David, Roger and I were headed
for Eyebrook Reservoir this morning seeing a Red Kite after passing through
Blaston.
We approached the reservoir
from the southern end and parked near the entrance to the fishing lodge, where
we saw at least six Tree Sparrows in the hedges around the field to the north. We moved further around the reservoir seeing
numerous released Pheasants before we reached the northern approach road. We continued along the approach road to view
the old oak but there was no sign of any Little Owls but a Buzzard flew over,
which was mobbed by numerous Swallows and House Martins. After turning round we returned to the bridge
over the inflow where we found a party of feeding birds, which included Blue
and Long-tailed Tits along with three Chiffchaffs and we also had some nice
views of a Marsh Tit.
We moved further round as we
were parking to view the inlet Roger spotted a Hobby, which flew over the
eastern field. Mike and Andy were
already parked and after alerting them of the Hobby we set our scopes up to
view the inlet. As is normal at the
moment numerous Greylag and Canada Geese were resting on the only exposed area
of mud but we did manage to find a Dunlin and a Black-tailed Godwit amongst
them and the resting Mallards. The Hobby
passed over again and an Osprey flew north carrying a fish while there was a
Red Kite over Stoke Dry Wood and another over the eastern fields. Three Little Egrets were around the edges of
the reservoir and twelve Common Terns were feeding over the water.
At around 09:30 we moved onto
the North Arm at Rutland Water and after observing the fishponds and seeing
very little we moved out towards the spit.
There were just a few Common Terns and brood of five Tufted Duck of
interest on the north shore and so we went into the field to the south to
explore the southern shore. There were
eight Little Egrets in the small bay and a Green Sandpiper close by but with little
else we spent some time trying to locate a Coal Tit, which we eventually
managed to see. We returned to view the
northern section and I picked up a Swift moving west of Burley Wood and counted
sixty-one Common Terns over the water.
As we were not finding
anything new we moved on to Egleton and went into the centre to view Lagoon
One. As we arrived in the viewing area
David picked up a Hobby, which headed off over Lagoon Two and disappeared. There was a Great White Egret in front of the
centre and two single Little Grebes were also observed. I had scanned the long island and after seeing
nothing of note was surprised when David said that there was a Curlew on one of
the muddy areas and just after we found a couple of Black-tailed Godwits. The female-type Marsh Harrier then passed
over and was then seen intermittently as it periodical quartered the Wet Meadow
area. We all the heard a Whimbrel call
on several occasions but couldn’t locate and presumably it had just passed
over. The Marsh Harrier then flew over
the lagoon and caused some disturbance with the Curlew flying off but the two
godwits remained.
After lunch we set off to the
northern lagoons and headed for Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where there had
been a good selection of waders earlier but Tim had said he couldn’t find a
Wood Sandpiper that had been present yesterday.
When we entered the hide Graham was already present and said that there
was another Great White Egret present but that it had disappeared behind the
reed island. There were clearly plenty
of Green Sandpipers on the lagoon and I counted sixteen on a couple of occasions
but fewer were visible most of the time.
There were also two Black-tailed Godwits, a Curlew and a Greenshank
feeding on the now superb conditions for wading birds. As I scanned the area counting the Green
Sandpipers I found the Wood Sandpiper, which then provided some nice
views. David then picked up a juvenile
Marsh Harrier and then realised that there were two harriers. As we watched them one flew off towards
Lagoon Two but the other remained over the trees making it difficult to confirm
that it was the female-type seen earlier on Lagoon One. It looked rather dark and we suspected that
it might be another juvenile, which we were able to confirm as it dropped below
the tree line. Scanning the mass of
wildfowl on the lagoon confirmed that they were mainly Gadwall but there were
clearly more Teal present today and also good numbers of Mallard and we also
saw several Shoveler, Pochard and a Tufted Ducks and a single Wigeon. One of the two juvenile Marsh Harriers flew
from behind the hide and caused a panic amongst the birds, after which there
were fewer waders and we didn’t see the Wood Sandpiper again. The Great White Egret had made a couple of
brief appearance but eventually flew off towards Lagoon Two.
Curlew
Greenshank
Green Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four
was our next port of call where we found a Little Ringed Plover and nine Ringed
Plovers. There was also at least twenty
Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the more numerous Black-headed and Great
Black-backed Gulls and there were also good numbers of Lesser Black-backed and
a few Common and a single Herring Gull.
Seventeen Common Terns were counted amongst a party of resting
Black-headed Gulls and two Curlews made a brief visit. As we continued to scan we found seven
Shelduck and there was at least one and probably two Common Sandpipers.
As we made our way back to the
centre an Osprey was observed carrying a fish and as it gained height it was
joined by three more, two of which were juveniles.
When we arrived back at the
centre we scanned the lagoon and found that just one of the Black-tailed
Godwits remained and the Great White Egret was still in front of the
centre. We had further views of the
female-type Marsh Harrier and a Hobby was watched for a while as it hunted near
Harrier Hide. The Hobby then headed
towards Mallard Hide and then passed directly in front of the centre before
heading off over Lagoon Two. I picked up
a Great White Egret in flight as it landed on the long island and on scoping it
I found that it had a bicoloured bill and was therefore different to those we
had seen earlier, which had predominantly yellow bills.
We eventually called it a day
after recording eight-four species during the day, seventy-one of which were at
Rutland Water.
No comments:
Post a Comment