David and I planned to spend a
day in Northwest Leicestershire and our first port of call was Kelham
Bridge. It was overcast and dull when we
left but we did see a Buzzard and a couple of Kestrels alongside the A50.
When we arrived at Kelham
Bridge there was a light northerly breeze but it didn’t feel too cold as we
entered the reserve. There were a few
passerines as we walked towards the first hide including a Goldcrest,
Long-tailed Tits and plenty of thrushes, which were mainly Redwing but also
smaller numbers of Fieldfare and Blackbird.
When we opened the flaps in
the first hide there were several birds at the feeders including several Blue
and Great Tits and also a single Willow Tit.
There wasn’t too much food in the feeders and the Great Tits were
bossing the situation and after a couple of visits the Willow Tit
disappeared. Whilst in the hide there
was plenty of thrush activity and I found a distant Song Thrush amongst the
more numerous Fieldfare and Redwings. As
we moved to the second hide again there were plenty of thrushes but we had seen
little else when we reached the hide.
There were a few more birds on the water in front of the hide with a
single Mallard and several Moorhen and Coot and there was a Buzzard perched in
the distance. A Little Grebe then
appeared and swam across the water before roosting on the edge of the
reeds. A Kingfisher then flashed by and
landed in a small tree in the far corner of the lake, where it made several
sorties before disappearing.
When we left the hide we
decide to complete the circuit back to the car seeing many more thrushes, which
were almost all Redwings, as we did so.
We also had three Skylarks flying over and a Bullfinch and several Reed
Buntings before we got back to the car.
From Kelham Bridge we made the
fairly short journey to Blackbrook Reservoir and after parking walked down the
path to the reservoir. We saw or heard
very little as we progressed down the path hearing just a couple of Robin and
Bullfinches. When we reached the bridge
we found twelve male and seven female Mandarin Duck and the males were
displaying with their sails fully erect as they swam around the females. As is normal at this site there was little
else with just a couple of Wigeon, a Teal, several Mallard and Great Crested
Grebes. Two Little Egrets flew in and
there were plenty of gulls on the water but they were all Black-headed.
We next went to Groby Pool
where a party of Lesser Redpoll containing a single Common Redpoll had been
reported midweek. We walked alongside
the pool seeing Mute Swan, Wigeon; Mallard and Tufted Duck as we did so and
there were four Cormorants on the island but we didn’t linger to long too long
as were keen to search for the redpoll.
On reaching the far side of the pool we walked along the footpath that
follows the northwest edge of the pool before opening up into a small
valley. There is a stream running
through the valley into the pool, which is lined with Alders and we assumed
that this is where the redpoll had been seen.
Unfortunately there was no sign of any redpoll but David did hear both a
redpoll as we walked back.
Disappointed we couldn’t find
the redpoll we moved off to Swithland Reservoir and stopped on the causeway to
view the southern section but other than a couple of Little Egrets it was
pretty quiet. We then went around to the
northern section and parked at the dam where we had lunch whilst viewing the
water. Again other than Cormorants, of
which there were sixty it was fairly quiet, although we did find seven
Goldeneye. Two Ravens were observed over
Buddon Wood and two more flew from the southwest corner of the dam and a couple
of Grey Wagtails flew over. David drove
to the northwest corner of the dam whilst I walked along the dam but other than
a Jay and a Mistle Thrush I hadn’t seen anything else when I got to the far
end. As I looked over the wall into the
overflow, which was dry, there was a Grey Wagtail, which was presumably one of
the two we had seen earlier. I continued
walking along the road and joined David near the wall overlooking the reservoir
but didn’t see anything else but did hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
From Swithland Reservoir we
headed for Cossington Meadows where we were hoping a Short-eared Owl reported earlier
in the week would still be present. As
it was still quite early when we arrived we decided to go to Rectory Marsh to
see if the Glossy Ibis was still present.
After parking we started
walking along the road to the footpath into the marsh when David found a
Buzzard perched in a roadside tree. It
looked like a good photo opportunity and it allowed us to view from the far
side of the road where I was able to get some nice shots.
Juvenile Buzzard
Juvenile Buzzard
Juvenile Buzzard
Juvenile Buzzard
Juvenile Buzzard
The Buzzard eventually had,
had enough of us and flew off and we then continued around to the
footpath. When we reached the marsh we
could only see a Little Egret but as we walked around to the far side several
Snipe flew out and there was eventually fourteen in total. As I was following some of the Snipe, David
said what’s this, it’s the ibis. I
turned to see the Glossy Ibis flying over the marsh but it soon came down and
alighted near the Little Egret before flying again and dropping down out of
sight.
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Pleased with finding the ibis
we moved off to the main track through the reserve and on reaching it David
went back to the car to bring it closer to the main path, whilst I walked
slowly along the track to Swan Meadow. I
saw both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers as I walked along the track, as
well as a party of Long-tailed Tits and a couple of Reed Buntings.
On reaching Swan Meadow I
positioned myself against the gate that overlooks the field in the hope the
Short-eared Owl would appear. David then
arrived but he decided to continue along the path to view the pools to the
north. When he returned the owl still
hadn’t appeared and had failed to do so during our stay, although we had heard
a Cetti’s Warbler and seen a couple of Buzzard and two Kestrels.
We hadn’t seen as many species
I would in the east of the county but it had provided a nice change in some
rather nice habitat.
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