My wife was out this evening
and so I returned to Rutland Water in the hope of finding the Ruddy Duck.
Travelling over to Rutland
Water I had a Sparrowhawk just after passing through Blaston, two Buzzards over
Stoke Dry and another as I approached Preston.
I went to the unnamed road
leading to the western end of the North Arm and after parking walked down the
spit. I viewed the north side and found
a couple of Ruff and Greenshanks and the Barnacle Geese. I scanned the water and found the two
Red-crested Pochard and two Black-necked Grebe and another birder then said he
had a third Black-necked Grebe but when I looked it was the Red-necked Grebe
and not too far out, which was a little unusual and out of character. Chris Park then joined me who was keen to see
the Red-necked Grebe as he hadn’t caught up with it since his return. I mentioned I hadn’t seen the Curlew or the
Whimbrel and he said there are seven Curlews on the north shore, which I soon
located. As we stood talking we heard a
Whimbrel call and then found it amongst the Curlews. With no sign of the Ruddy Duck we went into
the field to the south to view the bay but there were far fewer birds
today. There were still plenty of Little
Grebes and I counted seven Pintail and found a third Greenshank feeding along
the shoreline.
With no sign of the Ruddy Duck
we decided to go onto the Egleton Reserve and comeback later hoping that it
might have returned. After parking in
the car park we went straight to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three and the first
bird we noticed was the juvenile Wood Sandpiper, which then walked straight
towards the hide and out of sight. There
were three Green Sandpipers in the corner towards Bittern Hide and two Snipe on
one of the nearer islands. There were
still plenty of wildfowl on the lagoon, mainly Wigeon and Gadwall but also
Teal, Mallard, Shoveler and three Pintail and one of the Great White Egret flew
in. Chris picked up a Sparrowhawk being
mobbed by a couple of corvids and there was a Buzzard distantly over Burley
Wood.
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
A visit to Sandpiper Hide on
Lagoon Four produced twenty Pintail, a Little Ringed Plover, twelve Ringed
Plovers and thirteen Dunlin.
Tim had called me whilst we
were in Sandpiper Hide and asked me to call him when we went back to the North
Arm but when I did there was no reply.
However a few seconds later he called back to say he was watching the
Ruddy Duck. I informed Chris when we got
to the end of the unnamed road and went into the field and found Tim scanning
the wildfowl, of which there were more than earlier. He gave us directions as to where he had last
seen the Ruddy Duck and that it was with a group of Pochard. I soon found the Pochard but there was no
sign of the Ruddy but Chris the picked it up further to the left. It was a female and was quite active, diving frequently,
but also spending time on the surface during dives. It was my first in almost three years with
the last being a female at Pitsford Reservoir in Northamptonshire in October
2013.
Whilst we were watching the
Ruddy Tim located a Garganey and we eventually finished up with two close to
the shore of the bay. Tim then left to
check out the north shore and shortly afterwards we found the two Red-crested
Pochards and Black-necked Grebes north of the spit but I wasn’t surprised that
we couldn’t find the Red-necked Grebe again.
As Chris and I were leaving
Erik arrived and we stopped for a chat and he then announced that there was a
tern out here but I only picked it up as it climbed high and flew off to the
west but not before we identified it as a juvenile Arctic. He then picked up a Common Sandpiper as it
flew across the water heading for the fishponds, which Chris and I just got on
before it disappeared out of sight. With
the light fading we walked back to the cars and set off for home after a very
successful visit.
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