David, Roger and I left home
today in quite windy conditions but it was very warm for December with the
temperature almost at 15°C. Our plan for the day
was to bird locally until just after lunch and then head off to Eldernell in
Cambridgeshire to finish off. Based on
news from yesterday we headed for the southern end of Eyebrook Reservoir hoping
for Smew and Slavonian Grebe.
We didn’t see anything of note
on route and the light hadn’t improved a great deal by the time we arrived and
so we viewed the first bay from the road were we found a Little Egret, a male
and female Pintail and a couple of drake Pochard on the water. There was a Red Kite towards the Fishing
Lodge and a Kingfisher was observed flying towards the lodge. We continued to the island coral and after a
few minutes David found two red-headed Smew in the bay to the north of the
island. They looked a little different
with one showing a white patch on the upperwing with the other being blacker
around the lores and we considered one to probably be a juvenile male.
As we moved further on we
found Malcolm viewing the bay and he had found the Slavonian Grebe but hadn’t
seen the Smew. He gave us directions for
the Slavonian Grebe, which we soon located and then got him onto the Smew. We continued and checked the old oak for the
Little Owl with no joy and at the southern end we had two more Little Egrets,
three Red Kites and circa fifty Golden Plover in flight before they settled
amongst the Lapwing resting in the grassy edges.
David, who was driving,
decided we would head towards Lyddington and approach the Lyndon Reserve at
Rutland Water from Lyndon. There was a
Red Kite over Stoke Dry as we left Eyebrook Reservoir and we had another along
with thirty-seven Golden Plover just after passing through the village. We stopped briefly at an area of scrub near
Wing where we found a Marsh Tit and a couple of Bullfinch and as we approached
Lyndon we saw another Red Kite to the east and found a Treecreeper near the
church.
On reaching the Lyndon Centre we intended to just view the feeding station where we found three Tree Sparrows and a single Coal Tit amongst the more numerous Blue Tits. David, who had taken his scope, found one of the Great White Egrets near Gadwall Hide in South Arm Three and a Redshank at the base of Lax Hill. We also had a couple of Fieldfare and circa twenty Redwing around the centre and a Sparrowhawk flew through the feeding area.
With little else we headed for
the Egleton Reserve and initially went into the Bird Watching centre to view
Lagoon One. I counted 124 Pintail on the
lagoon, which is a significant count in the Counties and I also found a male
and female Goosander and Roger located nine Curlew feeding on the meadow but
when I looked I could only find seven.
With little else on Lagoon One
we headed off to Shoveler hide on Lagoon Three where we found Malcolm. He had only seen a couple of Green
Sandpipers, one of which was still present but we did see the second before we
left the hide. The only other birds of
note were three more Pintail, a Kestrel and a couple of Redshanks.
From Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon
Four we located four Shelduck and the juvenile female Peregrine was on the long
strip at the back of the lagoon. There
was also circa sixty Golden Plover amongst the more numerous Lapwing but we
couldn't find anything unusual amongst the small party of gulls that was
present.
Malcolm had seen a party of
Siskin feeding in the alders close to Grebe Hide and I went to look for these
on the way back, whilst David and Roger went straight back. There was no sign of any birders feeding in
the alders and when I caught up with Roger near the centre I found out that he
and David had seen three fly over as they walked back. As Roger and I walked back to the car we had
a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Mistle Thrush fly over.
Our next stop was to be the
North Arm and with some light rain falling we decided to check it out before
taking lunch. It didn’t rain for very
long and I found two male and a female Goosander in the fishponds before
walking further down the spit. We soon
found two Barnacle Geese on the north shore and David located the two
Black-necked Grebes, which were rather distant.
There was another Redshank on the shore and a Little Egret way down the
arm but we couldn’t locate either the Red-necked or Slavonian Grebes. A Nuthatch put in a brief appearance whilst
we were having lunch but with little else of interest we moved on to Whitwell.
After parking near the
restaurant we walked out on to view the main water and David picked up a Great
Northern Diver in flight, which was joined briefly by a second that then
continued heading towards the south shore. The first bird turned and headed towards and
eventually landed in the creek where it began to feed. We saw it dive on a few occasions and it was
surprising how far it was travelling between dives as it went further into the
creek. I walked along the shore to see
if I could get a photo and on seeing it surface and dive again I moved quickly
along the shore hoping it might come up in the same area. However it was the last time I saw it and
Roger had also lost it and despite a thorough search we couldn’t find it again.
Great Northern Diver over Whitwell Creek
Great Northern Diver alighting on Whitwell Creek
Great Northern Diver alighting on Whitwell Creek
It was now about 13:30 and so
we left Rutland Water and set off to Eldernell seeing another five Red Kites on
route and arrived at Eldernell at 14:30.
We found a Derbyshire birder,
Glyn, already on site and as we got out of the car he informed us that there
were four Cranes in flight. When we
reached him two had disappeared but the others had landed and we were able to
see them on the ground, although as usual they were some distance away. Roger then indicated that three of the
distant swan where Whooper Swans and we found another with several Mute
Swans. David had found a couple of
Buzzards low over the near dyke and Roger then picked up a Short-eared Owl but
again it was quite distant and we eventually had two feeding in the same
area. David then found a male and female
Marsh Harrier west of the car park and Roger, who was obviously having a purple
patch, picked up a ring-tailed Hen Harrier, which provided some nice if distant
views as it flew east. We saw it again
as it came back west and the other two Cranes also flew over but disappeared
behind the distant bund. Another nice
female Marsh Harrier came in from the east and shortly afterwards I picked up
another male coming from the same direction.
It passed in front of the car park and headed further west and shortly afterwards flushed the ring-tailed
Hen Harrier and two Short-eared Owls and we considered that the two owls were
in addition to those seen earlier. A
perched falcon then caused some discussion with several thinking it was a
Merlin but I wasn’t convinced and after repositioning itself on the post I was
certain it was just a Kestrel. A party
of circa Lesser Redpoll flew over and David found a male Stonechat and shortly
afterwards a Barn Owl was seen around the old buildings behind the near bund
but by the time we got to the top it had disappeared and wasn’t seen again.
With the light fading we
eventually called it a day after what had been an excellent day’s birding in
conditions that were not ideal.
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