A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - November 28, 2015

I was out on my own today and headed for Eyebrook Reservoir where there had been a drake Smew for the last two days.  I had two Red Kites on route, one between Tur Langton and Cranoe and the second near Stockerston Lane.  I approached Eyebrook Reservoir from the south and parked near the gate to the fishing lodge to view the fields to the north.  There were three Red Kites over the fields and a distant Buzzard was observed perched in a tree.  Other than nine Red-legged Partridges in the fields there was little else and I moved on to the island coral.

Something and clearly disturbed the Lapwings and there were several hundred flying around with a party of Dunlin amongst them and after they had landed I was able to establish that there were twenty-nine Dunlin.  The drake Smew had been observed in the bay to the north of the island but I could see very little from the coral and moved on to the fence overlooking the bay.  There were quite a few birds in the bay but most were directly into the sun and it was difficult to get a clear view.  I couldn’t make out the Smew amongst the more common wildfowl and eventually moved on to the view the old oak seeing both a Brambling and Sparrowhawk briefly on route.  It was no surprise seeing Little Owl again after seeing one on Tuesday.  I went back to the reservoir and parked close to the bridge where I found two Siskin and three Lesser Redpoll but the sun was making it difficult to view the reservoir and so I moved on to the Rutland bank.

As I drove around to view the inlet I could see that there were six Little Egrets on the bend in the stream and after parking found a few Lapwing and Dunlin and presumably they had returned from the southern section.  There was a concentration of gulls, which were mainly Black-headed with a few Common and I found three Shelduck amongst them.  I moved further long the bank but couldn’t find anything of interest and therefore moved off to Rutland Water.

I went to the Lyndon Reserve and viewed the feeders at the centre where there was the usual flow of Blue and Great Tits and two Coal Tits.  From Teal Hide I could see two Shelduck in Manton Bay, seven Little Egrets on the bund and a Redshank near Goldeneye Hide.  I viewed the feeders as I went back where a Willow Tit visited on a couple of occasions but other than a single Chaffinch it was much as before.  Back in the car park there were a few Fieldfare and Redwing and as I drove back to the road there was another mixed flock feeding in a field close to the road.

Egyptian Goose from Teal Hide

Pied Wagtail from Teal Hide

It was now clouding over after a bright start and so I went to view the North Arm from the end of the cottage road.  There were two Barnacle Geese on the north shore and a couple of Little Egrets on the bund as I walked down toward the point.  I continued into the field and found a couple of Dunlin and a Ringed Plover on the shore and a Redshank dropped in.  As I was scanning another birder joined me and just afterwards I found one of the Slavonian Grebes and shortly after that the other birder found the second.  We continued to scan and eventually found a single Black-necked Grebe but there was no sign of the Red-necked Grebe.  There was also another twelve Dunlin flying around and eventually all fourteen and the Ringed Plover finished up on the north shore.  There were another two Little Egrets along the northern shore and I found a couple of female Goosander in the fishponds.

The wind had increased whilst I was in the North Arm and I suspected the forecast rain might not to be too far away and so I went the Bird Watching Centre at Egleton.

There was a Great White Egret feeding along the southern edge of Lagoon One and I counted seventy-five Pintail but other wildfowl numbers were low.  I then found three Dunlin on the long island and three Curlew dropped in before Rick noticed three more feeding on the meadow and there was also a Buzzard visible on Brown’s Island.

I went back to the car for some lunch before walking to the northern lagoons with Graham and Rick.  We saw several Redwings as we walked down to the hide and initially went to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.  The water level had risen further and other than a few gulls and Mute Swans there was very little else and so we moved on to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.

The water level on Lagoon Three has dropped considerably and there were a few more birds than of late, including fourteen Pintail and four Pochard.  We made a quick visit to Smew Hide on Lagoon Two where there was another seventeen Pintail taking the total for the day to 106.  With little else and the weather beginning to take a turn for the worse, we went back to the centre.  On viewing Lagoon One again other than an increase in the number of Dunlin to seven and two Little Egrets it was pretty much the same as earlier and I soon called it a day.