Having emptied the trap and
had some breakfast I went to David’s and he then drove to Rutland Water. We had intended to go to Barnack Hills and
Holes NNR in Lincolnshire but a tweet from Tim regarding a Wood Sandpiper on
the Wet Meadow at Rutland Water had prompted us to change our plans.
After parking in the Egleton
car park we went into the centre but were surprised that Tim had just entered
eight Black-tailed Godwits in the book and there was no mention of the Wood
Sandpiper. However Tim wasn’t around and
so we set off to Snipe Hide still hoping that we would see a Wood
Sandpiper. When we arrived we could only
find five Black-tailed Godwits and other than a couple of Redshanks and a pair
of Shelduck escorting four young there appeared to be little else. We spent quite some time in the hide and
eventually managed to see the eight Black-tailed Godwits, two Green Sandpiper
and seven Redshanks. At least three of
the Redshanks were juvenile and as they closely resemble Wood Sandpipers we
suspected that the Wood Sandpiper would almost certainly be a Redshank. A Sedge Warbler was seen quite well just to
the left of the hide and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over and we saw an
Osprey over Lagoon One. I managed to get
hold of Tim before we left the hide and he confirmed that the reported Wood
Sandpiper was indeed one of the juvenile Redshanks.
We therefore moved on to
Harrier Hide and found three Oystercatchers, another three Green Sandpipers and
two more juvenile Redshanks on the other pool on the Wet Meadow but there was
little else, although we noticed the Shelduck had moved onto Lagoon One.
As we walked towards Pintail
Hide on Lagoon Six we heard a Whitethroat singing and from the hide there was a
female Tufted Duck escorting two young and four Oystercatchers and a Hobby flew
over.
As we continued onto the 360
Hide on Lagoon Six there was a Little Egret and two Oystercatchers on Lagoon
Eight and a Osprey flew over carrying a fish.
From the 360 Hide there was another Little Egret, two Little Grebes and
two more Oystercatchers and two Red Kites flew over.
Red Kite
Red Kite
After lunch we went into the
Bird Watching centre to view Lagoon One where we found that the Tufted Duck
numbers were still rising and there was now a substantial flock but there were
few other wildfowl except Gadwall. Two
Common Terns were feeding over the water and there was a distant Buzzard and a
Kestrel near Lax Hill.
It was very quiet as we made
our way to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where the water level was still very
high. The two adult Shelduck were still
escorting three young but other than a Mute Swan with three cygnets and three
Pochard there was nothing else of note.
Mute Swan & cygnets
We moved on to Bittern Hide as
a female Pochard had been seen with four young on several occasions
recently. When we got to the hide there
were just a few Mallard and a Moorhen but no Pochard. We saw several Reed Warblers in the reeds
close to the hide and then I noticed a female Pochard on the edge of the
channel but there was no sign of any young.
Her behaviour though suggested that there were young close by but after
a few minutes she disappeared into the reeds.
She then reappeared in the other channel but again there was no sign of
the young but again her behaviour suggested that they weren’t far away. Eventually two young appeared on the edge of
the reeds and were soon followed by a third and as these moved into the open
the forth appeared and we had some nice views before we left the hide.
Female Pochard
Four Pochard ducklings
Pochard ducklings
Mother leads them away
I had seen a Mediterranean
Gull from Plover Hide on Tuesday and so it was our next port of call. There were quite a few Black-headed Gulls
resting on the exposed mud behind island three but we couldn’t see a
Mediterranean Gull, although the vegetation on the island was making it
difficult to see the birds clearly.
There were eight Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the Great Black-backed
Gulls on the rocky area and we also found three Little Ringed Plovers and three
Ringed Plovers. David decided he would
go to Sandpiper Hide to see if the Mediterranean Gull was amongst the
Black-headed Gulls but I stayed in Plover Hide a few more minutes and saw two
more Yellow-legged Gulls and a Yellow Wagtail.
As I walked back towards Sandpiper Hide I met Tim and after a brief chat
we joined David in Sandpiper Hide.
When we joined David in the
hide he confirmed that the Mediterranean Gull wasn’t amongst the other
gulls. He had seen a couple of Curlew
and one was still on view and we also found a forth Ringed Plover, a Dunlin and
a Common Sandpiper. There were just ten
Common Terns on the lagoon and none of them were on island ten where a couple
of weeks ago there appeared to be several breeding birds. It looks as though a predator might have been
on the island and had taken any eggs or young resulting in the terns deserting.
David wanted to visit Prior’s
Coppice, which is a Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust reserve in the
hope of finding Broad-leaved Helleborine but we had no joy. We did hear Chiffchaff and Blackcap and saw
several Long-tailed Tits and perhaps more surprisingly an Emperor Dragonfly and
a Southern Hawker.
From Prior’s Coppice we made
our way to Uppingham and then returned home via Eyebrook Reservoir. We stopped to view the small area of mud on
the Leicestershire bank and found nine Little Ringed Plovers, a Common
Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper and there was also a female Tufted Duck
escorting two young. There were at least
eight Common Terns over the reservoir and on the tern rafts and we saw a single
Tree Sparrow and a couple of Yellow Wagtails.
As we headed off home a Cuckoo
flew over near the inlet bridge and the Little Owl was visible in the old oak.
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