David, Roger and I set off for
Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a Buzzard alongside the Great Glen bypass just after
leaving David’s. We saw very little else
on route and approached the reservoir from the southern end.
From the gate leading to the
fishing lodge we saw a distant Kestrel and there was a Little Egret and Mallard
with a brood of nine in the southern most bay.
As we drove to the northern end we flushed a Yellow Wagtail of the road
and heard a Lesser Whitethroat before we reached the turning to the
bridge. We continued on along the
northern approach road and found the Little Owl sitting in the old oak. After watching the owl briefly we turned
around and headed for the bridge.
From the bridge we heard a
Blackcap and found a Treecreeper and there was a Red Kite and a Buzzard in the
field to the east. We moved around the
view the inlet and found a Little Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover and two Green
Sandpipers on the small area of exposed mud and there was also another Little
Egret. A Red Kite was observed over the
Leicestershire woodland and there were good numbers of Swift over the
reservoir, along with a couple of Sand Martin and I counted ten Common Terns.
We moved on from Eyebrook
Reservoir and headed for the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water, seeing a
Red-legged Partridge and two Red Kites near Wing and a Spotted Flycatcher in
the Lyndon church yard.
On arrival at the Lyndon
Reserve we viewed the feeders, where there were at least five Tree Sparrows,
amongst the more common species. From
Teal Hide we could see two of the three young Ospreys in the nest and one of
the adults was perched on the cross-pole.
There were nineteen Common Terns feeding in Manton Bay and a
second-summer Yellow-legged Gull was perched on one of the signs on the
bund. Two Little Egrets were at the base
of Lax Hill and a female Mallard was escorting a brood of nine just outside the
hide.
From Lyndon we drove around to
the Egleton Reserve seeing a Kestrel over the road near Manton Bay. After parking we made a brief visit to the
Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One but it was pretty quiet with most of
the wildfowl being Gadwall and Tufted Duck.
I was surprised that we couldn’t find any of the Shelduck as there had
been two broods on here on Tuesday.
Satisfied we had see all there
was to see on Lagoon One we made our way to Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow. An Osprey caused some disturbance just after
we had arrived in the hide and with five Avocets in flight indicated that the
three young had fledged successfully.
There was also a couple of Green Sandpipers and a three adult Redshanks
and a juvenile. We also picked up
several birds of prey with both Red Kite and Buzzard observed. A Kingfisher flashed by the hide but soon
disappeared but it was my first sighting on the reserve this year, although I
had seen one in Manton Bay during March.
As we walked along the path to
the 360 Hide on Lagoon Five, David and I had a brief view of a Sedge
Warbler. From the hide we saw a pair of Egyptian
Geese with a single young bird, a female Tufted Duck escorting a brood of nine,
a Little Egret and seven Oystercatchers.
As we left the hide there was a second female Tufted Duck with a brood
of four on Lagoon Eight and a Buzzard flew over.
We started to make our way
back to the car park for some lunch but I suggested that we call at Mallard
Hide to get a different view of Lagoon One, which proved to be worthwhile. We hadn’t been in too long before David found
a single Shoveler and I found a pair of Shelduck escorting six young, which was
almost certainly part of the brood of nine we had seen on Thursday. They were keeping very close to the shore and
soon disappeared again and I suspect that something had taken three of the
young and they were now being ultra careful.
A Hobby then few in front of the hide and provided some superb views as
it began hunting just in front and made numerous passes before it eventually
disappeared. David then picked up a
group of birds heading towards us that turned out to be a party of twenty-five
Black-tailed Godwits. They were all
magnificent summer plumaged Icelandic birds and looked absolutely stunning and
they flew around for several minutes obviously looking for a place to land but
eventually flew off south and appeared to come down on Lagoon Eight.
After lunch we made our way to
the northern lagoons seeing two Great Spotted Woodpeckers in flight and after a
chat with Brian headed to where the new Crake Hide is being constructed as he
had seen a drake Goldeneye earlier. As
we approached the gap in the fence there were two Tufted Ducks and also the
drake Goldeneye but we didn’t stay long as the birds were obviously
uncomfortable with our presence.
We retraced our steps to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where the water level was still very high and
consequently there wasn’t a great deal.
A Shelduck, three Pochard and two Little Grebes were the highlights on
the lagoon and we had another Hobby over the wood and also Red Kite, Buzzard and
Kestrel and I eventually managed to see a couple of Reed Warblers.
On Lagoon Four there were
three adult Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the more numerous Great Black-backed
Gulls and we eventually found six Oystercatchers, five Ringed Plovers, a
Dunlin, a Curlew and two Common Sandpipers.
A brief visit in the centre
again produced nothing further and we headed off home. I had recorded eight-eight species and with a
few unexpected sightings it had turned out to be a pretty good day’s birding.
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