I was out with David and Roger
today but we would have the birding disrupted by the Bird Fair Meetings with
Roger having to attend at 11:30 and David and I at 12:30.
On route to Eyebrook Reservoir
we had a Green Woodpecker near Slawston but hadn’t seen anything else of note
by the time we reached the reservoir. We
stopped at the bridge and found a Willow Warbler and heard a second calling and
a Red Kite flew over just south of the bridge.
Moving round to overlook the
inflow we were disappointed that there wasn’t any waders present but there were
three Little Egrets amongst the numerous geese.
There were three more Red Kites over the Leicestershire fields and Roger
found a Kestrel perched in the tree near the bridge along with several juvenile
Phylloscopus warbler, which were too distant to identify. Thirteen Common Terns were feeding over the
water, with most being fairly distant.
We eventually moved off
towards Rutland Water and specifically the Lyndon Centre, making a brief stop
at the church in Lyndon. David and Roger
found both Nuthatch and Treecreeper and I managed to get a brief view of the
Nuthatch but had to be content with just hearing the Treecreeper.
When we arrived at the Lyndon
Centre a Kestrel flew over and we then spent some time observing the feeding
station but the hoped for Tree Sparrows failed to appear and we started to walk
towards Deep Water Hide. We hadn’t gone
very far when we had a Whitethroat in a bush at the side of the path and when I
started to look for a Blackcap seen by David I picked up a Spotted Flycatcher
and we eventually had an adult and three juveniles. As we walked on towards Deep Water Hide,
David was struggling with his hay fever as so went back to the centre and had
further views of the Spotted Flycatchers before we got back. There was still no sign of any Tree Sparrows
but in the hedge to the left we had a Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and
Whitethroat.
It was now time for us to make
our way to the Volunteer Training Centre for the Birdfair briefing
meetings. Having got parked Roger went
into the centre for his meeting whilst David and I walked around the service
road to Plover Hide on Lagoon Four.
There were twelve Yellow-legged Gulls on the rocky island and two Little
Ringed Plovers were located on a nearer island, along with a single immature
Shelduck. We could see that there was a
mass of gulls resting on one of the spits closer to Sandpiper Hide and so we
decided to go and take a closer look.
As we approached the ramp
leading to Sandpiper Hide a couple of birders were looking towards the Lagoon
Four bund and when we asked what they had seen they reeled off a list of
butterflies that included Brown Argus.
We eventually managed to have quite nice views of one of them, along
with a nice Painted Lady. Brown Argus is
quite a rare butterfly at Rutland Water with there being less than five records
and so this was a good find.
It turned out the all the
gulls were just Black-headed with nothing more unusual amongst them other than
roosting Common Terns, of which there were forty-two. There were also nine Ringed Plovers, eleven
Dunlin and a Common Sandpiper on the near spit and David picked up a distant
Curlew. As it was now approaching 12:30
David and I returned to the Volunteer Centre for our meeting. When we arrived Roger was still in his
meeting, which then overran and it was approaching 13:00 before our meeting
commenced. Roger wasn’t best pleased as
he said it had been a bit of a shambles and only a few minutes at the end was
focussed on his activity. I am pleased
to say our meeting went pretty well and didn’t overrun although it did mean we
were having a later lunch.
After lunch we went back to
the Egleton car park and then into the centre to view Lagoon One. The usual Saturday crowd were present when we
arrived and a quick scan of the lagoon produced one of the Great White Egrets
and there was a Buzzard perched on the man-made Osprey nest. I glanced towards Lagoon Two and saw an egret
I suspected was a second Great White Egret, which was soon confirmed once
viewed through the scope.
We moved onto the northern
lagoons as Roger had been able get there this morning. We stopped on reaching the bund of Lagoon
Four to search for the Brown Argus and it wasn’t long before we had located
both of the butterflies, one of which enabled us to get a few photos. An Osprey was observed circling over Lagoon
Four.
Brown Argus
Brown Argus
Brown Argus
Brown Argus
As we approached Shoveler Hide
we had brief views of a Chiffchaff as it moved in front of us. On entering the hide we found Brian, Roger
and Rosie already there and they quickly updated us what they had seen. There was a Greenshank in the corner to the
right of the hide and two Snipe and two Black-tailed Godwits were feeding in the
channel leading to the small pool. Three
immature Shelducks were present and we eventually saw three Green Sandpipers.
Roger had also told us that
they had seen a Ruff on Lagoon Four and so we set off to have another look,
with them also coming hoping to see the Brown Argus. We soon located the butterflies and so David,
Roger and I moved onto Sandpiper Hide and found the Ruff on one of the distant
islands near the Volunteer Centre.
A further quick visit into the
centre produced a single Yellow Wagtail but with nothing else obvious we
returned to the car park and headed off home.
As we went through Tugby there
were two distant Buzzards off the right but we head seen little else before we getting
back to David’s.
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