I was at Rutland Water this
morning to help with the WeBS count but had seen very little on route. There was a lack of counters this morning,
which resulted in me counting with David, one of the volunteers, the whole of
the North Arm and the fishponds.
We started from the south
shore of North Arm One and there were plenty of birds to count, mainly close to
both shorelines. We initially counted
the birds close to the south shore and then the north shore before walking back
to the point to finish the first section of the count. Highlights include a Pink-footed Goose in
amongst a flock of Greylags, two Barnacle Geese, thirty-four Pintail, a
Buzzard, two Kestrels, twenty-two Dunlin, a Ruff and a Redshank.
We then moved back down the
unnamed road and went into the field to count the fishponds. There was a single female Goosander, which
was my first at the site this winter and the female Ruddy Duck, along with a
Green Sandpiper and presumably the same Redshank we had seen in the North Arm.
Having completed the fishponds
we drove to Whitwell and the worked our way back along the shoreline towards North
Arm One. We only counted from the centre
of the reservoir to the northern shoreline, which included Barnsdale
Creek. We didn’t see anything unusual
and there were far fewer birds.
From Barnsdale car park we
went to Dickinson’s Bay, which is considered part of North Arm One, and our
last area to count. Again there were
plenty of birds but the only highlight was another forty-six Pintail and we saw
a couple of Red Kites as we leaving.
With the count finished David
dropped me off at the Volunteer’s Centre and we then met up again in the Bird
Watching Centre at Egleton to finalise and hand in the count numbers. Whilst waiting for David I had another ten
Pintail on Lagoon One and two Curlews on the long island with another five
flying over and there was a Red Kite over the car park as I was leaving.
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