As is usual I called at
Eyebrook Reservoir on route to Rutland Water but had seen very little when I
stopped to observe the old oak and found the Little Owl wasn’t showing, which
has been the norm recently. I continued
on to view the area near the bridge and although there was quite a bit of
activity there was nothing unusual.
Malcolm then arrived and we spent a little longer at the bridge as he
was hoping to see a Kingfisher but with no sign we moved around to view the
inlet.
There were plenty of birds
around the inlet but we only saw a couple of Snipe with no other waders being
present. There were seven Pintail
amongst the wildfowl and two Little Egrets were present, one in the stream and
the other on the Leicestershire bank. We
also saw three Skylarks and a Meadow Pipit, both of which have been rather
scarce here recently.
Black-necked Grebe
Cormorant
Goldfinch
As it was still a little early
for lunch we went to the centre to view Lagoon One and found one of the Great
White Egrets feeding to the left of the lagoon but other than six Pintail and a
single Snipe there was little else and even the Great White Egret disappeared.
After lunch we were joined by
Mike and made our way to the northern lagoons and as we approached the ramp to
Sandpiper Hide another birder informed us that a Peregrine was visible on one
of the islands. Brian Kington was in the
hide and told us that there was a Grey Plover and indicated where it was. This kind of took the focus off the Peregrine
as we searched for the plover. We soon
found it on the area connecting islands nine and ten and could see that it was
a rather smart juvenile.
Juvenile Grey Plover
The Peregrine was close to
island one and therefore quite distant but it was clearly the large female that
I have seen on a number of occasions on the lagoon and quite often in the same
spot. We scanned the lagoon for other
waders but initially couldn’t find any but I then heard a Ringed Plover calling
and picked it up in flight and then watched it come down on the far side of island
seven. As we looked at where it had
landed we realised that there were quite a few Ringed Plovers and shorty
afterwards they took to flight and we counted thirty-seven. They quickly gained height and appeared to be
heading off west but a few minutes later at least ten were back in the same
area. There was a Reed Warbler just in
front of the hide and whilst looking for a Greenshank and Redshank Mike had
seen earlier a Hobby flashed in front of the hide before heading off towards
Lagoon three. We picked it up over the
reedbed area of Lagoon Three and then found a second in the same area. Mike then left and headed off the Shoveler
Hide, whilst Malcolm and I continued to search for the two shanks. The Greenshank was suddenly right in front of
the hide but we were unable to find the Redshank and moved on to Shoveler Hide.
Mike and Brian were still the
hide when we arrived and they pointed out two Green Sandpipers and whilst we
were watching a Snipe, Malcolm indicated that there was a probable Ruff between
us and the Snipe. It was back on but it
then showed a little better and we were able to confirm Malcolm's suspicions
and we also saw a Dunlin shortly afterwards.
One of the Hobbies then flew across the lagoon and passed right in front
of the hide as it moved towards Lagoon Two.
Hobby
Hobby
Hobby
Malcolm and I then went to
Lapwing Hide and one of the first birds I noticed was a female Goldeneye, which
we had spent quite some time on Saturday unsuccessfully trying to find. With little else in evidence we made our way
back and called at Buzzard Hide to get a different view of Lagoon Three. Brian was in the hide but he had only had
further views of the Hobby.
Malcolm and I then went back
to Shoveler Hide where we had views of a Water Rail as it got into an
altercation with a Moorhen and appeared to win the dispute.
We then went to Dunlin Hide on
Lagoon Four to get a better look at the gulls.
One of the first birds I noticed was the Greenshank but there was still
no sign of the Redshank. Black-headed
Gulls were by far the most numerous but there were also good numbers of Great
Black-backed Gulls, with a few Common and Lesser Black-backed and five
Yellow-legged Gulls amongst them. There
were also some Ringed Plovers where they had been earlier and I eventually counted
a maximum of seventeen. Steve then
joined us in the hide and asked where the Grey Plover was but we had been
unable to relocate it. As I was scoping
the gulls I thought I heard a Grey Plover and as I was sitting down Steve asked
did anyone hear a Grey Plover and then sad there is more than one calling. We then found six birds flying over when they
were suddenly joined by a large flock but they quickly moved off east. Steve ran out the hide to try and determine
how many there were and indicated that there were twenty and that they were
coming back. I watched them as they
dropped low over Lagoon Three and then disappeared and presumably had gone
down. Steve then said they are flying
again and as they came over a definitive count was twenty-one but two peeled
off dropping low over the lagoon, whilst the others flew off to the south.
The two then flew around the
lagoon before coming down on island one but they didn’t stay there very long as
the Peregrine took and interest and started chasing them but then turned its
attention on the gulls and was flushing everything. It flew across the lagoon and we lost it
behind the Volunteer’s Training Centre only for it to reappear just a few
second later right in front of the hide but after causing some more chaos it
dropped back on to the ground in its favourite place as if nothing had
happened.
Two juvenile Grey Plover
Steve had said he had found a
Garganey and Whimbrel in the North Arm and so Malcolm and I went back to try
and find them. It didn’t take too long to
locate the Whimbrel along with six Curlew and we also saw the two Black-necked
Grebes, a Dunlin, three Ruff and a Greenshank.
I heard the Whimbrel call and then the Curlew and then noticed that all
the birds were moving away from the shore with many of the birds taking to
flight. When looking for the cause we
found a runner inside the boundary fence so it wasn’t surprising and he just continued
heading for the fishponds and shortly afterwards disappeared into the
wood. I called Tim to make him aware,
who was with Steve, and he said that he would come around and try and find the
individual. A few minutes later the
runner reappeared and this time ran back almost right along the shoreline,
flushing any remaining birds. I provided
and update to Tim who called me back later to let me know he had got his
man. Apparently he was staying at
Barnsdale Hall and had got lost but why he couldn't keep to the paths, which I
would have thought were much better for running I don’t know.
Malcolm and I spent some more
time scanning the ducks on the water but we couldn’t find the Garganey and
called it a day.
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