Following a report of six
Bearded Tits from Bittern Hide at Rutland Water I headed for the Egleton
Reserve hoping that they might still be present today. When I left home there was some quite dense
fog but just after passing through Kibworth it cleared and there were some
periods of bright sunshine on route to Uppingham. However just after passing
through Preston the fog suddenly came down again and it was quite murky when I
pulled into the Egleton car park. The
only bird of note on route was a Red Kite between Horninghold and Stockerston.
Whilst sorting out my gear and
putting on some extra layers there was a Chiffchaff singing but it didn’t
reveal itself. As I walked to Bittern
Hide on Lagoon Three I saw a single Redwing but hadn’t seen a great deal else
before I reached the hide. It was still
quite foggy when I opened the flaps and I couldn’t make out very much on the
lagoon as most of the birds were just vague silhouettes. It was pretty quiet in the reeds and all I
had seen when Tim joined me were two Wren and a Robin. Tim didn’t stay too long but shortly
afterwards Steve and Terry came into the hide but with the fog lifting shortly
afterwards they set off to complete their normal circuit of the reservoir but
not before Terry picked up a Curlew flying over. I remained in the hide for quite some time
after they had left and as the fog cleared found the female-type Marsh Harrier
perched at the top of a bush. It then
flew across the back of the lagoon and came down the southern edge before
landing in a bush to escape the attention of several Carrion Crows. I eventually gave up on the Bearded Tits and
suspected, based on the fact they were seen to fly off to towards Lagoon Four yesterday
that they possibly didn’t go to Lagoon Four but departed.
I moved onto Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three where I found three Pintail and saw one of the Great White Egrets
briefly before it flew and landed behind the island and out of sight. From Buzzard Hide I had a brief view of a
Kingfisher but found nothing else new.
I called at Crake Hide on the
way to Lapwing Hide and saw a Kingfisher again and four Little Egrets along the
bund. There were plenty of birds from
Lapwing Hide but nothing of note, although there was a good number of Great Crested
Grebes. Looking out onto Lagoon Two I
found a just of Pintail of interest.
Duunock on the path to Lapwing Hide
Drake Gadwall from Crake Hide
Female Wigeon from Crake Hide
Female Teal from Crake Hide
I called in Smew Hide briefly
where I had yet another sighting of Kingfisher and then I continued on to
Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four. There was
a Shelduck just to the right of the hide and two Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin
along the spit and I heard a Golden Plover calling but couldn’t find it.
As my annual parking permit
expired this month I drove to the Anglian Water Visitor’s Centre at Sykes Lane
to get it renewed and called at Whitwell as I came back. Steve and Terry and seen a Fieldfare with
four Mistle Thrushes in the car park and six Goldeneye just off shore but all I
could find were the six Goldeneye.
I then returned to the North
Arm where I had my lunch, whilst viewing the fishponds. I found the female Ruddy Duck just before
David arrived and after he had viewed it we walked out towards the spit. It started to rain a little and so we went
into the new hide to view the north shore, where we found a single Curlew and
then the Whimbrel. The rain had now
stopped and so we continued out to the spit to view the rest of the North Arm
and Steve and Terry joined us shortly afterwards. They had found the Red-necked Grebe and
possibly a third Black-necked Grebe in South Arm Three and had returned to make
sure the other two grebes were still in the North Arm. Initially we couldn’t find them but then
David picked them up just off the point but other than two Shelduck and six
Pintail we couldn’t find too much else other than a Green Sandpiper flying over.
When we got to the Egleton
Reserve David went straight to the northern lagoons, whilst Steve, Terry and I
went to the centre to view Lagoon One. Terry soon located a pair of Stonechats
and there were two Black-tailed Godwits and six Curlews on the long
island. As we went continued to scan the
rest of the lagoon I counted seventeen Pintail but there was little else of
note.
Steve then drove down to the
northern lagoons, whilst Terry and I chose to walk. David had called us to inform us that there
were a couple of Golden Plovers on Lagoon Four and we met him coming back as we
made our way down. He hadn't seen too
much else but we saw a Sparrowhawk over Lagoon Four and a Jay over the meadow
whilst we taking before Terry and I continued onto Sandpiper Hide.
Steve then called to say that
there were twenty-four Golden Plovers on Lagoon Four but Terry and I could only
find four Dunlin from Sandpiper Hide so Terry decided to go to Dunlin Hide as he
thought they were probably behind island seven.
I remained in the hide and
counted twenty-four Pintail but as I scanned the gulls an immature looked
interesting and so I joined Terry in Dunlin Hide. The gull was still present and getting Terry
onto it, his initial impression was that it was a Great Black-backed Gull but
then he realised that the mental was showing grey feathers. It clearly wasn't a Herring Gull, which left
us with either Caspian or Yellow-legged Gull but we couldn’t decide and so I
fired off a couple of shots to show to Steve.
Terry then called it a day and
went to Shoveler Hide were I found Steve.
I showed him the rather poor photos of the gull but he wasn’t sure but
considered Yellow-legged Gull to be the favourite as it didn’t look
particularly long legged. There was a
Green Sandpiper in the corner but with little else we turned our attention to
looking for the Bittern, which neither of us had managed to see, although it
had been seen rather intermittently including at least one sighting today. As we scanned the reeds initially there was
no sign when Steve suddenly said I’ve got it and gave me directions saying its
right behind that Mute Swan moving left.
I had the swan but couldn’t see the Bittern, when it suddenly became
clear as it moved slightly. It then
remained almost motionless for five minutes or more before stabbing at the
surface of the water and the disappearing into the reeds.
Feeling pleased with actually
finally catching up with the Bittern, which moved my patch total onto 163 with
a point’s tally of 206, I went back to Dunlin Hide with Steve,
I had seen two Golden Plovers
flying over earlier as I had walked to Dunlin Hide to join Terry but like then
there was no sign of any more. As we
were looking through the gulls we heard Golden Plovers calling and I picked up
a party as they dropped in and counted twenty-two but it was possible that
there were some still out of sight. The
immature gull was still present but was now sitting down and asleep making it
impossible to identify. I eventually
left Steve and headed back to the car park
Early evening sun catching the trees as I walked back to the centre
As I approached the turn at
the end of the big meadow there was a Long-tailed Field Mouse feeding on an
acorn on the path. I was quite close and
expected it to run off but it continued to eat the acorn and didn’t move until
I was inches away. I didn’t think I
would be able to get any photos as the light was very poor but fired off a few
hoping that one might be ok.
Long-tailed Field Mouse
Long-tailed Field Mouse
As I moved closer it did
scuttle to edge of the path and into the grass but then stopped and so I moved
the acorn into the centre of the path and stepped back. It came out almost immediately but went to
original position of the acorn had been and then moved about looking for it
prize, which it eventually found and after a short while it managed to carry
the acorn into the grass and disappeared.
Long-tailed Field Mouse
It just goes to show that
visiting a site regularly can always produce the unexpected and it brought an
excellent close to the day.
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