I left home this morning in
rather murky conditions and as I was approaching Eyebrook Reservoir the mist
thickened but was quite patchy whilst I was there. There was still no sign of the Little Owls
but there were forty-seven Red-legged Partridges in the field, which had
obviously been released for shooting. A
brief stop at the bridge produced a couple of Fieldfare but nothing else and I
moved around to view the inlet. The mist
didn’t help but there were ten Golden Plovers and two Dunlin around the exposed
muddy areas. There were good numbers of
wildfowl on the reservoir, mainly Wigeon and Teal but I also had Gadwall,
Mallard, two Pintail, thirteen Shoveler and a small number of Tufted Duck. There was also plenty of Coot and good
numbers of Great Crested Grebe but I just saw one Cormorant along with a Little
Egret and two Grey Heron.
Feeling that I wasn’t going to
see a great deal more at Eyebrook Reservoir I moved onto Rutland Water where
the mist thickening again as I approached the reservoir. I therefore decided I would go to the Lyndon
Reserve and walk to Manton Bay giving the mist the opportunity to clear. When I reached the entrance road to the
reserve I found it was closed for resurfacing and I was unable to get down to
the centre and I therefore went to the Egleton reserve.
After a chat with Stephen, one
of the volunteers, I went up to the viewing area and found that the mist was
clearing quite quickly and so decided I would go to the North Arm and come back
to the reserve later.
I parked at the end of the
unnamed road and walked out towards the point.
There were ten Little Egrets feeding on some floating vegetation and as
I scanned the north shore I found a pair of Red-crested Pochard resting on the
shore and a Ruff that had a damaged leg.
I found the two Black-necked Grebes of the end of the point, where there
were also twenty-two Pochard and I heard the Whimbrel call but couldn’t locate
it.
I eventually left the North
Arm and drove to the Sykes Lane car park at the dam. After parking I walked to the dam hoping to
locate the long-staying Long-tailed Duck.
I walked the whole length of the dam and looked back along it from the
southern shore but couldn’t find the duck, although it was still here on 30th. As I walked back along the dam I could see
that it appeared to be raining down the North Arm but fortunately I was back
before there was any significant rain. A
large raft of duck were visible from the car park and so I walked over to have
a closer look but they were mainly Tufted Duck but there was a group of nine
Goldeneye a little further out.
From the dam I drove to
Barnsdale and walked down to view the North Arm and found a Great White Egret
on the south shore before I went through the gate to view Dickinson’s Bay. There were lots of birds on the water, mainly
Wigeon, but also Gadwall; Teal; Mallard; thirteen Pintail, Shoveler and Tufted
Duck and there was also eight Little Grebes and several Great Crested Grebes.
A further visit to the North
Arm from the unnamed road produced a Yellow-legged Gull but nothing else and I
therefore returned to the Egleton car park.
After some lunch I went to
viewing area in the centre where I found a second Great White Egret and counted
twenty-nine Pintail before moving on to the northern lagoons.
When I went into Shoveler Hide
there was another birder who was digiscoping something and when I looked around
I found a pipit feeding on the shore of the main lagoon. My initial impression was that it was a Water
Pipit and I fired off a few shots and as it then came closer I continued to
take more photos of the bird. The other
birder who also thought it was a Water Pipit was concerned that it didn’t have
much of a supercilium and on viewing the images on the back of the camera I had
to agree and some doubt then set into its identification. Whilst we were looking at the images
something spooked the birds with the Teal that were feeding on the shore flying
onto the water and the pipit rising high, which I managed to follow for a while
but eventually, lost it and didn't see it again. Andrew Harrop was aware I had photos and
asked if he could see them and so I sent him some that evening. I had a reply early next morning confirming
that he was sure it was a Water Pipit as the upperparts appeared to lack olive
tones, and the underparts are basally whitish with finer streaking on the
flanks than breast.
Water Pipit
Water Pipit
Water Pipit
There was a Great White Egret
at the back of the lagoon and a Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew. Redshank and an
adult Yellow-legged Gull to the left of the hide. There were ten Pintail and ten Pochard among
the more numerous Wigeon and Gadwall.
With no further sign of the pipit I moved onto Crake Hide were was a
Little Grebe and two Little Egrets but little else and from Lapwing Hide there
was nothing of note with most birds quite distant.
Adult Yellow-legged Gull
I decided that I would go to
Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four t get a better look at the gulls. There were two Dunlin amongst a party of
forty-seven Golden Plover and I found another five Dunlin close to island
one. Although all five common species of
gulls were present I couldn't find anything unusual and started to make my way
back.
Golden Plover over Lagoon Four
As I passed through the gate I
noticed that the ramp to Osprey Hide was now complete and so I went and took a
look of Lagoon two from the hide. I was
surprised to find that there were quite a lot of birds on the lagoon as
volunteers had been working around the lagoon today. There appeared to be quite a few Pintail and
I counted twenty-nine, taking my daily tally to 98, which is good number and I suspect
there were others around the reservoir.
The only other birds of note were a couple of Little Egrets and so I
called it a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment