the cattle into the pens near the path. With most of the birds taking to flight we
thought it would be a good time to head back to the centre. David thought he heard a Siskin and on close
inspection of a couple of alders near the path I found two amongst a party of
Goldfinch. They all eventually flew and
we then found the two birds perched at the top of some poplars and when they
flew there were actually five. David
thought he had heard a Kingfisher as we walked down and so we decided to call
in Tufted Duck Hide and saw a Treecreeper as we approached the hide but other
than distant views of the Black-tailed Godwit we saw nothing else of note.
On reaching the car park the
plan was to go to Sykes Lane car park to look for a Great Northern Diver that
had been reported on both Sunday and Monday.
We called at Normanton on route but there was no sign of the Mandarin
and we just saw three Little Egrets.
On reaching Sykes Lane we
realised just a cold the wind was and all we could find were a few Goldeneye
and Cormorant and so moved on to Whitwell.
We were more sheltered from
the wind at Whitwell and as we walked down to view the Main Water we saw three
Great Spotted Woodpeckers. We hadn’t
been scanning too long when David announced that he had found the Great
Northern Diver and we were able to see it rather distantly towards the dam.
There was no sign of any of
the grebes from Dickinson’s Bay but I did count eleven Pintail and there was a
single Little Egret with a Yellow-legged Gull flying over. However as we were unable to get shelter from
the biting wind we soon moved, heading for the cottage to view the North Arm
from the end of the road. We saw a
Buzzard as we drove down the Stanford Road towards the Hambleton turn and by
the time we parked near the cottage it was raining. After sitting in the car for a few minutes
the rain was still falling and as it was quite steady we took an early lunch.
Once the rain had stopped we
located sixteen Barnacle Geese on the north shore before walking down towards
the end of the spit to view the southern bay from the meadow. David soon picked up a Black-necked Grebe and
then found the Slavonian Grebe and we then noticed a third bird, which we
assumed would be the second Black-necked but on closer inspection we found it
to be a second Slavonian Grebe. Amongst
the waterfowl there was clearly a fair number of Pintail and I counted
sixty-three and there were two Dunlin feeding on the shore.
On reaching the centre we
found another seventeen Pintail on Lagoon One but other than a distant
Stonechat there was very little else.
Our walk to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four produced very little with a
Goldcrest being the best. On Lagoon Four
there was c.300 Golden Plover and a juvenile Peregrine was sitting on a post on
one of the islands. With little else we
moved to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where a Bittern and Short-eared Owl had
been seen yesterday. The number of birds
on the lagoon remains very low with just a couple of Mute Swans and several,
Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Shoveler and three Goldeneye. There were also a few Moorhen and several
roosting Cormorants and a Sparrowhawk flew quite close to the hide before
settling briefly and I saw a calling Cetti’s Warbler very briefly at the base
of the reeds just in front of the hide.
With no sign of the Bittern or
Short-eared Owl we called at Osprey Hide to check out Lagoon Two for the owl
but there was still no sign and so we made our way back to the car park. As we walked alongside the first meadow I
caught site of a bird in the now very poor light that turned out to be a Barn
Owl, which was my first sighting here since May and an excellent end to a good
day’s birding.
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