Roger and I had agreed to
visit a few sites in Northwest Leicestershire today and dawn was just breaking
when we left Roger’s around 07:30, heading for Kelham Bridge.
When we arrived at Kelham
Bridge it was still rather dull and felt a little colder than of late in the
light south-easterly wind. We entered
the reserve and headed for the first hide but it seemed much quieter than on my
last visit with David and we hadn’t seen anything of note before reaching the
hide. There were a few Blue and Great
Tits visiting the feeders and eventually our target bird, a Willow Tit, arrived
but initially seemed reluctant to visit the feeders but did eventually on several
occasions but didn’t stay very long.
Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch and two Grey Squirrels also visited the
feeding area and there was a Teal and several Moorhens on the flash in front of
the hide.
We continued onto the second
hide but other than a pair of Mute Swan, several Moorhen and two Coots there
was very little and so we continued around the footpath but there were clearly
fewer birds than on my last visit, when it was alive with birds. We did see a single Kestrel perched
overlooking one of the grassy areas and a Buzzard flew over but other than a
few Blackbirds, a single Song Thrush and a few Wren, Robin and Dunnock we saw
nothing else.
After getting back to the car
we headed for Blackbrook Reservoir and hopefully Mandarin Duck. As we walked down the lane towards the
observation point a party of Long-tailed Tits along with two Goldcrests flew
ahead of us. An initial scan of the
reservoir with the bins produced just Mallard and a couple of Grey Herons but
as we scanned the shore with our telescopes we found eight males and four
female Mandarins. There was also a few
Wigeon and a party of Teal flew in during our stay. Whilst standing on the bridge we had a brief
view of a Kingfisher, a Nuthatch flew over and a Goldcrest performed rather
well. As we approached the road on the
way back to the car a party of Fieldfare were observed as they flew out of a
tree and headed off to the south-east.
We then headed for Swithland
Reservoir and stopped on the road to view the southern section. There was a good selection of birds on the
water but nothing unusual with five Shoveler being the best.
We then drove around to the
northern section and parked at the far end of the dam to try and get out of the
wind. As we were parking Roger noticed a
bird perched on the horizon, which turned out to be a Peregrine. There were few birds on the water with eight
Goldeneye and a Little Egret being the highlights and it was very quiet
generally. We did see the Peregrine
soaring around as we had lunch but other than a single Coal Tit we saw nothing
else and eventually moved onto our final destination, Cossington Meadows.
Although there was still a
light south-east wind it did feel a little warmer as we walked out towards
Rectory Marsh. When we reached the marsh
there was a single Little Egret feeding along the far shore and several Mallard
on the water. As we moved further around
the footpath a party of Wigeon flushed from the near bank along with the Glossy
Ibis, which then landed on the far shore.
As I did my best to get some shots of the ibis in very poor light a
Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over and we eventually tried to get to Swan
Meadow via the northern footpath but it was very muddy and we returned the way
we had come.
Glossy Ibis
As we approached the main
footpath a Green Woodpecker flew over and a Kestrel was observed as we walked
along the path alongside Swan Meadow towards Tern Pool. There were quite a few birds on Tern Pool
including several Shoveler and three Pochard and a Little Egret flew over. Upper Marsh and Hobley Lake produced very
little and from Holbey Lake we walked across the field to head back alongside
the River Soar. We saw very little along
the river and other than a few Wigeon and Teal on Lower Moor and hadn’t seen
much else until we were almost back to the main footpath when we observed a few
birds in the hedgerow. There were at
least four Redwings, a Great Tit and several Goldfinch but we couldn’t find
anything else and we called it a day.
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