Rod's Birding: A day in Leicestershire & Rutland

After emptying the mouth trap and some breakfast I set off for a day’s birding locally but other than a Jay I had seen very little when I arrived at Eyebrook Reservoir. It was very quiet at the bridge and other than a Little Egret and three Snipe it was pretty quiet at the inlet. I scanned there the area where the Whinchats had been recently but there was no sign this morning. There were good numbers of Teal and Mallard and a few more Shoveler and Wigeon today but a single Pochard was the first for some time. Two Red Kites were observed over the fields on the Leicestershire side but with little else I moved onto the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water.

As I parked in the car park I could see a bird in the hedgerow to the left of the feeding station, which turned out to be a Lesser Whitethroat. The centre had just opened I went down to Teal Hide where I found the Long-tailed Duck on the water, which then swam to the shore and got out on to the bank. I heard terns calling and picked up two Common Terns flying off towards Manton Bay and shortly afterwards saw a third. I scanned the shore below Lax Hill where I found a Greenshank and a couple of Little Egret and there was a third Little Egret just to the left of the hide.

Drake Long-tailed Duck

Shoveler

Tufted Duck

I stopped to look at the feeders from the centre and found a Chiffchaff feeding amongst the vegetation around the small pond and three Tree Sparrows in the hedge.

Having seen a Chiffchaff and Lesser Whitethroat near the centre I was optimistic that I would find more migrants as I walked towards Shallow Water Hide but other than another Chiffchaff near Deep Water Hide I found nothing else.

The male Osprey was still present in Manton Bay and was tucking into a rather nice trout on one of the perches but there was no sign of the female. A Greenshank was feeding amongst the Black-headed Gulls on the bank to the right of the hide and on scanning the area near the bridge I found two Black-tailed Godwits, a Green Sandpiper and a Redshank. There was a lot of algae on the surface of the water, which most the ducks appeared to be avoiding and there was a single Pintail. A Kingfisher was then heard calling and I picked up in flight in front of the hide. It did settle briefly on the fence but was harassed by a Black-headed Gull and then flew off towards the bridge and disappeared.

Little Egret

Shoveler

Lapwing

Greenshank

Tim had called to say that there were three Great White Egrets on Lagoon Three and that he was going to the North Arm to see if there was another Great White Egret there. I hadn’t heard from him and assumed he hadn’t found another Great White Egret or the Black-necked Grebe he had seen the other day. I therefore decided to go to Dickinson’s Bay to see if the Black-necked Grebe was there.

As I approached the junction leaving Manton there was a Red Kite that was drifting east over the road. I parked near the bottom of the road leading to Dickinson’s Bay but initially checked out the North Arm and found the Red-necked Grebe close to the southern shore and there were also two Little Egrets on the south shore. There were a few passerines in the tree nearby that included both Long-tailed and Blue Tits and a Nuthatch was also heard. I spent several minutes looking for the Nuthatch and eventually had flight views before I walked through the gate to observed Dickinson’s Bay.

There were quite a few Tufted Duck present in the bay along with several Little Grebes and four Little Egrets and a Greenshank were on the far shore but there was no sign of the Black-necked Grebe.

I went to the unnamed road to observe the North Arm from the spit and found four Curlews on the north shore, along with a single Little Egret and there were five Little Egrets along the south shore and three Pintail in the bay.

There were plenty of birds in the fishponds, which were mainly Tufted Duck but there were also good numbers of Gadwall and Great Crested Grebes. I scanned through the flock and found smaller numbers of Teal, Mallard and Shoveler and there were four Pochard and twenty-one Little Grebes.

After lunch in the Egleton car park I went into the Bird Watching centre to view Lagoon One. I saw the long-staying female-type Marsh Harrier and two Green Sandpipers but other than another couple of Little Egrets there was little else and so I moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.

There were good numbers of wildfowl present with lots of Wigeon and Gadwall and smaller numbers of Teal, Mallard and Shoveler and I also found a couple of Pintail. Two Great White Egrets and four Little Egrets were observed to the left of the hide as were a couple of Snipe and seven Green Sandpipers. A Hobby was observed over the reedbed area and a Kingfisher was seen briefly on a couple of occasions.

Grey Heron bathing

Grey Heron

Grey Heron drying off

Little Egret

Great White Egret and Grey Heron

Great White Egret

Great White Egret and Little Egret

I eventually moved on to Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four where I found twenty Ringed Plovers, eleven Dunlin and two Greenshanks. The female Peregrine was sat on an exposed area of mud and there were eight Yellow-legged Gulls amongst the large numbers of gulls to the left of the hide, that included Black-headed, Common, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls. As I was scanning the gull flock several waders flew into view and on following them I was able to see that they were Turnstone. I continued to follow them and they landed on the far end of island seven and I was then able to see that there were seven along with a single Ruff. They only remained on the ground a few minutes before they took off again and after circling once or twice flew off to the south and I didn’t see them again.