A day in Leicestershire & Rutland and Cambridgeshire - February 20, 2016

I was out with David today and were joined by Malcolm before we set off for Coates in Cambridgeshire and hopefully a wintering Dartford Warbler.

When we arrived on site there were a number of birders viewing and area and they indicated where the Dartford Warbler was.  We spent about forty-five minutes observing the bird as is moved between areas of bramble and showing well on occasions.

Dartford Warbler

We eventually moved off and drove along the A605 looking for wild swans in the field.  We found a large flock of circa two hundred Whooper Swans and on closer inspection found three Bewick’s Swans within in the flock.  Feeling pleased we had located the Bewick’s we moved back along the A605 to Eldernell, where we saw a five Little Egrets, a couple of Cranes, c.3000 Golden Plovers, a male and female Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard.

With rumours of Long-eared Owls at a reserve near Whittlesey we decided to go and have a look.  Whilst having some lunch several other birders returned to the car park after making an unsuccessful search for the owls.  Having no knowledge of the site we decided to go to Rutland Water.

Malcolm called it a day when we reached Rutland Water but David and I went to view lagoon one from the centre.  The water level had risen since my last visit and the long island is now three separate small islands.  There were good numbers of Teal feeding to the right of the centre in the newly flooded area and there was also a pair of Pintail and a single Curlew.  A single drake Goosander and four Shelduck were observed on the lagoon.

With little else we moved off to Shoveler hide on Lagoon Three seeing a Peregrine over Lagoon Four as we reached the far gate.  There were twelve Snipe and a single Shelduck on Lagoon Three but with little else we walked to Lapwing Hide but again saw very little, except for a pair of Goosander in flight, and so returned to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.

There was a male and five red-headed Smew towards the new Volunteer Training Centre and there were also two more Shelduck, nine Pintail and a Little Egret.