Roger and I set off hoping the
Firecrest was still present at Rutland Water but decided to via Eyebrook
Reservoir to check out the Little Owl.
We saw a Red Kite at Blaston and fifteen Golden Plover in flight as we approached
the Uppingham Road, Stockerston Lane crossroads on route.
One of the Little Owls did
obliged and as we turned to head for Stoke Dry an Osprey was observed carrying
a fish and being harassed by several gulls.
I knew that Steve would be at Rutland Water and so gave him a call but
he hadn’t found the Firecrest and so we stopped to overlook the inlet. There was a Little Egret in the stream and
another flew over the reservoir but the only other bird of note we saw was a
Kestrel perched in a tree along the Rutland bank.
As we were approaching Rutland
Water there was an Osprey just before the turning to Manton, which we assumed
would be the Manton Bay bird. As Steve
hadn’t called with news of the Firecrest we headed for the North Arm.
After parking at the end of
the unnamed road we walked down to the spit.
The water was pretty choppy but we soon found both the Red-necked Grebe
and Slavonian Grebe in the direction of the fisherman’s car park. There were also two pairs of Oystercatcher,
one near the fisherman’s car park and the other on the north shore and there
was a single Redshank on the north bank of the fishponds and a Little Egret
flew over. On scanning Burley Wood we
had two Red Kites and at least five Buzzards.
When we arrived in the viewing
area in the centre we found Steve already viewing Lagoon One but he hadn’t seen
too much and a couple of drake Pintail and a Little Egret were the
highlights. He had seen a Little Ringed
Plover on Lagoon Four earlier and mentioned that a pair of Red-crested Pochard
had been reported on Lagoon Five from the 360° Hide.
He set off for Lagoon Five and
a few minutes later Roger and I followed him.
When we reached the 360° Hide I was surprised
that Steve was not there only to receive a call from him informing me that he
was in Snipe Hide and that there was a female Wheatear on the Wet Meadow. He asked if we had seen the Red-crested
Pochard, which we hadn’t as he we had only just arrived and I said I would call
him back if they were still there.
As I scanned the lagoon I
found a single drake Red-crested Pochard and called Steve who then informed me
that a Green Sandpiper had been seen on some floating weed just in front of the
hide. A quick check and I was able to
confirm that it was still there. When I
looked back for the Red-crested Pochard there were now three, two males and a
female. There were also two Shelduck and
two Redshanks on the lagoon and an Avocet flew over. Steve then arrived but shortly afterwards
Roger and I went back to Snipe Hide to look for the Wheatear.
As we approached the hide I
heard a Chiffchaff but only briefly and it didn’t sing again. When we entered the hide there was a couple
who hadn’t seen the Wheatear but gave us some indication as to where Steve had
seen it. We spent a good thirty minutes
scanning the area for the Wheatear but there was no sign but we did see another
two Shelduck, a Snipe and four Curlew and I picked up our first Swallow of the
year as it came across Lagoon One along with a few Sand Martin. Fifteen Fieldfares also flew by the hide
heading south-west.
We moved on to Harrier Hide to
get a different view of the Wet Meadow but with same result, although I did
have better views of a Swallow. I then
received a text from Steve saying that he had just seen a Merlin flying
south-west over Lagoon One.
With still no sign of the
Wheatear we eventually gave up and returned to the car park for lunch.
After lunch we set off toward
Lagoon Four and hopefully the Little Ringed Plover. As Steve had seen the Little Ringed Plover on
Island Seven we decided to go to Dunlin Hide to view the lagoon. We found a couple of Ringed Plovers, two
Redshank and a Little Egret but there was no sign of the Little Ringed Plover
and so we moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.
The Long-billed Dowitcher had
been reported but another birder in the hide hadn’t seen it and it certainly
didn’t appear whilst we were there and other than six Shelduck there was little
else.
I then got another text from
Steve regarding a Mediterranean Gull on Lagoon One but we decided to go to
Plover Hide to get a different view of Lagoon Four. We found another pair of Ringed Plover and a
Dunlin but there was still no sign of the Little Ringed Plover. I call at Sandpiper Hide also failed to find
the Little Ringed Plover and we presumed it had moved on.
As we approached the centre we
spoke to Brian, Roger and Rosie who were on their way to look for the Little
Ringed Plover. We told them of our
experience and asked them to call us if they found it but we didn’t get a call
and suspected they had the same result.
From the centre we soon found
the Mediterranean Gull, which was a rather smart second-summer. It appeared to showing an interest in the
Black-headed Gulls that were establishing territories on the nearest island and
we had some rather nice views of the bird.
There were more hirundines on the lagoon now in the deteriorating
conditions but I could still only find a single Swallow amongst the Sand Martins. There were also five Oystercatchers on the
lagoon and two Avocets made a brief visit.
We decided to leave and go
back to Eyebrook Reservoir in the hope that there would be more hirundines
there but after circling the area we found nothing of note and called it a day.
On the journey home we had a
Red Kite as we approached Cranoe and a Sparrowhawk flew over the road in Tur
Langton.
It had been a bit of a mixed
day as we had recorded seventy-eight species, which included a year-tick and a county
year-tick but we had missed three year-ticks, Merlin, Little Ringed Plover and
Wheatear. I had also added three species
to my patch list, Red-crested Pochard, Mediterranean Gull and Swallow, which
takes my total on to 109 with a point’s value of 131.
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