David, Ken, Roger and I were
planning to go to Derbyshire today but with fairly thick fog early morning we
decided we would go out locally but give the fog a chance to clear a little
before doing so.
A report of a Hawfinch
visiting the feeders station at the Bird Watching Centre yesterday tempted
David, Roger and myself out before the fog had cleared but as we approached
Rutland Water the fog developed into a mist and we could see quite some
distance.
We walked the short distance
to the feeding station and spent thirty minutes observing the feeders. Blue and Great Tits were ever present along
with regular visits from some House Sparrows, Chaffinches and a single Reed
Bunting. There was at least one Dunnock
and several Blackbirds feeding under the feeders along with six Brown
Rats. With no sign of the Hawfinch we
went into the centre and found out that it possibly only made a single visit
yesterday and was only seen by the finder despite them alerting others in the
centre yesterday.
Male Reed Bunting at the Egleton feeding station
With no joy with the Hawfinch
and the fog now gone we decided we would go to the North Arm to look for the
Green-winged Teal, which had been seen over the last few days. After parking at the end of the unnamed road we
observed the fishponds and found two drake Smew and four male and a single
female Goosander. There were another
couple of birders towards the spit but they hadn’t seen the teal or anything
else. As we scanned the area David found
a Slavonian Grebe and a Black-necked Grebe together and there were sixteen
Dunlin on the north shore and two Redshanks on the south shore. I counted forty-one Pintail scattered around
the southern bay and we spent quite some time scanning a group of Teal on a
distant spit on the south shore but had no joy with the Green-winged Teal,
although we did pick up a red-headed Smew.
As we turned to go back to the car there were two Great White Egrets
near the bund and a Little Egret was also present.
We weren't convinced we could
see all of the Teal on the south shore and were going around to the fisherman’s
car park to get a different view when Terry Mitcham arrived who we had been
viewing the area from the Fisherman’s car park.
He had seen the Green-winged Teal near a Willow Tree just east of the
car park. When we reached the car park
we could see the tree but were unable to see the Green-winged Teal and so went
over the gate to get a view along the shoreline.
David had got into position
first and gave me the thumbs up as I approached and we were soon watching the
bird feeding along the shoreline. After
watching the teal for a while I scanned the rest of the North Arm and found the
Slavonian Grebe and Black-necked Grebe not too far away but I didn’t find much
else and we were soon on our way to the Old Hall.
When we reached the bottom of
Lyndon Road another birder informed us he had seen the Red-necked Grebe and
several Scaup but hadn’t seen the Common Scoter. When we got over the cattle grid I noticed
Brian, Roger and Rosie a little further along the cycle track but we started
scanning through the mass of birds in South Arm Three. Brian, Roger and Rosie then joined us and
informed us that the Red-necked Grebe was left of the island and it didn’t take
too long to locate it. We then moved
further along the track to get a different view and soon found a male and three
juvenile Scaup amongst the Tufted Ducks.
After quite some time Roger found three drake Red-crested Pochards along
the southern shore and we eventually had six drakes.
Roger Brett had mentioned that
the Waxwings in Oakham had been reported again today and so we set off hoping
that they would be there. We hadn’t gone
too far when Roger called to say he was on site and that there were some
present. It was probably a good ten
minutes later when we arrived and fortunately they were eleven birds still
present. We then spent thirty minutes
watching and photographing them before we returned to Rutland Water for lunch
seeing a Peregrine on Lagoon Four as we did so.
Waxwing
Waxwing
Waxwing
Waxwing
Waxwing
Waxwing
After lunch we went to the
Bird Watching Centre to view Lagoon One.
There was a pair of Stonechat in front of the centre and I found another
pair towards the Wet Meadow whilst observing some Curlew of which there were
six. There was also a third Great White
Egret on the lagoon and single Little Egret on the lagoon and another on the
Wet Meadow. There were also twenty-three
Pintail and a pair of Goosander on the lagoon but otherwise it was fairly
quiet.
Our plan was to go to Eyebrook
Reservoir for the gull roost as we were hoping an Iceland Gull present
yesterday would come in again this evening.
As we approached the reservoir
we stopped to view the old oak and found the Little Owl in its normal spot and
we stopped briefly at Holly Oaks Farm entrance where there were sixteen Red-legged
Partridge. As we approached the fencing
just to the north of the island there were a group of birders that appeared to
be looking at something. When we joined
them they said they had an adult Iceland Gull, which I soon located and then
spent a few minutes getting both David and Roger onto it. It was alongside several Herring Gulls and
looked at least as big as the largest Herring Gull and certainly larger than
the smaller birds. However after viewing
it for a couple of minutes it flew off to the north and wasn’t seen again. Andy Mackay got a couple of distant shots of
it, which did show the jizz and colouration off quite well but the photos were
understandably not the best. The head
was nicely rounded with the eye forward of centre and the wings tips did not seem
to project beyond the tail, which might have suggested it was a small
Glaucous. Andy circulated the photos on
Twitter and the final consensus was that it was in fact a small Glaucous
Gull. I did pick up a possible adult
Caspian Gull but before others got on it, it too flew off to the north. With the light fading quite quickly and some
mist developing we called it a day and headed off home.
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