I had arranged to meet Malcolm
at East Langton this morning as there had been a report of a Yellow-browed
Warbler calling yesterday. Although the
village is not too far from home I had not been there before and arrived on
site a little before Malcolm. Once he
had arrived we walked through the woodland, which was mainly conifers, although
there were a few sycamores around the perimeter. When we reached the far side we reached a
lake but as the habitat didn’t look particularly suitable we went back to the road. There was a track running away from the road
but there was a sign indicating residents only but there was a line of
sycamores just beyond the wood and so we walked a short distance along the
track. However we felt a little
uncomfortable and with no sign of the warbler we returned to the road
again. Chris Hubbard then arrived and he
had a little more information, which implied that the bird had been heard
calling from sycamores from the road.
Malcolm and I then walked back up the road and did find some more
sycamores but not the warbler. As we
were observing birds in the hedge along the road two Redwings flew over but
after over an hour on site we decided it might be time to go to Rutland
Water. We had seen quite a few Goldcrest
and Long-tailed Tits along with smaller numbers of Blue & Great Tits and
Chaffinch and we also heard a Nuthatch and had a brief view of a Buzzard. Steve had also called to say that he and
Terry had seen a Rock Pipit in the North Arm at Rutland Water and with no sign
of the warbler; we left Chris still searching and headed for Rutland Water.
There was a Red Kite just
after we passed the crossroads on the B664 near Horninghold but otherwise we
had seen very little as we parked along the unnamed road at Rutland Water.
I wasn’t very optimistic about
seeing the Rock Pipit but we walked down towards the point and then across the
field to view the southern bay in reasonable light. There were far viewer birds than on Sunday
and nothing obvious along the shoreline.
As we were scanning through the ducks, Steve called to say that we might
be able to see the Red-necked Grebe as it was between us and the fisherman’s
car park. He also explained that he
thought it unlikely we would see the pipit as two people had walked along the
shoreline flushing most of the birds. We
couldn’t see the grebe and so moved back to the spit but the light was pretty
poor and we couldn’t find the Red-necked Grebe.
We soon located the group of Curlew on the north shore and were able to
see that there were seven Curlews and a Whimbrel and there were also two
Greenshanks. The Barnacle Geese were
still present and we picked up the two Black-necked Grebes about
mid-water. We checked the fishponds but
found nothing new and as Tim had called to say that there was an Oystercatcher,
which is a rare visitor during October, on Lagoon Four we went to the Egleton
Reserve.
After parking we went straight
to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four and Malcolm found the Oystercatcher roosting
amongst a flock of Lapwing. Further
scanning of the lagoon produced a Shelduck, forty-three Pintail, five Ringed
Plovers, four Dunlin and a female/immature Stonechat. There were a couple of Red Kites and four
Buzzards north-west of the lagoon and another Buzzard over Burley Wood.
From Sandpiper Hide we went to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three, seeing a Buzzard over the lagoon as we walked
towards the path that leads to the hide.
There were three Green Sandpipers to the left of the hide and plenty of
wildfowl on the lagoon, which as usual were mainly Wigeon and Gadwall but also
Teal, Mallard, Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard and Tufted Duck.
After a while we moved to
Buzzard Hide hoping we could see the other side of the islands. On entering the hide there were a few birds
quite close but we were unable to see the islands as the reeds are now totally
masking the islands. There was a Little
Egret very close and Malcolm picked up a female-type Marsh Harrier, which I
initially missed but it reappeared a few minutes later and then quartered the
reedbed for a while.
Little Egret
Male Gadwall
Female Wigeon
Male Wigeon
Female Teal
Pintail
Drake Shoveler
Coot
Malcolm and I eventually set
off for the car park and whilst talking to Mike on route a Buzzard flew over
and then Ken called to say he was on site.
Malcolm and I were heading for the centre to check out Lagoon One and
agreed to meet Ken there. When we got up
to the viewing platform Andy and Roger Brett had returned from the north arm
having seen the Red-necked Grebe but they had been unable to find the Ruddy
Duck. One of the Great White Egrets was
at the back of the lagoon along with four Little Egrets but there was little
else and so we went for lunch.
After some lunch Malcolm and
Ken went back to the north arm and I went to the Lyndon Reserve. The feeders were almost empty in front of the
centre but there were five Tree Sparrows doing their best to find what was
left. I went to Teal Hide but other than
Cormorants around the Manton Bay and Heron Bay bunds there was nothing of note
and I went back to the car.
Cormorant
Teal
Adult winter Black-headed Gull
I called Malcolm to see what
they had seen in the North Arm but they still hadn’t found the Ruddy Duck and
the Red-necked Grebe was no longer visible and so I decided I would go back to
Egleton and revisit Lagoon Three.
As I arrived in the car park
Ken called to say he was on his way back from the North Arm and ask if I would
wait for him before setting off to Lagoon Three. He wasn’t many minutes and we then walked to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three. There were
just two Green Sandpipers visible on Lagoon Three and a Great White Egret was
also observed as it flew and landed in front of the hide briefly and then
walked out of sight. There was some
noticeable disturbance in the left hand corner and on checking what might have
caused it produced the Marsh Harrier, which then performed for quite some time. The Great White Egret was seen again in
flight but it came down beyond the islands where it couldn’t be seen.
Ken then left and shortly
afterwards and I headed for Lapwing Hide calling in Crake Hide on route but
other than five Little Egrets along the bund there was little else and this
proved to be the case from Lapwing Hide also.
Female Tufted Duck
Moorhen
I walked back from Lapwing
Hide and headed for Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four to observe the gulls. There weren’t too many present as yet and they
were mainly Black-headed, although there were also Common, Lesser Black-backed,
Great Black-backed and three Yellow-legged.
As I was scanning the lagoon I picked up a first-winter Little Gull
flying over the lagoon close to the Volunteer Centre and then realised that
there were also three adults as well.
They continued heading towards Lagoon Three and dipped behind the bund
as if they might have come down. I
called Steve, who had just entered Shoveler Hide, and made him aware and he
managed to find them but they had climbed high again and were continuing to
head east and presumably just passed straight through. They were my first this year at Rutland Water
and consequently a patch tick taking my patch species onto 162 and a point’s
tally of 204.
Feeling quite pleased in
seeing the Little Gulls I decided to go to the North Arm again. The easterly wind was now quite fresh and so
I went into the shelter to view the north shore but found very little and moved
into the field to view the southern bay.
I walked across the field to try and get some shelter from the wind,
which was making viewing very difficult.
The wind had pushed a lot of the surface weed onto the shore but there
were also several larger rafts that had collected and nine Little Egrets and
numerous Black-headed Gulls were feeding on these. There was no sign of the Ruddy Duck and with most
of the wildfowl facing into the wind, it difficult to pick out any Garganey
from my position. I heard a Redshank
call and then picked it up as it landed briefly on the shore before flying off
again.
With the viewing not getting
any easier I called it a day and headed back to the car and headed off home.
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