David and I set off for the
Egleton car park at Rutland Water where we met Roger before continuing on to
Frampton.
We saw a couple of Red Kites
and circa fifty Golden Plover before we arrived at the RSPB reserve. We drove to car park close to the sea wall as
we intending looking out from the raptor watch-point on the sea wall. As we started to walk towards the sea wall
David indicated that he might have a Spotted Redshank on a pool to the south,
which we were able to confirm once we got the scopes on it. We had only gone a few steps when some
Bearded Tits dropped into the reeds but immediately disappeared. After a few minutes with no further sightings
we continued along the track and heard them calling again. Eight then flew out of the reeds and started
climbing quickly and were then followed by two more. The ten birds continued to climb and
initially appeared to be moving off to the south but they turned and passed
over us but we could now only see eight birds.
A few seconds later four suddenly appeared and just disappeared into the
reeds again and we suspected that we had seen at least twelve.
When we finally made it to the
bank David cried Glossy Ibis as it came in off the salt marsh and landed on the
fresh marsh behind the sea wall, where we able to get reasonable, if distant,
views. We continued along the bank and
on hearing a Spotted Redshank calling I found three in a small dyke and our
original bird was still on the same pool, making four in total and a single
Grey Plover then flew past and off over the salt marsh.
We had, had a rather smashing
start to the day and as we were talking to another birder returning from the
watch-point the Glossy Ibis flew back out to the salt marsh.
Glossy Ibis
The other birder then informed
us that he had seen a few Marsh Harriers and a Merlin from the watch-point and
that there were six Whooper Swans in the field.
Roger picked up a Marsh Harrier before we reached the point but we then
continued on to look for the Whooper Swans in the fields but were unable to
find them. We spent quite some time
scanning the marsh from the watch-point and saw at least four Marsh Harriers
but other than four Little Egrets we saw little else and walked back towards
the car.
We had noticed that there was
a group of birders observing the fresh marsh from the sea wall for some
considerable time but they had melted away and when we got back there were just
two birders remaining. Fortunately one
of these had just picked up a superb male Hen Harrier, which performed for
several minutes, although rather distantly.
We did see it again before we went back to the car but this time it was
a little further away but still on view for a while.
When we got back to the car we
returned to the main car park and David went into the centre whilst Roger and I
started our lunch. When he returned he
said that the Long-billed Dowitcher hadn’t been seen and there didn’t appear to
be a great deal else, other than two male Hen Harriers had been seen.
After lunch we headed for the
360° Hide but stopped to
view the meadows and another birder informed us that there was a Peregrine
feeding on a Wigeon in the field. We
soon located it as it fed on its catch, which was attracting the attention of a
Magpie, although it kept a safe distance.
I then noticed six juvenile Black-tailed Godwits feeding on the other
side of the path and they came quite close allowing me to get some rather nice
shots.
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
Juvenile Black-tailed Godwits
We continued onto the 360° Hide but there was
very little in evidence just a few more Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets. I decided to go the Reedbed Hide and David
and Roger soon followed. We spent a while
in the hide hoping that a Merlin would use the same tree as yesterday but a
pair of Kestrel was using it today.
Moulting juvenile Shelduck
Male Kestrel on the Sand Martin bank
As we scanned the area we
found eleven Dunlin and a Snipe and a Ruff made a brief visit. A Water Rail that came out to the edge of one
the islands and then surprisingly flew behind the next island and out of sight;
it was my first at this site.
There was a large
concentration of finches feeding on sunflower heads alongside the path to the
East Hide and we decided to go and check them out as it wasn’t easy from a
distant. When we got there we were able to
see that most were Greenfinches with a few Linnets amongst them. I haven’t seen this many Greenfinches for a
number of years and there must have been close to hundred on the reserve.
When we made it back to the
centre David checked the board and noticed that the Long-billed Dowitcher had
been seen in the meadow with Wigeon and so we retraced our steps back towards
the path to the 360° hide. There were a couple of birders viewing the
Wigeon and one had located the dowitcher and we were able to get some
reasonable views before the flock flew and we lost it. Another birder then relocated it and again we
had some nice views.
Long-billed Dowitcher with Wigeon
Long-billed Dowitcher with Wigeon
We finally called it a day and
headed off back to Rutland Water to drop Roger off and the David and I headed
for home.
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