I was out with Roger today and
we made a slightly later start due to a weather warning, which didn’t actually
materialize. It was colder than of late
and there was some light rain as we headed for Eyebrook Reservoir.
A Kestrel near Kibworth was
the highlight on route to the reservoir and there was no sign of the Little
Owls on arrival and it was pretty quiet from the bridge. We moved further along the Rutland bank and
were just beginning to scan the inlet when another birder informed us that an
adult summer Mediterranean Gull had just dropped in and was visible from Stoke
Dry. We parked in the small pull-in just
before the car park and soon located the Mediterranean Gull amongst a small
party of Black-headed and Common Gulls.
It was almost in the centre of the reservoir and therefore quite distant
but we were able to get some nice views through the scope. It was my first of the year and they always
looking stunning in summer plumage and it was an excellent start to the
day. Whilst we were watching the gull
two Oystercatchers flew over calling loudly before they headed off towards the
dam.
There had been a possible
Kumlien’s Gull present yesterday evening but there was no sign this morning and
so we intended returning this evening in the hope that it would come in again.
With little else visible at
Eyebrook Reservoir we moved on to the Lyndon Centre at Rutland Water. When we arrived there were numerous thrushes
visible on the field to the right of the entrance road. On scanning they were mostly Redwing with
just a few Fieldfare being present and we estimated that there were at least 120
Redwing and just eight Fieldfares. On
reaching the car park we visited the feeders were we had several Blue and Great
Tits and single Coal and Marsh Tits and there was also a Robin, several Dunnock
and three Tree Sparrows.
As it was quite cold in the
fresh northerly wind we went down to Teal Hide to view the south arm. I scanned the area towards Manton Bay and
found a Great Northern Diver just sitting on the surface but other than a few
Goldeneye there was little else and we decided to go the bottom of Barnsdale to
view the north arm.
When we arrived we found, as
we expected, that we were sheltered from the wind and Roger found the
Red-necked Grebe almost immediately, which he quickly followed up with finding
the Slavonian Grebe and the three Black-necked Grebes. The two Barnacle Geese were just beyond the
trees on the far side of Dickinson’s Bay and two Red Kites were soaring over
Burley Wood.
We then headed off to the
Egleton Reserve and found that the two Whooper Swans were still in the field alongside
Church Road with several Mute Swans and Greylag Geese. On reaching the reserve as it was a little
early for lunch we went to the centre to view Lagoon One. There was just one Shelduck on the lagoon and
a female Pintail flew over before we located a pair on the lagoon. Nine Curlew then flew in and dropped close to
Mallard Hide and we then realised that there was more than nine and on counting
them reached sixteen. Roger then saw two
more drop onto the Wet Meadow but when I scanned with the scope I could only
see one but also found a couple of Oystercatcher and three more Shelduck flew
over the flash. A Sparrowhawk then flew
over and flushed the Lapwing but we couldn’t see anything amongst them except
for several Starlings. However when they
had alighted again I found a single Dunlin on the end of the exposed long
island.
There were several Redwing and
two Mistle Thrush in the first meadow before lunch but they flew off before
Roger had seen them and hadn’t come back as we went for lunch. However as we were having lunch several
Redwing flew over and Mistle Thrush was seen briefly as it harassed a
Blackbird.
After lunch we went to Plover
Hide on Lagoon Four seeing a Redshank on the large meadow on route and on
reaching the hide we saw a male and two red-headed Smew and a couple of Ringed
Plovers before going to Shoveler Hide.
When we arrived in Shoveler
Hide the Long-billed Dowitcher had apparently just flown but we soon found it,
along with several Snipe, on the spit towards Bittern Hide. It was good to see a reasonable number of
Gadwall feeding on the lagoon, which perhaps was an indication that it was
recovering following the ammonia pollution.
There was also a god number of Black-headed Gulls appearing to be taking
insects from the surface of the water.
Eight Shelduck and a single Pintail were on the lagoon and nine Shoveler
flew over, which were our first of the day.
The dowitcher eventually returned to its preferred feeding area on one
of the islands, a Redshank fed in the shallow water and we heard a Cetti’s
Warbler calling in the reedbed.
Female Shelduck
Male Shelduck
Drake Gadwall
Drake Pintail
Coot
We made a brief visit to Smew
Hide on Lagoon Two but saw very little and visit to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon
four produced four Pintail, the drake and three red-headed Smew and three
Ringed Plovers.
As we walked back to the
centre there were three Song Thrushes feeding in one of the meadows, which is
an unusual sight these days. A further
thirty minutes or so overlooking Lagoon One produced nothing of note as so we
headed off to Eyebrook Reservoir.
Song Thrush
Song Thrush
We approached Eyebrook
Reservoir from the northern end but the Little Owls were still not obliging and
so we continued to the first fence on the Leicestershire bank.
Something had disturbed the
birds around the inlet and there were c.100 Golden Plover in flight with the
Lapwings. There was a good concentration
of gulls, with good numbers of Lesser Black-backed and a single Herring
Gull. We moved further down the
Leicestershire side to view the area in front of the plantation. There were good numbers of gulls already on
the water but Phil who was already present hadn't seen anything unusual. We spent a good forty-five minutes scanning
the area and during that time many of the larger gulls departed and as Roger
was going out and I wanted to watch Leicester play Watford on the box we left
at around 17:00.
The Kumlien’s didn’t appear
but a first-winter Iceland Gull was seen at around 17:30, which would have been
a year-tick but shortly after its arrival I was watching the City beat Watford
one nil taking them five points clear at the top of the Premiership.
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