I headed for the Lyndon
Reserve at Rutland Water this morning with the promise of some decent weather
before tomorrow’s severe storm Frank arrives.
When I arrived in the car park it appeared pretty quiet but as I was
getting my gear on a party of thrushes flew over and I did see a couple of
Fieldfare perched at the top of a distant tree.
I went and checked out the feeders first, which were almost empty, but
there were a few Blue and Great Tits in attendance and a single Coal Tit and a
couple of Tree Sparrows also made visits and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was
also seen in a nearby tree. I continued
down to Teal Hide to view the South Arm and found a single drake Goosander and
a Little Egret close to the Manton Bay bund and there was also one of the Great
White Egrets and a single Little Egret on the edge of Brown’s Island and
another drake Goosander flew just in front of the hide. With nothing else of note I
decided to head for Normanton to see if I could find any Mandarin and had a
Sparrowhawk fly out of a bush as I drove off up the hill.
Drake Goosander from Teal Hide
When I arrived at Normanton
the sun was up and there was a light south westerly breeze, although it did
feel a little cooler than of late but it was a pleasant change for the overcast
and windy conditions of late. There was
no sign of any Mandarin in the harbour and so I continued to walk towards the
church to search the area just the other side of the harbour where I have seen
Mandarin in the past. Again there was no
sign but I did manage to see three distant Great Northern Divers at the mouth
of Whitwell Creek. As I walked back I
found a Grey Wagtail on the rocks at the harbour entrance and saw five
Greenfinches briefly before they flew off to the west. Steve had also called to say that he and
Terry were watching four Great Northern Divers, an adult and three juveniles,
in Whitwell Creek and so I head off hoping for some decent views.
The car parks were both open
today and I walked the short distance to view the creek and found the adult
Great Northern Diver almost immediately but there was no sign of the three
juveniles. Another birder the joined me
and eventually we were satisfied that we had seen all four divers, with one
juvenile being located near the mouth and the other two, seen together at the
northern end of the creek.
From Whitwell I drove the
short distance to the unnamed road at Barnsdale to view Dickinson’s Bay and the
North Arm but found nothing of note and headed for the fisherman’s car park on
the Hambleton Peninsula. Although the
light was excellent from this spot I couldn’t find the red-headed Smew,
Red-necked Grebe or the two Black-necked Grebes that Steve and Terry had seen
earlier. I went back down the peninsula
to view the North Arm from the point at the end of the cottage lane.
A Great White Egret had been
seen just before I arrived in the fishponds but it had disappeared although I
did find three drake and two female Goosanders.
I walked down to then end with another birder and found a third birder
who had just located the two Black-necked Grebes but hadn’t seen anything
else. As I scanned the area I found the
two Barnacle Geese on the north shore but the light wasn’t brilliant looking up
the arm. I continued to scan the area
hoping to find either the Smew or the Red-necked Grebe and did eventually pick
up the red-headed Smew just beyond a flock of Tufted Duck but there was no sign
of the Red-necked Grebe. As I walked
back to the car for some lunch the Great White Egret was visible and I presumed
that it was probably different to the one I had seen earlier in the South Arm.
When I reached the Egleton car
park it was pretty much full and I found Steve and Terry having their
lunch. They hadn’t seen too much since
we had talked earlier on the phone and I found out that they had seen the
Red-necked Grebe close to the tower and I wasn’t therefore too surprised that I
hadn’t seen it. As I stood taking to
Steve a Sparrowhawk appeared briefly before quickly disappearing to the north
and I saw my only Redwing of the day before eventually making my way to the
Bird Watching centre.
There were plenty of birds on
the lagoon with two Shelduck and a pair of Goosander amongst the other wildfowl
but the number of Pintail was well down with circa forty being present. There were about forty Golden Plover amongst
the Lapwing on the long island and I also found a single Dunlin. When Steve arrived he found a Curlew and
another birder found a second and the Steve then found the pair of Stonechats
feeding in scrub just in front of Mallard Hide.
The Lapwings took to flight on several occasions and shortly afterwards
on one occasion there was also c.100 Golden Plover as well. There was a Buzzard perched on the man-made
Osprey nest platform and Steve picked up two more over Hambleton, which were
mobbed briefly by three Raven and a forth Buzzard was seen towards Lagoon Three
and a single distant Red Kite towards Berrybut Spinney. A Great White Egret, which was presumably the
one I had seen on the edge of Brown’s Island walked from the bay in front of
harrier hide before we headed off to the northern lagoons.
We walked towards the northern
lagoons Steve heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker and we located in a distant tree
but we saw very little else. The water
level on Lagoon Three was still suitable for waders and we found eight Snipe, a
Green Sandpiper and five Redshank but other than another five Pintail there was
little else and we eventually went to Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four.
Female Teal on Lagoon three
Green Sandpiper on Lagoon three
Green Sandpiper and Redshank on Lagoon three
There was a couple of Shelduck
on the lagoon and small number of Golden Plovers amongst the Lapwing. And the
gull flock contained all five of the commoner species. Steve did pick out a
possible Yellow-legged Gull amongst the flock but we couldn’t get a decent view,
due to other birds and some vegetation but he then found another very
white-headed gull amongst the gulls directly in front of the hide, which did
turn out to be an adult Yellow-legged Gull.
Other than a distant Green Woodpecker I saw very little else before I
set off back to the car park and home.
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