There had been a good
overnight frost with the car temperature indicating -7°C
at one point as I headed for Rutland Water but it was at least bright and
sunny. I saw a Red Kite as I was
approaching Cranoe, a Kestrel after passing through the village and then a
Buzzard between Slawston and Blaston.
As I arrived in the North Arm
at Rutland Water Steve and Terry were making their way back from the point and
during a brief chat I informed them that there had been a male Red-breasted
Merganser reported yesterday. They
hadn’t seen it but Steve mentioned that they had seen ten Goosanders and that
one looked a bit odd, which he had assumed was a juvenile. He then wondered if it could have been the
merganser and we went into the field to view the birds. Most of the Goosanders had moved closer to
the shore and weren’t easy to see but Terry then found the possible
Red-breasted Merganser on the bund. It
looked rather ragged and appeared thin billed and initially we thought it might
be a merganser. However on careful
examination it was clearly just a ragged Goosander but it was easy to see how
it could easily be misidentified as a Red-breasted Merganser.
Steve and Terry departed and I
continued to the end of the unnamed road and viewed the fishponds. As I scanned through the birds I found
thirteen Goosanders, a Little Egret and a Grey Wagtail, which was on the north
shore.
I then went through the gate
to view the north arm and initially scanned the far shore, where the light was
superb but it was rather cold and so I headed for an area in the sun. As I scanned the north shore I picked up a
single Redshank but couldn’t locate the Pink-footed Goose amongst the numerous
Greylag Geese. There were two Little
Egrets on the bund, a third on the north shore and a forth near Dickinson’s Bay. As the light was poor looking down the arm I
walked through the field to reach the southern shore where the light would be a
little better. There were forty-six
Pintail in the arm and I also counted thirty Pochard and as I continued to scan
I found the Slavonian Grebe. I then picked
up a red-headed Smew, which was my first this autumn but I couldn’t find the
two Black-necked Grebes Steve and Terry had seen. I then noticed a Redshank to my left and as I
looked at it I found the long-staying Whimbrel in the same area. I called Steve to make him aware I had seen a
Smew and the Whimbrel before making my way back to view the northern shore
again.
As I scanned the northern
shore from Dickinson’s Bay back towards the fishponds I found the two
Black-necked Grebes, which were now where I have seen them so often. I then started to go through the geese again
and after a while noticed one that stretching down into a gully, which I
suspected could be the Pink-foot but was unable to see the bill as it was
feeding. It eventually raised its head
and I was able to confirm that it was the Pink-footed Goose.
Steve had called earlier to
say that he and Terry had seen the Red-necked Grebe just east of the Old Hall
and so I headed there next. I was
surprised to find so many birds in the south arm but went beyond the Old Hall
to try and find the Red-necked. The
light wasn’t brilliant and so I walked a little further to the east to view the
birds. There were masses of Coots with
smaller numbers of Wigeon, Gadwall and Great Crested Grebe mixed in. I found the Red-necked Grebe on my third scan
and there was a Redshank feeding along the shoreline. I then walked on the west side of the Old
Hall to get a better view of the birds in South Arm Three. Again there were masses of Coot but there was
no sign of the two Scaup seen last week and I suspected that they must be
closer to Lapwing Hide. I did scan the
area several times but couldn’t locate them and moved onto the Egleton car
park.
I was intending to go to
Eldernell this afternoon but went into the Bird Watching Centre as David as
asked me to get him a monopod from In Focus, which he was going to try on his
trip to Costa Rica. I decided to check
out Lagoon One before I got the monopod and found the lagoon to partially
frozen over. There were still plenty of
Pintail on the lagoon and I counted eighty-five but other than a few Goosanders,
which I suspected were some of those I had seen in the fishponds, there was
little else. I went and got David’s
monopod and then set off for Eldernell.
