As I am volunteering at
Birdfair this weekend and possibly won’t get out birding until next Tuesday I
planned to have a longer day in the field today and was at Eyebrook Reservoir
by 06:15 and was planning to stay out later at Rutland Water.
When I arrived at the southern
end of the reservoir I had seen nothing of note on route and stopped by the
gate leading to the fishing lodge. The
farmer had been very busy since my last visit as most of the crops had been
gathered and the fields were now just stubble. It was pretty quiet bird wise
but I did find six Tree Sparrows along the hedgerow but with little else I
moved on, stopping at the first bend to view the reservoir. There were a few birds on the water but
nothing unusual and the hedge running away from the reservoir contained just a
few Goldfinches but it was nice to see a Song Thrush feeding in the stubble.
I stopped again to view the
track leading to Holyoaks Farm but other than a few released Pheasants there
was nothing. There were even more
Pheasants on the road as I continued but given another six weeks most will have
been shot and judging by the way the were reacting to the car it wouldn't be
much of a challenge. I reached another
gateway and a few birds got up from the path and so I stopped to take a closer
look. Sadly a willow is now making
viewing a little difficult but I did manage to see a Willow Warbler,
Whitethroat, a Tree Sparrow several Yellowhammers and a Reed Bunting.
On reaching the turning for
the bridge I continued to check for Little Owls in the old oak but there was no
sign, although there were two Red Kites perched in a tree along the
stream. I stopped at the bridge but
there was very little and so I moved around to view the inlet.
There had been three or four
Ruff present before I arrived but they had just flown with some Lapwing and I
couldn't locate them but I did find a Dunlin, three Snipe and a Green
Sandpiper. I moved further along the
road to look back into another bay hoping that the Ruff had dropped back in
there but there was no sign although I did find a Little Ringed Plover only to
see it a few minutes later flying high to the south. There also appeared to be fewer Common Terns
today and I only saw four.
It was the WeBS count today
and so I headed for the Old Hall to count South Arm Three. As usual I walked towards the Old Hall to
check out the small bay where I found three Little Egrets but little else. As I walked back and then onto view the main
area it appeared pretty quiet with just a good flock of Mute Swan and smaller
numbers of Mallard and Tufted Duck and a
Common Sandpiper flew from the shore as I walked out to the point. As I walked further and could see the whole
of the arm and saw that most birds were concentrated between Lapwing Hide and
the other end of the cycle track. They
were mostly Tufted Duck and I counted over 1200 but there was also fair numbers
of Great Crested Grebe and Coot amongst them and also smaller numbers of
Gadwall and Mallard.
Once I had completed the count
I headed to Egleton to count Lagoon One but as I entered the car park I saw Tim
who asked if I would count North Arm One and the Fishponds and then count
Lagoon One.
I drove back to the unnamed road
and went straight to view the North Arm and found that there weren’t large
numbers of birds present. There were
more Mute Swan and plenty of Greylag and Canada Geese and also good numbers of
Great Crested Grebe. I counted thirteen
Little Egrets scattered around the arm but other than a Green Sandpiper and a
couple of Common Terns there wasn’t too much else.
I drove back down the road and
went into the field to get a better view of the fishponds and found good
numbers of both Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe. Five Little Egrets were roosting in the trees
and there were fifteen Little Grebes, which was significantly more than I had been
seeing recently. Dickinson’s Bay is also
part of the North Arm One and so I drove around to Barnsdale to complete the
north arm count. I walked down the road
and through the gate to view Dickinson’s Bay but is was fairly quiet but as I
scanned the far shore I found three Red-crested Pochards, two males and a
female.
With the north arm complete I
returned to the Egleton and went to the centre to count Lagoon One. I was surprised to find that there were few
birds close to the centre with most of the wildfowl being out of sight in the
north-east corner. As the viewing
conditions were also poor I decided to go to Harrier Hide.
I hadn’t seen anything of note
on route to Harrier Hide and opening the flaps found that there were several
Little Egrets and a Great White Egret rooting on one of the islands. The wildfowl mainly consisted of Gadwall,
Mallard and Tufted Duck but there were also a few Teal and Shoveler. A juvenile Osprey was sat on one of the fence
posts and the egrets had now began feeding with thirteen Little Egrets now
visible and there were also two Green Sandpipers and as I continued to scan a
Greenshank and Redshank appeared.
I wasn’t totally satisfied
that I had seen everything on Lagoon One but thought I would visit the southern
lagoons and then call at Snipe Hide before calling at Mallard Hide to complete
the count.
I only went into Pintail Hide
on Lagoon Six and initially thought there was just a few Moorhen but then noticed
a Great White Egret preening on the shore but almost completely hidden by the
long grasses. There was nothing of note
on Lagoon Five and all I found on the Wet Meadow were two Black-tailed Godwits.
