After Roger and I had examined
some of last night’s moth catch we set off for Eyebrook Reservoir hoping that a
Little Stint present yesterday would still be there.
When we arrived at the
reservoir Mike was on the bridge and so we stopped and had a word. He wasn’t aware of the stint and after a few
minutes, just seeing a Chiffchaff, we all moved further round to few the small
area of exposed mud. There were several
birders viewing the area on arrival and they informed us that the Little Stint
was still present. It didn’t take too
long to locate the bird and we were then able to watch it as it fed along the
shoreline. It could have been quite easy
to overlook as it blended in quite well on the mud and also went into the
vegetation on several occasions. There
were also three Little Egrets, two Snipe and a Green Sandpiper in the same area
and an Osprey was observed towards the dam.
I noticed a small skipper resting on some fairly close vegetation and
was able to get the scope on it and identify it as an Essex Skipper. However other than eighteen Common Terns,
which included several juveniles, there was little else and we moved onto the
North Arm at Rutland Water.
We drove to the end of the
unnamed road and initially viewed the fishpond area where we found a couple of
Common Sandpipers. We then walked
towards the spit and viewed the area finding a pair of Egyptian Geese escorting
five small young, four juvenile Shelducks, two Little Egrets and four Common
Terns and we also saw a Painted Lady.
Feeling we had seen what was
to be seen in the North Arm we drove to the Egleton car park and then decided
to go to Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow.
As we started off a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over and we then saw
it or another at the feeding station near the centre. When we got into the hide I started to scan
for Garganey that had been present and found it feeding on the flash. It was a rather pale bird with strong facial
markings, which made it difficult to overlook.
Later it had retreated to the bank and showed a creamy-white belly
indicating it was an adult and presumably a male but the wing wasn’t
observed. Two Green Sandpipers were also
on the flash but other than a few Teal and Moorhen there was little else.
The Great White Egret
continues to be reported in Heron Bay and so we decided to continue on to Heron
Hide hoping it would be there. As we
walked alongside Lagoon Eight there was a female Tufted Duck escorting a brood
of eight but there was very little else.
On reaching Heron Hide there were a couple of Little Egrets in Heron Bay
but there was no sign of the Great White Egret but we could see three of the
Ospreys in Manton Bay.
Male Black-tailed Skimmer
We called at the 360 Hide on
the way back to the car park but all we saw was a single Little Grebe.
After lunch we headed for the
northern lagoons and went to Shoveler Hide first finding an adult Shelduck with
the four juveniles and the female Gadwall was still escorting six young and we
also found a second brood of five Gadwall, which were clearly much older and
close to being three-quarters grown. We
then picked up a female Pochard escorting a single half-grown young, which was
presumably the only survivor of the brood of four that I had seen from Bittern
Hide on the 7th. There was
also a female Tufted Duck escorting a brood of five and four Oystercatchers
flew over.
We moved to Sandpiper Hide on
Lagoon Four and found twelve Little Ringed Plovers on the first spit in front
of the hide along with two Ringed Plovers of which there were two more near
island six. There was a Common Sandpiper
to the right, a Green Sandpiper on island four and two Redshanks on the spit in
front of the hide. Further back on the
lagoon there were twenty-four Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the rocks at the
back. Six Curlews had also been
mentioned as being on the lagoon and when I mentioned these another birder said
there were two to the right of the gulls.
I soon found the two birds and eventually we had all six but they
weren’t easy to see as some were sitting down amongst the rocks and on the far
side. At one point I thought one of them
looked rather small but then I couldn’t pick it out again. A single bird then made its way towards the
near shore, which I thought looked smaller and wondered if it could be a
Whimbrel or perhaps it was just a juvenile Curlew. However as it reached the shore it turned its
head to face us and dipped to feed and there was a clear central
crown-stripe. I made Roger and Mike
aware that I thought one of the six was actually a Whimbrel. We then all
watched the bird as it gradually made its way back to the far side of the spit
and all saw the central crown stripe, a conspicuous supercilium and
structurally it was smaller headed and the bill much shorter with more of a
kink rather than a gradual curve. I
informed Roger Brett of our findings and he, Brian and Rosie joined shortly
afterwards.
When all the birds were on the
far side of the spit it wasn’t easy finding it again and whilst some were
clearly Curlews none were obviously a Whimbrel.
However we eventually agreed that it must be the individual that was
partially hidden by a gull and with some patience we were able to confirm its
identity the Whimbrel.
We returned to the centre but with
little on Lagoon One and we called it a day.
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