I went to Wanlip Meadows this
morning for my third attempt to find a Long-billed Dowitcher that had been
found during my trip to Costa Rica. I
arrived just before 07:30 and found two other birders searching and there was a
Shelduck and two Oystercatchers on the scrape, along with a few Teal, Lapwings
and Black-headed Gulls but there was no sign of the dowitcher. Richard Bayldon and Malcolm arrived shortly
afterwards but just after 08:00 there was just Malcolm and I remaining, when a
Sparrowhawk flew over. We eventually
decided to go to the wind turbine to the other area the bird had occasionally
visited.
We drove the short distance
towards Cossington Meadows and then walked back towards Wanlip to view and area
visible to the east of the turbine.
However although there were still quite a few areas of suitable feeding
the area was almost bird less and so we returned to the first site. There were several other birders leaving as
we arrived but there was still no sign of the dowitcher and after a brief stay
I decided to head off for Rutland Water.
There had been reports of Corn
Buntings at Great Casterton, which had been a regular site in the past but
there were no records last year. I
decided I would go and take a look but unfortunately the area had been ploughed
and other than a few Skylarks I couldn’t locate any other birds. I drove a little further down the road and
did locate several Yellowhammers and a Reed Bunting and also c.200 Golden
Plover but there was no sign of any Corn Buntings.
I made my way back to the
North Arm at Rutland Water where I met Bob who had seen all of the wintering
grebes and after a brief chat I continued on to the end to look for them. I soon located the Slavonian Grebe and the
three Black-necked Grebes but whilst looking for the Red-necked Grebe Steve
called to say there was a Marsh Harrier and two Buzzards circling over the
lagoons. I scanned the area but couldn’t
see any birds and eventually returned to searching for the Red-necked Grebe,
which I soon located. The two Barnacle
Geese were observed towards Dickinson’s Bay and there were three Oystercatchers
and a Redshank in the fishponds area. I
joined Bob and we scanned Burley Wood seeing a Red Kite, three Sparrowhawks and
several Buzzards and just as I was leaving Bob found a drake Goosander.
I had my lunch in the Egleton
car park where it was a little warmer out of the cool northerly wind. I was talking to Mike when Steve and Terry
arrived and after some discussion about my trip to Costa Rica I went with Steve
and Terry to the Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One. The water was still very high on the lagoon
but there were five Dunlin on the long island, eight Curlew on the meadows and
a Buzzard circling over the lagoon.
Feeling we had seen what was
on the lagoon we moved off to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four. Stuart was in the hide and had been watching
a Peregrine devour its prey but it had flown off just before we arrived. A scan of the lagoon produced six Shelduck
and seven Pintail and we eventually found one of the two Ringed Plovers that
had been reported earlier, which was a year tick.
Steve and Terry moved off to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three and shortly afterwards I went to Plover Hide
hoping that there would be some Smew close enough to few. When I arrived I soon found the male and
eventually had five red-heads, one of which did come close enough to photograph. I called Steve to make him aware of the Smew
and he, Terry and Stuart joined me as they had seen very little from Shoveler
Hide. The male Smew eventually came a
lot closer and was eventually closer enough to get some nice shots in good
light. Terry moved off to Bittern Hide
and Stuart called it a day, leaving Steve and I in the hide but I left shortly
afterwards and headed for Bittern Hide.
Red-headed Smew
Red-headed Smew
Red-headed Smew
Drake Smew
Drake Smew
Drake Smew
Little Egret on Lagoon Four
When I arrived in Bittern Hide
Terry was still there and I was surprised to see that there was now quite a
large expanse of water in front of the hide after the recent rise in the water
levels. We heard at least two Water
Rails calling and a Cetti’s Warbler also called twice, which were both patch
ticks. Terry moved on to Shoveler whilst
I remained for a while.
When I arrived in Shoveler
Hide Steve and Terry were both present and Steve informed me that Terry had
seen an unusual bird but that he wasn’t sure what it was and it had gone out of
sight but was almost certainly still present.
He had described it to Steve, greyish bird with a long bill and greenish
legs and Steve suspected that it might be a dowitcher. Terry went to Buzzard hide to see if he could
see it from there and shortly afterwards Steve said it’s on the top of the
island and that it was definitely a dowitcher.
Erik, who had arrived a few minutes earlier, and I soon got on the bird
as it began feeding on the front edge of the island but was partially obscured
by vegetation. As we were trying get to
grips with the bird the Lapwings took off and the dowitcher went with them. They circled several times before heading off
towards Lagoon Four.
Long-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
We all moved off towards
Lagoon Four and Erik, who was on his bike, came out of Sandpiper Hide saying it
was on the end of Island Seven and so we continued on to Dunlin Hide. However on opening the flaps there was no
sign of it and so Terry and I went back to Sandpiper Hide with Tim, who had
also arrived with several of the site team.
We now had a better view of the island and it wasn’t there and had
obviously flown off again. I called
Steve to make him aware and he said that Tim Mac and Lloyd were heading for the
North Arm to see if was there and Terry had already gone back to Shoveler Hide
to see if it had gone back there. As Tim
and I were leaving the hide Steve called to say it was back on Lagoon Three.
As I reached the hide Terry
indicated he had seen it drop in on the closer island but had gone down on the
far side and was out of sight and that he was going to Buzzard to see if it was
visible from there. As more observers
gathered in Shoveler Hide I also went to Buzzard Hide but the views were pretty
restricted and I returned to Shoveler Hide.
I scanned the island several times through the scope with no joy and sat
down and began scanning with the bins.
After a short time I noticed a bird appearing at the left hand of the
island and as I stood up to use the scope as Steve announced that it was at the
left hand end of the island. It then
walked along the front edge feeding for a while, giving reasonable views in the
fading light and sufficient to confirm that it was a Long-billed
Dowitcher. The Lapwings then took to
flight again and the dowitcher went with them.
Lloyd noticed two Sparrowhawks and a Peregrine nearby, which was
obviously reason for the panic. The
dowitcher eventually became separated from the Lapwings and then joined a group
of Snipe that climbed higher and disappeared behind the hide.
Long-billed Dowitcher
Tim gave me a lift back to the
centre and I went to view Lagoon One hoping for a Barn Owl and was rewarded
with two quartering near Harrier Hide.
The day had started off
without too much reward but had ended on a real high, with the dowitcher the
icing on the cake and probably the bird from Wanlip. I had moved my patch list total on to
ninety-eight and a score of 116, with the dowitcher being a four pointer.
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