I was out with David, Ken and
Roger today and we went to Rutland Water first to hopefully see the Long-billed
Dowitcher. As we were getting ready to
walk to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three Erik arrived and after a brief chat we
set off down the service road to Lagoon Three.
When we arrived at the hide Erik, who was on his bike, already had the
dowitcher in view, however its preference for feeding with Snipe in some
emergent vegetation made it quite difficult to get clear views but it did show
quite well on occasions. Whilst we were
in the hide we also had brief views of both a Water Rail and Cetti’s Warbler in
the reedbed to the right of the hide and there were also four Snipe and two
Curlew on the lagoon and two Redshank flew over.
Ling-billed Dowitcher
A quick visit to Sandpiper
Hide on Lagoon Four produced three Shelduck, six Pintail, a drake and two
red-head Smew, two male and a female Goosander, two Little Egrets, two
Oystercatcher, a Ringed Plover and another Curlew.
Drake Goosander
Our plan was to go to try and
find a Rough-legged Buzzard, which had been seen near Thorney in
Cambridgeshire. We managed to park close
to Turf Fen Bridge, which gave us good views of the area. There were several Buzzards and Kestrels in
the area but we hadn’t seen the Rough-legged when Andy Mackay, Dave Grey and
John Hague, also Leicestershire birders arrived. They hadn’t been there too long when John
Hague said anybody interested in seeing the Rough-legged as its just out to the
right. We all had to move as several
bushes were obscuring our view but we then had good views of the Rough-legged
as it hovered over the fields. The tail
pattern was classic Rough-legged but the head and underparts were darker than
normal and it was difficult to see the darker lower belly, although the darker
carpel marks were visible.
We moved off to Coates as Ken
and Roger had not seen the Dartford Warbler and on arrival there were a few
birders in the field and it wasn’t too long before we were watching the
warbler, along with two Stonechats.
Dartford Warbler
Dartford Warbler
From Coates we drove the short
distance to Eldernell where we had a female-type Marsh Harrier and a
Sparrowhawk over the washes, which are pretty dry this year. We then walked out along the footpath to the
west and on reaching the small copse we saw at least five Siskin and a single
Chiffchaff and on the marsh David located a couple of Cranes and a Buzzard
provided some nice views.
Buzzard
Buzzard
Buzzard
Buzzard
Buzzard
Buzzard
A single Snipe was observed in
flight as we walked back and on reaching the car park we continued to walk east
where we found two more Cranes and thirty-nine Whooper Swans. David then picked up a couple of Short-eared
Owls that were hunting towards March Farmers.
On returning to the car park
we viewed the washes from the bridge where we had at least three Marsh
Harriers, including an immature male, a Peregrine and a third
Short-eared Owl. We also had further views of two of the
Cranes ad there were nine Little Egrets on the washes and thousands of Golden
Plover and Lapwing were observed in flight on many occasions, along with at
least fifteen Snipe. There were also at
least thirteen Roe Deer, with one individual giving nice views.
We eventually called it day as
the temperature began to fall and the light faded but we did see another
forty-eight Whooper Swans and a Sparrowhawk as we returned to Thorney.
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