Sunday 9 October 2016

A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - October 8, 2016

I was out with Roger and we headed for the dam at Rutland Water where the Long-tailed Duck and a possible Lesser Scaup had been seen yesterday.  I saw a Red Kite over Horninghold as we approached the village and there was a Buzzard perched in a tree just beyond the village.


As we approached Sykes Lane car park six Whooper Swans flew over, heading north-east.  We parked in Sykes Lane car park and set off across the dam and it wasn’t too long before Roger thought he might have had the Long-tailed Duck, which then surfaced not too far out.  I was surprised to see that it was still in summer plumage as I was expecting that it might have been more into winter plumage as it had been just over a month since I had last seen it.


Male Long-tailed Duck

We had gone through a party of Tufted Duck but hadn’t found the possible Lesser Scaup and I had got ahead of Roger when he called me back.  When I got back to him he had seen a Wheatear and a possible Rock Pipit but they had now both disappeared.  We scanned the rocks on the dam and I had a brief view of the pipit and I also thought that it was a Rock Pipit but we couldn’t find it again.

Two Swallows then flew over but there was now some light drizzle and looking to the east the weather looked pretty awful and so we moved quickly to the end of the dam to take shelter under a few trees.  This turned out to be the right move as by the time we reached the trees it was raining quite heavily.  There was some short of fun run over the dam and the runners had disturbed a lot of the birds and the number of Tufted Duck was now far fewer.  However the rain continued for over ninety minutes and quite a few of the birds had returned before we could start birding again.

As I first reached the wall to view the water a Grey Wagtail flew over, which Roger missed, and we then had a Kingfisher whilst looking for the wagtail.  As we scanned through the duck I was pretty sure we found the bird that was possibly thought to be Lesser Scaup yesterday but we lost it soon afterwards and couldn't relocate it.  Roger then saw what he thought was the Rock Pipit and with his guidance we were both scanning the same area and shortly afterwards it reappeared but disappeared almost straight away but we did see it several more times enabling us to confirm that it was a Rock Pipit before it flew after which we were unable to locate again.  The Grey Wagtail then put in another brief appearance and shortly afterwards Roger found the Wheatear.

I called Tim to give him an update on what we had seen and he said that Steve, who had found the possible Lesser Scaup, had gone back yesterday evening and was happy that it was just an odd Tufted Duck.

From the dam we went to the bottom of Barnsdale to look for the Red-necked Grebe and to see what was in Dickinson’s Bay.  We couldn’t find the Red-necked Grebe but did see one of the Black-necked Grebes and found two Red-crested Pochards in Dickinson’s Bay.

Ken had called and we agreed to meet him at the end of the unnamed road, where Roger and I had lunch before walking out towards the spit.  We had seen Tim who said that the Ruddy Duck was in the bay early today and so we headed into the field to try and find it.  As I started to scan one of the first birds I saw was a Garganey and Roger located the Ruddy Duck, which was asleep shortly afterwards.  I moved further into the field to get a better look at the birds in the bay and found another Garganey and a Greenshank along the shoreline.  There were fifteen Pintail and twenty-one Little Grebes in the bay but nothing else of note.  We then noticed that the Ruddy Duck was now feeding and I attempted to get at least a record shot of this now rare bird.


Female Ruddy Duck

We walked back to the spit to view the northern part of the north arm and found the party of seven Curlews and the Whimbrel on the northern shore.  The two Barnacle Geese were also there and Ken found the two Black-necked Grebes together just off the point.  We made an effort to find the Red-necked Grebe but as is quite often the case it was nowhere to be found and we moved onto the Egleton Reserve.

We went into the centre and saw one of the Great White Egrets on the long island but then went off to the northern lagoons, seeing very little on route.  On reaching Shoveler Hide the water level was still very low but surprisingly there were no Green Sandpipers but there was a single Dunlin just beyond the reedbed island.  On the water other then three Pintail there was little else of note but there was suddenly quite some disturbance to the right and I picked up the female Marsh Harrier quartering the reeds, which then performed quite well for a few minutes.

With little else I suggested that we go and have a look in South Arm Three from Lapwing Hide.  We called briefly at Crake Hide but there was very little and we moved onto Lapwing Hide, where one of the first birds I noticed was a female Goldeneye.  There was a party of Cormorants that were involved in a feeding frenzy with quite a few Black-headed Gulls in attendance.  The mass came quite a bit closer and we could see that they appeared to be eating weed but I suspect that there were small fish in the weed.  At one point a Grey Heron made an attempt to get involved but was unable to land, although it didn’t give up easily.


Cormorant in feeding frenzy


Cormorant in feeding frenzy


Grey Heron trying to join the party


Grey Heron trying to join the party


Grey Heron trying to join the party


Great Crested Grebe

A quick look onto Lagoon Two from Lapwing Hide produced two Pintail of note before we made our way to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.

There were five Ringed Plovers and six Dunlin close to island nine and a single Shelduck was feeding just off island four.  Ken then found a Garganey quite close to the Shelduck and I counted thirteen Pintail.  There were not too many gulls to the left with most being Black-headed but there were also Common, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed and a single Yellow-legged Gull.

We called at the centre and the Great White Egret was still present on Lagoon One with apparently the other two flying off towards Lagoon Three just before we arrived.  Roger found a Stonechat and whilst trying to get Ken and I onto it he found a second, both being males.  There were eighteen Pintail on the lagoon and loads of Cormorant but little else and we called it a day.

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