I left home this morning
heading for Eyebrook Reservoir in subzero temperatures with the temperature
dropping to -3.5°C on route but the sunrise was rather spectacular.
Sunrise
Just after passing Stonton
Wyville there was a Barn Owl flying rather high to the north of the road and
then I had two Red Kites before reaching Eyebrook Reservoir, one over Cranoe
and the other alongside Stockerston lane.
When I reached the reservoir I
parked near the entrance to the fishing lodge and then walked to and beyond the
dam hoping for a Grey Wagtail. As I walked
out there was a party of Fieldfare and Redwings feeding between the path and
the reservoir, along with several Blackbirds and a single Song Thrush. On reaching the outflow there was no water
flowing from the reservoir but there was no sign of any Grey Wagtails.
As I walked back I had better
views of the party of thrushes and clearly Redwings were the most numerous and
I also had a Green Woodpecker. I scanned
the water looking for the Slavonian Grebe without any joy, although it was seen
later in the day. As I went through the
more common wildfowl I found the first-winter Little Gull, that has been
present, intermittently, since the 1st, resting on the water.
I moved on and checked the
northern bay but there was nothing of note but found one of the Little Owls in
the Old Oak. I went back to the bridge
where I counted fifteen Snipe in flight.
With little else I drove to the gate where Roger and I had seen all the
Yellowhammers on Saturday but today it was very quiet and didn’t see a single
passerine. Moving a little further along
there were thirty-six Dunlin feeding on the exposed mud and there was also a
few Snipe feeding nearby and single Golden Plover amongst the Lapwings. My final stop was at the Stoke Dry car park
where I saw two male and two red-headed Smew.
I headed for the Lyndon
Reserve at Rutland Water and as I turned to go down the centre seven birds
flushed from the roadside and landed in the hedge and I was able to see that
they were Lesser Redpoll.
At the centre I checked the
feeders but they were pretty quiet with just a few Blue and Great Tits. I decided to walk to Wader Scrape Hide but
saw very little on route and found that Manton Bay was almost completely frozen
over. On the free water there were
plenty of Teal with a few Shoveler and eleven Shelduck and two male Goosanders. Looking in the other direction towards South
Arm Two, which was mainly free of ice I could see another two Shelduck in Heron
Bay and in the south arm there were twenty-six Pochard, three red-headed Smew
and another two drake Goosander. The
walk back produced nothing of note and I so I headed off to the north arm
finding the top field covered in winter thrushes, most of which were Redwing
with just a few Fieldfares.
Greylag Geese to the south of the path at Lyndon
Canada Goose over the meadows at Lyndon
On reaching the North Arm I
found three male and six female Goosanders in the fishponds where most of the
water was frozen over. I soon found the
two Black-necked Grebes but other than a single Pochard there was little else
of note. When I got back to the car I
was joined by Brian, Roger and Mike and Roger found a single Redshank on the
north shore of the fishponds a female Stonechat near the far side of the
bund. Whilst we watched the Stonechat it
dropped from its perch and we were then unable to relocate it despite all four
of us looking. I suspect that it was the
same bird reported by Steve and Terry last week that hadn’t been seen since,
which based on today’s behaviour wasn’t surprising.
Mike and I went to the Egleton
car park where we had some lunch before going to view Lagoon One from the
centre. It was pretty much frozen over
with just one piece of open water that contained several Gadwall and Coot and a
single Little Grebe. There were five
Shelduck along with several Shoveler resting on the ice, a single Buzzard was
perched on the Osprey platform on Brown’s Island and twelve Curlew flew in.
Robin in the Egleton car park
Fieldfare in the Egleton Meadows
Redwing in the Egleton Meadows
Brian and Roger had joined
Mike and I in the centre and we walked together to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon
Three with brief views of a Great Spotted Woodpecker being the highlight as we
did so.
On reaching the hide we found
the lagoon virtually frozen over with very few birds. There was a single Shelduck on a small area
of water, two Snipe on the edge of the distant reedbed and a Green Sandpiper
flew over.
Wigeon over Lagoon Three
When Steve and Terry arrived
in the hide we all went down to Lapwing Hide, although the path wasn’t strictly
open Lloyd had indicated it wouldn’t be a problem. There were plenty of bird on the water,
mainly Tufted Duck but there were also forty-six Pintail, which had obviously
come off Lagoon One and eight Pochard.
We all eventually went to
Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four to check out the gulls. We had a Green Woodpecker as we approached
the hide and on entering the hide found the juvenile female Peregrine perched
on Island One sign post. There were
twelve Shelduck on the lagoon and with one arriving during our stay it is
possible that they were coming onto the lagoon to roost. The concentration of gulls were closer today as
they were resting on the ice with good numbers of the larger gulls, mainly
Herring and Great Black-backed but there were also at least five Lesser
Black-backed. There were far fewer
Black-headed and Common Gulls than of late and presumably they were assembling
elsewhere. Steve then located a
forth-winter Caspian Gull that provided some nice views and Brian possibly had
a first-winter Mediterranean Gull but after taking his eye of it to view the
Caspian couldn’t relocate. Terry and
Mike had left a little earlier and I walked back to the car park with Brian and
Roger, leaving Steve sticking it out to the bitter end.
It hadn’t been a bad day’s
birding with Little Gull added to my year list and Stonechat to my counties
year list.
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