I was taking part in an annual
bird race around Rutland with Tim, Terry, Chris, Lloyd and David. We assembled in the Volunteer Training Centre
car park and transferred into one reserves mini-bus with Lloyd undertaking the
driving.
Out first stop was close to
the reedbed where we added our first ten species that included Garden Warbler
and Nightingale. We then moved on to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three, hearing a second Nightingale as we passed
Bittern Hide. The light was still pretty
poor but we continued to add species at a steady rate and had reached thirty-one
by the time we moved onto Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four. An early morning Hobby was the best on Lagoon
Three, along with good numbers of Common Terns.
We added Wren as we left the hide and Jackdaw and Blackcap as we walked
up the ramp to view Lagoon Four, which turned out to be very disappointing as
we only added three species, Little Egret, Lapwing and Great Black-backed Gull
and then Linnet as we left the hide.
It wasn’t long before we moved
off heading for the Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One. As we drove along the service road, Lloyd
heard a mobbing Blackbird and suggested that there was perhaps a Tawny Owl in
the hedge and so we went to investigate.
Lloyd was proved correct when he quickly found a Tawny Owl sitting in a
bush that then allowed us all to get a good view before it flew off further
down the hedge. A Willow Warbler singing
nearby took our total to forty at around 05:00.
From the centre we soon found
a Redshank, a couple of Greenshank, plenty of Sand Martin, a Shoveler, a Stock
Dove and Chris picked up an Osprey over South Arm Three and a Dunnock at the
feeding station moved us on to forty-seven by 05:33.
As we drove through Egleton
village we added House Sparrow and then Starling and Whitethroat along Church
Road before we parked along the unnamed road to view the north arm.
There was a Little Ringed
Plover on the north shore and we could hear a distant Cuckoo, which are quite
scare at present, in Burley Wood. A Grey
Heron was then picked up in flight and Lloyd then found a Common Sandpiper on
the north shore and Terry and I added Pied Wagtail, which we had missed on
Lagoon Four.
My total now stood at
fifty-five just after 06:00 and we were heading for Burley Wood, where Terry
has access, although there is no public access.
We stopped to view the North Arm from the roadside but didn’t find
anything new on the reservoir but a Marsh Tit and a Chiffchaff were heard
singing in Burley Wood.
One in Burley Wood we added
Great Spotted Woodpecker, which was to be our only sighting of the day and then
Great Tit, Buzzard and Coal Tit that moved my total on to sixty-two. Goldcrest and Blue Tit were soon added and
then Lloyd thought he heard a Wood Warbler which we didn’t find but whilst we
were looking a Sparrowhawk flew over. As
we were making our way back to the vehicle we added Chaffinch, Treecreeper and
Long-tailed Tit just before we reached the gate and then saw two Swallows on
wires in the North Arm.
We headed for Cottesmore
Airfield adding Red Kite and Kestrel on route before we made a brief stop at a
quarry near Greetham. A good find was
another Little Ringed Plover but we also added Greenfinch, Magpie, Mistle
Thrush, Skylark and Goldfinch taking my total on to seventy-six by 08:05.
There were two target birds at
the airfield, Curlew and Meadow Pipit, which were both found rather quickly but
further scanning failed to add anything else and we moved on. Yellow Wagtail and Yellowhammer were both
seen just after leaving the airfield and a Reed Bunting and Little Grebe were
added as we headed for Horn Mill Trout Farm.
Out target at the trout farm was
Kingfisher but a walk north alongside the stream failed to produce one but we
did add Red-legged Partridge and House Martin taking my total on to
eighty-three.
We made a stop at the bridge
in Empingham and Tim, Terry and Chris walked up the stream whilst Lloyd, David
and I waited at the bridge. We didn’t
see anything at the bridge but a pair of Grey Wagtails was found up stream,
which of course I didn’t see.
A visit to Luffenham Airfield
failed to produce the hoped for Wheatear and we then made an unsuccessful
attempt searching several bays around the sailing club for Mandarin with Swift
being the only addition in Sailing Club Bay.
On to the Lyndon Centre where
the expected Tree Sparrow was found and then Lloyd located a Little Owl, which
was my eighty-seventh species. A trip to
Lyndon village produced Raven and Nuthatch but not the hoped for Spotted
Flycatcher and Manton Cemetery also produced the same result.
It was back to the North Arm
at Rutland Water where Terry found the Great Northern Diver, which is now in
full breeding plumage and looked superb.
Chris then found a couple Arctic Terns amongst the more numerous Common
Terns and there was a drake Goldeneye in the fishponds.
