I went straight to the Egleton
Reserve at Rutland Water today seeing Buzzards at Wistow, Tur Langton and
Stockerston and a Sparrowhawk near the Uppingham Road, Stockerston Lane
crossroads.
It was dull and quite cold
when I arrived in the Egleton car park at Rutland Water and after getting the
gear sorted I set off for Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three hoping that the Bittern
might perform. I checked the feeding
station at the centre where there were Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits along
with House Sparrow and Chaffinch and a Great Spotted Woodpecker also paid a
brief visit. There was a Moorhen,
Pheasant, Blackbird and Dunnock feeding under the feeders along with several
rats.
I moved through the meadows
and just after passing the badger hide had three more Great Spotted Woodpeckers
and whilst checked the final small meadow before the large meadow met up with
Lloyd. As we approached the path to Redshank
Hide there was a party of birds feeding in the Alders, which included three
Siskin and several Goldfinches and Long-tailed Tits.
I went down to Redshank Hide
with Lloyd, which is officially closed as a new ramp is being constructed. There was a Little Egret and Great White
Egret in front of the hide before they were both flushed by a Grey Heron. I then noticed a party of swans in flight,
which turned out to be Whooper Swans, that came down to the right of Lapwing
Hide.
From Redshank Hide I made way
towards Lapwing Hide hoping to get some shots of the Whooper Swans. I had spoke to Roger earlier and had agreed
to meet in Shoveler Hide and so called him to make him aware of the change in
plan. I didn’t see a great deal else before
I reached Lapwing Hide where there was another birder in the hide but the
Whooper Swans weren’t immediately obvious.
The other birder said that they had probably drifted towards Brown’s
island and so I went to the far end of the hide and found them some distance
away. I fired off a couple of shots and
after scanning the birds near the hide realised that Whooper Swans were now in
flight and heading towards the hide.
They continued west but didn’t gain much height and appeared to come
down on Lagoon Four.
Six adult and a juvenile Whooper Swans in South Arm Three
Five adult and the juvenile Whooper Swans over South Arm Three
Five adult and the juvenile Whooper Swans over South Arm Three
Five adult and the juvenile Whooper Swans over South Arm Three
There were a couple of
red-headed Smew on Lagoon Two, one of which was quite close to the hide
allowing me to get a couple of photos. I
also counted twenty-one Pintail, which appear to have taken a liking to this
lagoon recently.
Red-headed Smew
Red-headed Smew
Roger arrived shortly
afterwards having seen the swans flying over and saying he had met Terry
Mitcham who had seen the Ruddy Duck from the hide. The other birder had seen it earlier and
re-found it but it was some time before Roger and I got on it as once it
started diving amongst the Coot it was under the water more than on the
surface. Roger picked up a drake Smew
whilst were searching for the Ruddy and there were three males and four female
Goosanders. Other birds amongst the Coot
were Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Pochard, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe and
there were three Little Egrets on the bund.
The hide was quite packed now and we had been able to get a group of Nottingham
birders onto the Ruddy, which was causing some excitement.
Roger and I eventually made
our way to Shoveler Hide where there was a good number of wildfowl on the
water. We counted thirteen Pintail and
fourteen male and six female Red-crested Pochards and Roger found three
red-headed Smew close to the reedbed and two Shelduck were feeding closer to
the hide. There was also a couple of
Little Egrets but surprisingly no Great White Egrets, which have been seen
regularly on this lagoon recently.
We then went Bittern Hide to
see what clearance had been done and found that the reeds had been cleared to
give a better view of Lagoon Three but we didn’t stay too long as we were only
seeing what we had see from Shoveler Hide, although two Jack Snipe were
reported later.
As we walked back along the
track the Whooper Swans called and then flew almost over us heading east but
then circled and went back over Lagoon Four.
We went up the ramp to Sandpiper Hide to see if they had comeback down
on Lagoon Four but there was no sign, although there were plenty of Mute Swans
but the only bird of note was a single Shelduck.
We had heard that there was a
Green Sandpiper showing from Osprey Hide on Lagoon Two and so walked the short
distance to Osprey Hide as Roger hadn’t seen a Green Sandpiper this year. The Nottinghamshire birders were in the hide
when we arrived and indicated that the sandpiper had walked behind one of the
island and was now out of sight. We
spent some time observing the island but there was no sign of the sandpiper and
so we moved onto Grebe Hide to get a different view. We could see the island but there was still
no sign of the Green Sandpiper but I did get some nice shots of a pair of Stonechats
that were feeding close to the hide.
Female Stonechat
Male Stonchat
Female Stonechat
Female Stonechat
A Buzzard then flew lower over
the lagoon before turning sharply and heading off towards Lagoon One and with
nothing else we did the same.
There was a Little Egret and
Great White Egret on Lagoon One and another pair of Stonechats were observed
briefly in front of the hide and I counted sixty-one Pintail.
We eventually went to the car
park for lunch, after which I went to the North Arm whilst Roger went back to
Lagoon Two hoping to find the Green Sandpiper.
There were three male and two
female Goosanders in the fishponds and it didn’t take too long to find the two
Slavonian Grebes, although the Black-necked Grebes proved more difficult,
although I did eventfully find two. There
were nine Dunlin and a Redshank feeding on the north shore but with little else
and the cold getting to me I returned to the Egleton Reserve.
I called Roger and agreed to
meet him in the centre but just as I reached the centre he called to say Mike had
seen and photographed a Brambling just beyond the badger hide and so I set off
saying I would see him there.
I had been in the area a while
before Roger arrived and after some thirty minutes or more with still no sign
of the Brambling we returned to the centre.
There were more Goosander than
earlier with seven males and seven females being present and presumably these
included some of the birds I had seen earlier as they tend to gather on Lagoon
One late in the day. There were two
Shelduck on the long island and a Sparrowhawk passing over and landing briefly caused
panic amongst the Lapwings and gulls. A
short while afterwards with nothing new we called it a day and headed home.
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