When Roger and I set off for
Eyebrook Reservoir this morning it was a cold frosty morning with just a light
wind, making a pleasant change from the more unsettled westerly airflow of
late. We had a Kestrel just before
entering Kibworth, a Red Kite approaching Tur Langton, a Sparrowhawk and a
Buzzard on the far side of Blaston and a second Kestrel just as we reached the
approach road to the reservoir.
The Little Owl was in the old
oak today and there were two Red Kites perched in a tree alongside the
stream. We parked up at the bridge where
we spent quite some time hoping, unsuccessfully, that a Kingfisher might
appear. We did have a couple of Tree
Sparrows as we pulled up and there was a Little Egret on the stream with a
Buzzard to the north. A jogger had gone
by us and as they turned onto the Rutland side of the reservoir they flushed
quite a large flock of birds. We could
see that some where Fieldfares but there were numerous other small passerines
that we were unable to identify. Some of
the Fieldfare landed close to the bridge and the party contained a single
Redwing. I decide to walk to the area
where the birds had been flushed but other than a few Yellowhammers I saw
nothing else. As I started to walk back to
the bridge I noticed two swans flying north and on hearing them call realised
that they were Whooper Swans and called Roger as he managed to get on them as
they passed over the road and continued heading north. Back on the bridge we several passerines drop
into the first field and on walking closer and viewing from a gate established
that they were Pied Wagtails, thirteen in total and Roger also found a single
Meadow Pipit.
I suggested that we should
perhaps park near a gate a little further down the road as I had noticed that
there were passerines appearing to feed in a strip of stubble in the
field. There were mainly Yellowhammers
and we suspected that there were fifty plus.
We also located circa ten Tree Sparrows, a couple of Reed Buntings and a
Chaffinch and I was pretty sure that I had a Brambling but it dropped into the
field and we didn’t pick it up again.
There were two Red Kites and a Buzzard over a field beyond the
Leicestershire bank an several Red-legged Partridges scattered around.
We moved further along the
road towards Stoke Dry and parked to view the inlet. The water level had dropped considerably and
was almost back to where it had been prior to the recent heavy rains. There were thirty Golden Plovers on the mud
and we also counted twenty-two Dunlin amongst the more numerous Lapwings.
Eventually we called it a day
and headed off to the north arm at Rutland Water where we found Terry with one
of his organised parties. There were six
male and four female Goosanders in the fishponds and from the spit we found the
two Black-necked Grebes. There was also
an Oystercatcher on the north shore and the two Barnacle Geese were feeding
with a mixed party of Greylag and Canada Geese.
With little else we went to
the Bird Watching Centre at Egleton to view Lagoon One. The lagoon was partially frozen over but
there were still sixty Pintail, four Shelduck and a pair of Goosander. There was a single Curlew on the long island
and another two on the meadow towards the Wet Meadow. Four more Goosander, three males and a female
flew over but there was little else amongst the numerous Gadwall and Coot.
Female Blackbird in the Egleton car park
After some lunch we went to
Lagoon Three with Rick, checking out Lagoon Two from both Redshank and Osprey
Hides for a Green Sandpiper that had been reported earlier but there was no
sign. As we entered Shoveler Hide I saw
the Green Sandpiper fly from in front of the hide and land a little further
away. There was also a Redshank feeding
in the same area and we saw at least four Snipe during our stay. There were also two Shelduck that eventually
flew off towards Lagoon Four and a female Goosander with a second flying
over. A Little Egret also made a brief
visit and there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the trees to the right of the
hide.
Redshank
We walked to Plover Hide on
Lagoon Four and found Terry had taken over the hide with his party and after
seeing a distant red-headed Smew we walked back and went to Dunlin hide to view
the lagoon. There was a Green Woodpecker
feeding on the bank to the west of the hide and an additional Shelduck, two
Pochard and eventually both of the reported red-headed Smew were seen. The water had risen further on the lagoon and
the gulls were assembling on Island One and some shallow water to the right of
the island. They were mainly Common
Gulls but there was also good numbers of Black-headed, Herring and Great
Black-backed with just a couple of Lesser Black-backs but nothing unusual.
We called at the centre again
on our return where we found nine Pochard and a Buzzard that we hadn’t seen
earlier before calling it a day.
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