As I walked back towards
Mallard Hide I bumped into Bob, who I hadn’t seen for a while and we stood
chattering for a few minutes before I continued on to Mallard Hide. He informed me that he had seen two Great
White Egrets and two Ruff on Lagoon One and I was hoping these would be visible
from Mallard Hide. I soon located the
two Great White Egrets and also found the two Ruff close to where I had seen
the Greenshank and the Redshank.
Tim had called to say that a
male Long-tailed Duck had been found in front of the Lyndon Centre and was
intending to go there before having my lunch as it was a most unusual record
and also a year-tick. I called Steve as
Tim has he had indicated that he hadn’t been able to let him know. Steve answered his phone and he and Terry
were on their way to Normanton and were quite close to Lyndon and on making him
aware of the Long-tailed Duck they went straight to Lyndon.
When I arrived at Lyndon I
went straight into the centre but there was no sign of either the Long-tailed
Duck or Steve and Terry. The volunteer
on duty informed me that the duck had disappeared and the Steve and Terry had
gone off towards Deep Water Hide. I
started to walk in that direction but was surprised that they would go that way
and on calling them found they were actually in Teal Hide and so I went back
into the centre. I was intending to join
them but another birder who had seen the duck wanted to show me where he had
seen it. As I was looking at where he
said he had seen it a duck there was nothing but then I noticed a duck coming
away from the near shore, which turned out to be the summer plumaged male
Long-tailed Duck. I called Steve and
then went outside to see if it was visible from the right of the centre, which
it was. Steve and Terry then arrived and
we were able to watch the bird making its way to the shore and then getting out
onto the rocks. Ken then arrived as we
were watching the bird preening and Steve noticed it raise it wings twice and
indicated that was lacking most of the its flight feathers and was obviously
flightless. It clearly hadn’t just
arrived and must have been here at least a few days prior to it being found.
I eventually returned to the
car park for my lunch after also seeing a Common Sandpiper and a Marsh Tit on
the feeders. Steve and Terry then
continued onto Normanton whilst Ken went to Egleton, who I followed shortly
afterwards.
I joined Ken in the centre and
it wasn’t long afterwards when Terry joined us and almost immediately picked up
a juvenile Marsh Harrier. Ken then set
off for the northern lagoons and I followed him shortly afterwards after
entering my counts on the master sheets for Steve.
I joined Ken in Shoveler Hide
where there was a good selection of waders with two Ruff, six Snipe, a Black-tailed
Godwit, two Curlew, fourteen Green Sandpipers and five Greenshanks being
seen. During the count Steve and Terry
had seen a Garganey, two Pintail and a three drake Red-crested Pochard. I soon found three Red-crested Pochard but
noticed that one was a female but then found a forth bird, which was a
male. After several scans there was no
sign of the Garganey or Pintail and I returned my attention to the waders. As I went through the Green Sandpipers that
were resting alongside the reed island I found a Water Rail and shortly
afterwards found the Garganey. The
facial pattern was not particularly strong on the Garganey and Ken was not
initially convinced but after discussion he agreed that my identification was
correct. He left shortly afterwards and
it wasn’t long afterwards I also made my way back to the car park.
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Ruff
Ruff
Green Sandpiper
On reaching the car park I
found Steve having a coffee and after I had a drink and a bite to eat we made
our way back to Shoveler Hide where I was hoping to find the Pintail.
We both scanned the water
several times but there was still no sign of the Pintail and we found nothing
else. Steve then noticed the Garganey resting
on the near island and then noticed a second bird next to it. The original bird then stood up revealing it
underside and we were able to see that it was an immature and when it flew
shortly afterwards that it was a female.
After it had disappeared the second bird stood and raised it wings,
which confirmed it as an adult male in eclipse.
With still no sign of the
Pintail we left for Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four to view the gulls. On arrival in the hide Steve concentrated on
the gulls but I scanned the area towards the right and almost immediately found
the two Pintail feeding just beyond the first spit. A few minutes later Steve asked where they
were but they had disappeared and we couldn’t find them on the lagoon and
presumably they had flown back onto Lagoon Three. Steve pointed out a couple of Ringed Plovers
and whilst looking through the gulls we heard a Turnstone calling. Steve then picked up two birds and I picked
them up just before they disappeared behind an island. There were plenty of Black-headed, Lesser
Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls with a few Common and Yellow-legged
Gulls but we weren't able t see anything unusual. The Turnstone then started to call again and
I saw what I thought was them drop onto island one, which Steve confirmed but
then they flew again and we didn’t see or hear then again. Whilst we were scanning for the Turnstone I
picked up a party of fourteen Snipe flying around and six of them were then
located on island one. Steve then picked
up three waders approaching from the west, which just flew straight over and
continued heading east and never looked as though they were going to drop in
but we able to identify them as Golden Plover.
The sun was no making it
difficult to view the gulls as it was bleaching out he colours and so we called
it a day. It had been an excellent day’s
birding with ninety-one species recorded with one, the Long-tailed Duck, being
a year-tick and a most unseasonal bird.
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