Feeling sure we would have
missed something on Lagoon Four earlier today we went back to Plover Hide on
the reserve to scan lagoon four and found both Ringed Plover and Dunlin. A trip into Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three for
Black Tern, initially produced a negative result, but then five flew in from
the direction of Lagoon Four. Tim had
checked out South Arm Three from Lapwing Hide but hadn’t found anything but
needed to get back to the centre and so took the transport whilst the rest of
the team went to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.
Roger was waiting to have a
word as we approached the hide and then joined us in the hide. On the island just in front of the hide there
was a Sanderling and a Ruff, which were both new for the day. A Lesser Whitethroat burst into song as we
walked towards Badger Hide and on reaching the centre Tim rejoined us and we
moved off to Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow.
A lone female Pintail has been
present for most of the month and was on the flash and an Avocet dropped in as
we were scanning the Wet Meadow, which was my 100th species for the
day and we then added Common Gull on Lagoon Eight before we left the reserve
again.
We drove to a farm east of the
reservoir where we had seen Grey Partridge previously and were hoping for the
same today. When we arrived we were
advised that they had been present this morning but had disappeared when the
field was sprayed and only Red-legged Partridges were now in view. Tim, who was now in his Land Rover, took
Terry to drive around the fields to try and relocate them but they were
unsuccessful.
Tim wasn’t able to continue
with us for the rest of the day and we left him at the farm, saying who would
call if the partridges were found and we moved on to Ketton. We soon added Feral Pigeon to the list and
there were also two Ravens visible on the cement works. Peregrine has been quite reliable here in
previous years but they don’t appear to be breeding this year and so we won’t
too hopeful. As we were thinking of
giving up Terry picked up a very distant bird, which I had a problem finding
but eventually got on it.
David looks after an old
railway line near Morcott where he regularly sees Mandarin and so we thought we
would give it a try. After parking we
walked through a private area to get to the railway line but on reaching the
area there was no sign of any Mandarin.
David then suggested that he and Lloyd would go further down the line
and walk back along the stream to see if they could find the female. They hadn’t been gone too long when a pair of
Bullfinches that had been heard earlier flew over and shortly afterwards I
picked up the female Mandarin as it flew south along the stream. David and Lloyd returned, with David having
seen a Kingfisher, but they thought they had been unsuccessful with the
Mandarin as they hadn’t seen it.
Terry then took us to a farm
off Stockerston Lane, where he had seen a Spotted Flycatcher last week and
after seeing the farmer’s wife we walked into one of the fields to look for the
flycatcher. A Sparrowhawk flew over and
then we found the Spotted Flycatcher, which eventually gave some nice views to
at least some of us, although we did all see it.
With Kingfisher still not on
the list I suggested that we drop down to the bridge at Eyebrook Reservoir
having seen one there early this month.
On arrival there was very little except for numerous Swift and
hirundines over the reservoir. We were
on the point of leaving when a Kingfisher flew from under the bridge and landed
briefly just a couple of meters in
front of Lloyd and I before flying off and perching, again briefly, in the
willow and then disappearing down the reservoir. The whole team got on it before it
disappeared and I had reached 107, whilst the team was on 111.
As we drove through Uppingham
I eventually caught up with Collared Dove, which sitting in the back of the bus
had eluded me on several occasions.
On reaching the reserve we visited
another owl box and this time were rewarded with a Barn Owl, species 109 for me
and 112 for the team.
We then went back to the
centre but found nothing new on Lagoon One but as we were leaving I realised I
hadn’t seen Rook but a quick glance at the rookery soon fixed that. A stop in Dunlin hide to check out Lagoon
Four but with nothing new we moved on to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three. There were now ten Black Terns and an Arctic
Tern along with the Common Terns over the lagoon but nothing new and so we went
to find a Water Rail in the reedbed but after checking several areas Lloyd had
been seeing or hearing them we drew a blank but as we were leaving a Green
Woodpecker called, which was one of the birds I had missed earlier today taking
my total onto 111.
Our final site was to be
Burley Wood where Terry had seen a Woodcock Roding earlier this week and we
returned to the area we were in this morning.
We had noticed that others were in the wood trapping bats but they confirmed
that had seen the Woodcock on two occasions yesterday. However there was no sign this evening
despite us staying until it was almost dark but we did hear at least three Tawny
Owls calling.
We returned to the Volunteer
Training Centre after a great day’s birding with the team total on 113 and a
personal tally of 111, with just Jay and Grey Wagtail missed.