David was going out locally
today and as the weather was forecast to be better than yesterday I decided I
would go with him.
When I left home it was bright
and sunny but rather cold after the first frost of the autumn. I moved my gear into David’s car and we set
off heading for Eyebrook Reservoir. We
didn’t see a great el on route and approached the reservoir from the northern
end but there was still no sign of any Little Owls. We didn’t stop at the bridge but went and
parked overlooking the inlet. There were
two Dunlin amongst the Lapwings and I had a Snipe fly in but it dropped out of
sight. There were two Red Kites over the
Leicestershire fields but with little else we moved further along to get a
better view of the wildfowl. There was a
good selection of wildfowl with Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, thirteen
Pintail, Shoveler and Tufted Duck all being present and I found a couple of
Stonechat on the Leicestershire bank.
From Eyebrook Reservoir we
headed across country to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water, hoping that the
road works would be completed. We had a
Red Kite just after passing through Lyddington and then a Buzzard just before
reaching Bisbrooke and then another Red Kite just before Wing. We made a brief stop at Lyndon Church where
we heard a Nuthatch and saw a Treecreeper and on hearing a Raven saw two flying
east just north of the village.
When we reached the road to
Lyndon there road works had been completed and the surface down to the centre
is superb for the first two-thirds, having been completely resurfaced. As we dropped down the road a Kestrel flew
over and near the entrance there were circa twenty Redwings and a single
Fieldfare.
We watched the feeding station
for a while seeing just several Blue and Great Tits and a single
Greenfinch. We could hear Tree Sparrows
and eventually found two in the far hedge before they flew off. We saw very little of note from Teal Hide and so decided to walk to Shallow Water Hide
to view Manton Bay.
As we walked along the path to
Shallow Water Hide we had a Kestrel near Wader Scrape Hide and as we approached
the path down to Shallow Water Path had circa ten Fieldfare and circa forty
Redwings.
First-winter Fieldfare
Redwing
There were far fewer birds in
Manton bay than on my last visit but two Redshanks flew low over the water
towards the bund and on scanning the area we found five Snipe and four Green
Sandpipers and there were fifteen Pintail scattered around the bay and also a
single Little Egret.
As we made our way back to the
centre we had another eight Redwings before we reached Deep Water Hide. When we opened the laps there was a rather
annoying bush directly in front but David did find a Great White Egret on the
shore directly opposite and I picked up a party f thirteen Whooper Swans flying
south-east near the Old Hall.
From the centre we went to the
North Arm, knowing Roger had seen the two Barnacle Geese, two Red-crested
Pochard, one of the Black-necked Grebes, four Dunlin, a Curlew and the
Whimbrel.
After parking we scoped the
fishponds where David found another Green Sandpiper and we then counted twenty
Little Grebes. We moved through the gate
and continued down the spit to view the North Arm. I soon located the male and female
Red-crested Pochard and the Curlew but the rest of what Roger had seen wasn’t
proving easy. We did locate both of the
Black-necked Grebes and there was a Red Kite over Burley, two Buzzards were
observed over the arm being mobbed by a couple of crows and one of the Great
White Egret observed flying east down the arm.
Buzzard and Carrion Crow
Buzzard
Buzzard
David then found the Whimbrel
that was a lot further down the arm than normal and he also picked up the four
Dunlin in flight, which then landed on the north shore. As it was now well after 12:00 he said I
going to have one more scan for the Barnacles and the said “I’ve got one” and
then we managed to see both of them.
After we had finished our
lunch and were getting ready to go the Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One
we heard a Grey Wagtail call and then saw it as it landed on a container before
dropping down and out of sight to the stream.
On reaching the viewing area
there was a Stonechat on the fence just to the right of the centre and a
Buzzard was on the man-made Osprey platform.
There were fifty-one Pintail scattered around the lagoon and we picked
up a Kestrel perched near Harrier Hide.
After hearing Curlew calling a saw five drop into the Wet meadow area
but with little else we set off for the northern lagoons.
We met Roger just as we left
the hide and after a brief chat about what we had been seeing we continued onto
the lagoons but saw very little before we reached Shoveler Hide. There was a Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and
Curlew to the left of the hide a Great White Egret was doing its best to hide
behind one of the islands. A single
Shelduck and six Pintail were located on the water but with little else we
moved onto Crake Hide.
As we were approaching Smew
Hide, David heard a Chiffchaff call and so we entered the hide and had
reasonable views of it before we continued onto Crake Hide. From the hide there was a single Little Grebe
and thirteen Little Egrets and I heard a Water Rail calling before I moved onto
Lapwing Hide. From Lapwing Hide we just
saw a single Goldeneye and were soon on our way back heading for Dunlin Hide on
Lagoon Four. We stopped briefly near
Smew Hide and whilst observing a party of Long-tailed Tits picked up a
Chiffchaff, which could have been the bird we had seen earlier.
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Cormorant from Lapwing Hide
Female Wigeon from Lapwing Hide
Male Wigeon from Lapwing Hide
When we arrived in Dunlin Hide
there were six Golden Plover and seven Dunlin on the spit between islands seven
and ten. As we started scanning the
gulls David found what he thought was a Caspian but it was looking away from us
and was preening and so difficult to get a good long view of the jizz. It was very white-headed and appeared to have
a long sloping forehead and parallel sided bill. As we continued to watch it, it revealed its
primaries and we could see the long white tips to both the upper and underside
of primary ten. A Herring Gull then went
and stood alongside and the legs could then be seen to be noticeably thinner
than those of the Herring Gull. We also
suspected that another gull roosting was probably a Yellow-legged Gull an when it
eventually stood up it revealed its yellow legs confirming the identity. The five commoner gulls were also present but
there were far fewer Lesser Black-backed than yesterday evening.
We called at Osprey Hide as we
made our way back to the centre seeing twenty-eight Pintail, which took our
daily total to 114. A brief visit to the
centre produced nothing new after what had been a good day’s birding.
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