I headed straight to the
Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water this morning as there had been a couple of
Curlew Sandpipers present in Manton Bay on Sunday evening and I was hoping they
would still be there. Other than a Red
Kite just after passing through Tur Langton I had seen very little before I
pulled up in the Lyndon car park.
The centre wasn’t open when I
arrived and so I set off towards Shallow Water Hide. There was a Whitethroat in the hedge near the
centre and on reaching the main path I found three Chiffchaff and two more
Whitethroats but saw very little else before seeing two Lesser Whitethroats as
I approached the hide.
Whitethroat
Black-headed Gull over the Lyndon Meadows
When I reached the hide there
were several photographers in the hide but no sign of any Ospreys, although one
returned just a few minutes later. There
was a juvenile Ruff feeding just in front of the hide but a Ringed Plover and a
Green Sandpiper to the left
proved more difficult due to the vegetation.
There were nine Little Egrets and eighteen Little Grebes in the bay and
circa fifty Common Terns were resting on the now exposed bund.
Juvenile Lapwing
Juvenile Ruff
Juvenile Ruff
I left the hide and started to
make my way back to the centre when Steve called to say he and Terry had just
had a couple of Whimbrel that were heading towards Manton Bay. They had been calling but I hadn’t heard them
and so went into Wader Scrape Hide to see if they had come down but there was
no sign and two others in the hide hadn’t seen or heard them and they had
probably just gone on. I spent a little
while in the hide and had several views of a Reed Warbler but there was little
else.
Ruddy Darter near turning to Wader Scrape Hide
I met Steve and Terry just as
I reached he centre who informed me that they had seen a Red-necked Grebe in
the North Arm and that the Long-tailed Duck was on the bank to the right of
Teal Hide.
I continued on to Teal Hide
seeing another Whitethroat near the feeders and a Tree Sparrow in the
hedge. The Long-tailed Duck was asleep
when I first arrived but did raise its head briefly and I was able to get a
shot.
Male Long-tailed Duck
As I scanned the main water
there was quite a few Common Terns but I hadn’t located either of the two Black
Terns or Arctic Tern seen by Steve and Terry when another birder entered the
hide. He asked where the Long-tailed
Duck was and so I informed but as I glanced towards the bank it wasn’t visible
and on scanning the water I found it had come off the bank and was now on the
water. It then swam right in front of
the hide, providing excellent views as it did so, before coming to rest on the
water to the right of the hide.
Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck
Female Tufted Duck with two young
Great Crested Grebe
As I continued to scan the
main water I eventually located one of the two Black Terns but still couldn’t
find the Arctic Tern and eventually decided to go to the North Arm to look for
the Red-necked Grebe.
As I arrived at the unnamed
road another birder was leaving and said that he had been looking for the grebe
without success and when I got to the gate Ken Chamberlain had also been
looking but hadn’t found it. Ken finished
his coffee and then walked with me to the western edge of the field as the sun
was still making it quite difficult to see into the North Arm. There were three Ruff, three Green Sandpiper
and two Greenshank in the bay but we could only find a single Common Tern on a
buoy and there was no sign of the grebe.
When we reached the spit
several other birders were looking, including, Steve and Terry, but they hadn’t
found the grebe either. There was a Red
Kite and a couple of Buzzard over Burley Wood and another five Ruff were on the
north shore but there was little else and I headed back to the car. I checked the north shore of the fishponds
and found the Whimbrel and four Curlews reported earlier where still there.
If the Red-necked Grebe was
the same bird that had been present last winter it was often seen from the
fisherman’s car park along the Hambleton Road and so I thought it would be
worth a look. The vegetation had grown
quite a bit making viewing a little restricted but by viewing from the road and
the shore I was pretty certain that the grebe wasn’t there and headed off to
Egleton.
I joined Steve in the centre
at Egleton where there were twelve Little Egrets and two Great White Egrets on
one of the distant islands. A
female-type Marsh Harrier with several flight feathers missing on the left wing
was observed as it flew over Brown’s Island and a Curlew dropped in.
We then went to Shoveler Hide
on Lagoon Three seeing very little on route but finding a good selection of
waders close to the hide. There were
seven Ruff, two Snipe, four Black-tailed Godwits, a Curlew, nine Green
Sandpipers, five Greenshank and a Wood Sandpiper. Steve began scanning the wildfowl and he
found five eclipse males and a single female Red-crested Pochard and then a
couple of Garganey. He then noticed a
second Curlew along with a Whimbrel to the left of the hide and shortly
afterwards we saw the female-type Marsh Harrier again. There were three Little Egrets feeding
amongst the waders and a Yellow-legged Gull flew over heading for South Arm
Three.
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwits
Whimbrel
Whimbrel
Whimbrel
Curlew
Greenshank
Ruff and Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Tim had joined us in the hide
and after a brief chat I moved on to Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four. I found a couple of Little Ringed Plovers,
nine Ringed Plovers, five Dunlin, two Common Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper scattered
around the lagoon and there were fourteen Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the
resting gulls, that included several Common and Lesser Black-backed as well as
the more numerous Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gulls.
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