Roger and I were out today and
initially paid a brief visit to Newton Harcourt. We were hoping to see Spotted Flycatcher and
went into the church yard, which is where I had seen two on Tuesday. We spent some time in the church yard having
nice views of a Goldcrest but there was no sign of the Spotted Flycatchers and
so we walked down the lane. We heard a
Coal Tit and a Blackcap but saw little else but as I got back to the church
there was a Spotted Flycatcher perched on a bare branch but it flew before
Roger had seen it. We went back into the
church yard but again couldn’t find any and so returned to the road. As we were walking back to the car I heard
one calling but we still couldn’t find it, when it suddenly flew from the tress
on the other side of the road and landed on the corner of church roof
briefly. We were quite close and had nice
but brief views before it returned to the trees and disappeared again.
We had talked about trying to
see the Flying Scotsman as it was passing through Rutland today and decided to
head to the Harringworth Viaduct, which we considered would be a good place to
see it. When we arrived I was surprised
to see how many people had the same idea and that a field had been opened as a
car park, which was actually free. The
car park was on the east side of the viaduct and so we walked back down the
road and into another field to view the west side as the train would almost
certainly be running on the western track.
Whilst we were waiting we saw a Red Kite, a Buzzard, a Grey Heron and
several Swallows and I the noticed that there were even more people viewing
from a hillside nearer to Seaton. A
small group were seen being raised on a platform, which reached the same height
of the top of the viaduct providing a very different view. I then saw the top of the train just before
it appeared and then watched as it came across the bridge and disappeared to
the north. It was a magnificent sight
and took me back to my boyhood when I was an avid train spotter in the fifty’s
and sixty’s when the majority of trains were steam.
The crowds towards Seaton
The Flying Scotsman coming over the viaduct
The Flying Scotsman on the viaduct
The Flying Scotsman on the viaduct
The Flying Scotsman on the viaduct
The Flying Scotsman on the viaduct
We were expecting it would
take some time to get away but it was actually only took about five minutes to
get out of the car park and we were soon on our way to Eyebrook Reservoir.
On reaching Eyebrook Reservoir
we parked overlooking the inlet to view the now exposed mud. We found Mike had been there a while and had
seen a Little Ringed Plover and two Common Sandpipers but he hadn’t found a
reported Green Sandpiper. We soon found
the Little Ringed Plover and two Common Sandpipers but there was still no sign
of the Green Sandpiper. As I scanned the
Leicestershire side I found two Red Kites and a Buzzard before we headed off to
Rutland Water.
We checked the old oak as we
were departing and found the Little Owl sitting at the edge of the nest hole
and we had a Buzzard as we climbed the hill towards Uppingham.
We went straight to the
Egleton car park and after a bite to eat checked the feeding station before
heading off to Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow.
The feeders had been freshly stocked but there weren’t too many birds in
attendance although a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker paid a visit and I
picked up a Chiffchaff feeding in the bushes.
When we reached Snipe Hide we
found an Avocet, a Green Sandpiper and a Redshank quite quickly and eventually
found the second adult Avocet and also two more Green Sandpipers. Surprisingly the five young Shelduck that had
been present on the flash recently were nowhere to be seen and neither were the
adults but I could see two adults with eleven young on Lagoon One. It took quite some time before we actually
managed to see any Avocet young and then only two. A second adult Redshank appeared and shortly
afterwards we saw two young and presumably these were the brood Erik and I had
seen on Tuesday, when there were three.
A visit to the 360 Hide on
Lagoon Five produced four Oystercatchers and a couple of Little Grebes and we
also saw a Hobby flying over carrying food, which headed off to the north. On leaving the hide two more Oystercatchers
flew over but we saw very little else before we reached Sandpiper Hide on
Lagoon Four.
On Lagoon four we found a
single Shelduck, ten Little Egrets, four Oystercatchers, two Little Ringed Plovers,
a Ringed Plover, a Curlew, a Yellow-legged Gull and a few Common Terns.
We moved onto Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three where we found a rather nice male Wigeon that appeared to still be
in virtually full summer plumage and clearly different to the bird we had seen
yesterday on Lagoon One. A single drake
Pochard was still present and we had several sightings of Reed Warblers in the
reeds to the right of the hide.
A visit to the centre produced
a Buzzard on Brown’s Island and a distant Red Kite over Hambleton but there was
nothing else of note and we called it a day.
We called at Newton Harcourt
again on the way home as David had seen and heard a Lesser Whitethroat but
there was no sign when we arrived and presumably a heavy shower had induced the
bird to sing and move around or perhaps it had dropped in with the rain and
moved on.
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