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.