Collared Dove in the Egleton car park
Redwing in the Egleton car park
I tried calling Malcolm to see
if he was out and he was in the North Arm, having seen two Smew, and he had
also seen a couple of Great White Egrets, which I hadn’t seen today. He described where they were and I decided to
drop down to the bottom of Barnsdale and hopefully see them on the south
shore. The light was pretty poor but I
did manage to see one, although clearly not the best views I have ever had.
I was soon on my way heading
toward Stanford and then turned south on the A1 before coming off onto the A47,
where there two soaring Red Kites, and heading for Peterborough. I was soon on the far side of Peterborough
heading east on the A605 towards Eldernell.
I initially went to Marsh Farmers as there had been several hundred
Whooper Swans and a few Bewick’s Swans reported at the weekend. After passing the turn to Eldernell I saw a
Buzzard and two Kestrels before reaching the turn to Marsh Farmers.
After I had had my lunch I
went up the bank to view the washes and was disappointed to find that at least
some of the water was frozen and there were just a few Whooper Swans. I started to scan the area and found a
Redshank when another birder arrived. He
informed me that it was very good for waders at the weekend and he thought
most, like the swans, would have gone due the freezing conditions. A Marsh Harrier then disturbed the birds and
there quite a few Dunlin amongst a part of Lapwing. When they all came down I scanned the area
again and counted twenty-seven Dunlin, four Snipe and twenty-five Redshank and
party of twenty-five Golden Plover also flew over.
A farmer then arrived, who
obviously knew the other birder and as they were discussing what had been using
the wash, I overhead the other birder mention that some Bean Geese had been
reported at the weekend. I realised I
had seen four geese earlier but hadn’t taken too much notice as they were
rather distant and I was more interested in going through the swans and
waders. I soon located them again and
when I got them in the scope it was clear that they were either Pink-footed or
Bean Geese. They were feeding in rather
long grass but the bright sunlight was making it difficult to be certain about
the bill colour. However one bird in
particular was standing erect on several occasions and the neck and bill looked
rather long and there seemed to be little contrast between the dark head and
back, all of which suggested that they were Bean Geese. One of the birds then walked directly away
and I got a good look at the leg colour, which was clearly orange. The other birder then used my scope to
confirm my identification. I remained
quite some time afterwards but other than a Buzzard and a male Stonechat I
wasn’t seeing a great deal else and so I moved onto Eldernell.
As I drove down to the car
park at Eldernell there was a Red Kite perched over the road at the top of a
tree but it flew out as I approached and a second later a rat dropped onto the
road, which presumably the kite had released.
When I reached the car park it
was pretty full, mainly due to a digger being parked in one corner, pending
work on the sluice gate. I joined
another birder near the bridge and he pointed out three distant Cranes, which
were two adults and a juvenile. I moved
further onto the bridge to get better view back towards Marsh Farmers but it
was pretty quiet. As I continued
scanning I picked up four Cranes flying towards me but they turned west and
were joined by the other three in flight before two dropped out of sight but and
the others were visible on the ground after they alighted and I could see that
there were two adults and three juveniles.
Cranes over Eldernell
It wasn’t long afterwards that
one of the juveniles took to flight again and came down where the first two had
gone down. Other than a couple of Marsh
Harriers I had seen very little when another birder came down to the bridge to
tell me he had just watched a male Hen Harrier and a probable female flying
west. He had seen the birds well east of
the car park and then watched them disappear to the west before making anyone
aware; frustrating. Whilst he was still
talking I picked up a ring-tailed Hen Harrier that wasn’t too far away, which
then proceeded to give good views probably for over five minutes before it
eventually dropped and wasn’t seen again.
Whilst we were scanning the
area a female birder got the attention of another birder and when I looked
there were sixteen Cranes altogether right of the old duck decoy. Shortly afterwards, but rather late in the
day, the first of four Short-eared Owls appeared and between them they then put
on a show in fading light. A Barn Owl
then appeared reasonably close but with the light now going rather quickly and
the temperature dropping rather rapidly I called it a day.
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