After finishing identifying
and recording the moths and some breakfast I set off heading for Eyebrook
Reservoir but I called at David’s first with the Broad-barred White as he
hadn’t seen one. I then decided that I
would check around the church to see if I could find any Spotted
Flycatchers. After parking near the
church I walked down the lane towards the stream as the wood has been good for
Spotted Flycatcher in the past. As I
progressed down the lane I heard a Coal Tit and a Blackcap but there was no
sign of any flycatchers but as I approached the stream I heard a Kingfisher
call. I looked both up and down the stream
from the bridge but there was no sign and began thinking perhaps it wasn’t a
Kingfisher, when it called again and this time I saw it fly upstream and land
briefly on a post along the stream before flying further and disappearing. As I turned to walk back up the road a second
bird called and also flew up stream and presumably they were a pair. As I moved back up the road I had nice views
of a female Blackcap and a Nuthatch was heard calling on several occasions.
I still hadn’t heard or seen
any signs of a Spotted Flycatcher but decided to go into the church yard. Iit all seemed very quiet but as I turned to
leave two Spotted Flycatchers flew over me and landed on the roof of the
church. One of the birds soon
disappeared but the second remained and wondered if they had a nest nearby and
so as not to cause any further disturbance I left then in peace.
I had seen a Buzzard as I
entered Newton Harcourt but saw nothing else of note between there and Eyebrook
Reservoir and as there was no sign of the Little Owl along the approach road I
continued around to the bridge where I saw a male Blackcap and heard a Garden
Warbler.
I had noticed that there was a
flow of water into the reservoir from the bridge but assumed that it was due to
the recent rain fall but when I stopped to view the inlet I was surprised to
see that there was some mud developing and clearly water was being drawn off. The water had been kept high recently as a
health and safety precautions but hopefully now the water will continue to drop
to expose more mud that might result in a good autumn passage of waders. There were a few Lapwings on the mud but
other than a Little Egret nearby there was little else. A Sedge Warbler was still singing and showing
occasionally out towards the stream and there were two Red Kites on the Rutland
side with a third over in Leicestershire along with four Buzzards. As I headed off to Rutland Water I saw a
Whitethroat briefly but saw very little else.
Red Kite
I made my way across country
towards the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water seeing another Red Kite just as I
was coming out of Stoke Dry but had a significant diversion to reach the
reserve as the usual road was closed.
Other than a Kestrel as I approached the road down to the reserve I saw
nothing else of note.
Once in the centre I spent
some time observing the feeders where there were at least five Tree
Sparrows. I then walked down to Teal
Hide where I could see both Ospreys in Manton Bay and also fifteen Common Terns
of which there were three more in South Arm Three. Other than a couple of Oystercatcher roosting
at the base of Lax Hill there was little else, although I did have two distant
Raven over Burley Wood before I headed for the Egleton car park seeing a Red
Kite and a Buzzard close to Manton Bridge.
I had arrange to meet Erik at
lunchtime but nipped into the centre to view Lagoon One first. There was a female Tufted Duck escorting four
small young just in front of the centre and the pair of Shelduck on the lagoon
still had three young but with the water level so high there wasn’t a great
deal else.
Erik arrived just after I had
finished my lunch and after spending a few minutes sorting out some moths with
him we set off for Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow. When we arrived there were five unescorted
Shelduck young on the water and we found a Green Sandpiper and a Redshank at
the far side of the flash. Both adult
Avocets were present and their behaviour suggested that there was still young
and we did eventually see all three but they can be quite elusive despite them
being almost able to fly. We spent quite
some time in the hide and were rewarded with finding a Redshank with three young,
although I only saw two of them and a female Shoveler with three fairly well
grown young as well as a Mallard with nine almost fully grown young.
We eventually called it a day
and headed off back towards the centre and then onto Lagoon Four. We met Steve and Terry coming in the opposite
direction who had seen very little with just four Ringed Plovers on Lagoon
Four. As they had been in Sandpiper Hide
Erik and I decided we could to Plover Hide, which was more productive as we
found three Little Ringed Plovers and two Ringed Plovers on the island just in
front of the hide. There were four more
distant Ringed Plovers and I found a Curlew on island one. There was an adult Yellow-legged Gull and
three Lesser Black-backed Gull amongst the more numerous Great Black-backed
Gulls on the exposed rocks and a pair of Common Tern were clearly nesting on
island three. We had a brief view of a
Hobby as it passed over the lagoon and headed off towards Lagoon Two.
Common Tern
Common Tern
Common Tern
Common Tern
A quick visit to Bittern Hide
produced nothing of note and so we continued on to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon
Three but the high water level is clearly impacting on birds and there was very
little close to the hide and there were just a few Common Terns feeding over
the water. A couple of Pochards were the
best of the wildfowl and a Reed Warbler performed nicely close to the hide and
we had another view of a Hobby.
A Short-eared Owl had been seen
last Saturday and several times since, in fact Erik has seen it on a number of
occasions from Church Road behind Lagoon Four and Lloyd had seen early this
morning and I was planning on staying a little later in the hope of seeing
it. Steve had also seen a Goldeneye in
the fishponds this morning and so I went to the North Arm to look for it and
check where Erik had been seeing the owl.
Despite scanning both the North Arm and fishponds I couldn’t locate the
Goldeneye and saw little else and so returned to the Egleton car park.
I had decided that I would
have a look at Lagoon One from Mallard Hide as the Short-eared Owl was on there
yesterday and then go back along Church Road later if I hadn’t been successful
there. As I walked across the car park I
met Steve again and we spent quite some time talking about his recent birding
trip, which was apparently a disaster as anything that could go wrong had and
he hadn’t seen any of the birds he hoped for.
It was now a cracking evening
and after reaching Mallard Hide I settled down scanning the lagoon. I hadn’t been in there too long when I picked
up the Short-eared Owl that was flying just to the right of Harrier Hide. However it just hopped over the edge towards
Tern Hide on Lagoon Six and despite a forty-five minute wait it didn’t reappear
and I called it a day and headed off home.
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