I left home this morning
heading for the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water in bright but cool conditions
in a fresh south-westerly wind. I had a
Buzzard and a Kestrel not too far from home on my journey to Rutland Water and
on arrival a Kingfisher flew across the road at Manton Bridge and into my
patch. The Kingfisher took my total
number of species on patch to 110 with a point’s score of 132.
After parking and getting
kitted out I walked along the service road to Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four,
seeing a Jay in the last meadow before I reached the hide. I scanned the water and islands and found the
female Peregrine and a Sparrowhawk on two of the islands and there were at
least six Ringed Plovers on two islands.
A single Little Egret was feeding quite close to the Sparrowhawk and
five Shelduck were feeding on the lagoon.
I moved onto Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three to look for the Long-billed Dowitcher but couldn’t find it. There was eleven Shelduck, a pair of Pintail
and two Oystercatchers on the lagoon but the number of Pochard had dropped to
just twelve. It clouded over and I
thought I would go to Lapwing Hide to view the south arm but by the time I got
there the sun was shining brightly and it it’s not an ideal viewing point in
the mornings when the sun is shining, although there was at least 150 Sand
Martins feeding over the water, which is a significant increase since the
weekend.
Gadwall
Shoveler alighting on the water
Pair of Shoveler
Stock Dove
I walked back to Shoveler Hide
but after a brief and unsuccessful attempt for the dowitcher made my way back
to the centre. There were two
Oystercatchers in the large meadow as I walked back but there was little song in
the blustery and cool conditions, with just three Chiffchaffs being heard.
Song Thrush near the centre
I checked the feeders at the
centre where there was the usual collection of species but perhaps more
surprisingly what I think was a Harvest Mouse feeding under the close feeders.
Dunnock
Great Tit
Male Reed Bunting
Male Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Presumed Harvest Mouse
Presumed Harvest Mouse
I continued on to Snipe Hide on
the Wet Meadow and found a pair of Shelduck and two pairs of Pintail on the
flash. There was a second pair of
Shelduck on the flash in front of harrier hide and four Curlew were feeding in
the meadow. Scanning the area I picked
up several Buzzards towards Burley House and a single Kestrel beyond Brown’s
Island and I also saw a Chiffchaff as I left the hide.
I moved on to the 360°
Hide but there were far fewer birds on Lagoon Five than Saturday
and there was no sign of either the Red-crested Pochard or Green Sandpiper,
although Steve did find the Green Sandpiper later in the day. The raft of weed the sandpiper had been
feeding on Saturday was now on the bank having been driven there by the weekend
storm. There were four Oystercatcher on
the lagoon but very little else and so I moved on to view Lagoon Seven.
As there is no hide or public
access to this lagoon it is rather difficult to observe and all I could see
were six Shelduck and a single Pochard.
From Lagoon Seven I made way
past Lagoon Eight, where there was a pair of Shelduck and an Oystercatcher,
before heading towards Heron Hide but I was able to scope the Manton Bay Ospreys
on the nest without going the whole way to the hide. I then retraced my steps before going to
Pintail Hide on Lagoon Six where there were another two Shelduck, two more
Oystercatchers and two Redshanks.
Canada Goose on Lagoon Six bund
I continued onto Fieldfare
Hide where I could see the flock of Sand Martin in better light but there now
appeared to fewer birds and there were no other hirundines amongst the
flock. As I made my way back I called at
Harrier Hide but saw nothing new before heading back to the car park for lunch.
Oystercatcher from Harrier Hide
Malcolm had called me earlier
and told me that he had seen both the Red-necked and Slavonian Grebes along
with a Great Northern Diver in the North Arm and was going to Lagoon Three to
look for the dowitcher and so I gave him a call when I had finished my lunch.
He hadn’t seen the dowitcher
and I waited for him to return as we agreed that we would go back to the North
Arm to look for the birds he had seen earlier and then move on to Whitwell
where Steve and Terry had seen both Swallow and House Martin earlier.
When we arrived at the
fisherman's car park it felt like a beautiful spring day as we were sheltered
from the wind and the sun felt quite warm.
Malcolm soon found the Red-necked Grebe and shortly afterwards he
located the Slavonian Grebe but there was no sign of the diver. As we drove along the Hambleton Road heading
for the Stamford Road an Osprey flew low over the road towards Lagoon Four.
When we arrived at Whitwell
there are lots of folk with children and there was no sign of any hirundines
and presumably they had moved on in the improving conditions.
We checked out the north arm
from the end of the unnamed road where we were hoping there might be some
hirundines but we only saw a couple of Sand Martin although we did have several
Buzzards, two Red Kites and a pair of Raven.
Once back at Egleton we went
to the Bird watching Centre to check out Lagoon One but it was very quiet with
just more Shelduck, Pochard and a Little Grebe.
We checked the feeders again but pretty much the same as earlier was
present.
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
I said I was going back to the
northern lagoons but Malcolm decided he would head back to Eyebrook
Reservoir. As I was approaching Shoveler
Hide, Steve and Terry were walking back along the trail from Lapwing Hide and
informed me that the Long-billed Dowitcher was visible from Buzzard Hide.
There were two other birders
viewing the bird as I entered the hide and I soon located it on the nearest
island where it was roosting with its bill tucked in and if I hadn’t seen it
before I would have been wondering what it was, not very exciting.
As the sun would not now be a
problem in viewing South Arm Three from Lapwing Hide I headed off in that
direction but called Malcolm to give him an update. He was now at Eyebrook Reservoir and said
there were quite a few hirundines present, including both Swallow and House
Martin.
I continued onto Lapwing Hide
but didn’t see very much and made a brief call to Sandpiper Hide where I added
Dunlin to the day list before going back to the car park and heading off for
Eyebrook Reservoir.
When I arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir I could see several hirundines flying low over the water near the
Leicestershire bank and so I drove around to the fence. As I scanned the hirundines I was surprised
to find that most were Swallows and I counted fourteen along with five Sand
Martins and a single House Martin, which was my first of the year and a good
end to the day.
As I set off from Eyebrook
Reservoir it started to rain, which became quite heavy at times as I drove home
and I saw nothing of note.
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