I decided to go into
north-west Leicestershire today to visit several sites in the hope of finding
four target birds, Mandarin Duck, Glossy Ibis, Raven and Willow Tit.
My first site was Kelham
Bridge and I headed for the first hide where there is a feeding station. It is the most reliable site in the counties
to find Willow Tit and as opened the hide flap there was a Willow Tit on the
feeders but it flew off almost straight away.
It wasn’t long before it came back and this time I had better views
before it flew off again. A Peregrine
then flew over low and it was some time before any birds were at the feeders
but the Willow Tit eventually came back.
With little else other than Blue and Great Tits and two Chaffinches
visiting the feeders I moved onto the second hide.
There was very little on the
flash in front of the hide just a few Moorhen and a couple of Coot. The small flash on the other side of the hide
produced a Black Swan and a Gadwall but with little else I made my way back to
the car.
Black Swan
Gadwall
I saw a Buzzard on route to my
next site, which was Blackbrook Reservoir where I was hoping for Mandarin
Duck. As I walked down the path to the
reservoir I heard a Buzzard and a Nuthatch but didn’t see either of them. There were six Little Grebes and a couple of
Great Crested Grebe on the small section of the reservoir and on reaching the
bridge I soon found a small party of Mandarin Ducks. I eventually found nine males and three females
along the southwest shoreline but as is usual at this site there was little
else, just a few Mallard and a couple of Teal.
As I walked back to the car
there was a party of Long-tailed Tits feeding in the bushes along with several
Blue Tits and a single Great Tit and just after passing through the gate a
party of c.150 Redwing flew over and landed in the trees. Back at the car I watched a Carrion Crow
mobbing a Sparrowhawk and a couple of Common Gulls flew over.
I parked on the road
overlooking the southern section of Swithland Reservoir and found Andy Forryan
on the bridge. He had seen several
Mandarin Ducks along the southwest shore but on scanning they had all
disappeared. There were thirty-two
Shoveler on the water, which is a good number for here and I picked up a
Kingfisher flying low over the water towards Rabbit’s Bridge. Roger then arrived who was hoping to get
Mandarin Duck on his year-list before he departs for Costa Rica at the weekend. We scanned the edge of the water several times
and I eventually caught site of a male perched in the bushes.
Roger then departed to
Swithland Wood hoping for a Treecreeper and went to the northern section hoping
for my next target Raven. I parked at
the far end of the dam and initially scanned the water finding nine Goldeneye
but very little else. I then scanned the
skyline above Buddon Wood but there was nothing. I looked at the tree where a Peregrine often
perches but there was no sign but just to the right were two corvids, one in
particular looking quite large. I got
the scope on the two birds and confirmed that they were Ravens and that was
three out of three of the targets and quite easy so far.
Roger had informed me that he
had seen the Glossy Ibis on Rectory Marsh this morning and so I was hopeful that
I would get a clean sweep. After parking
I walked the short distance to the marsh and wasn’t surprised that there was
nothing obvious on the flash as I went through the gate. As I continued along the footpath a party of
Teal flushed along with the Glossy Ibis, which then landed on one of the small
islands. I hadn’t seen it quite so close
before and was able to get some nice shots as it preened and fed on the island.
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
After a short while it flew
again and landed into the northeast corner of the marsh but eventually finished
in the southwest corner, where I was able to get some more shots.
Glossy Ibis
With the ibis feeding
contently I went back to the main track and walked north towards Tern
Pool. I had brief views of a Green
Woodpecker but other than a few Pochards on Tern Pool saw little else other
than seeing two Green Woodpeckers together and a Kestrel as I walked back to
the car.
Although it was just after
13:00 I called it a day and went to my daughters as my oldest granddaughter
wasn’t well and this allowed my wife to collect the younger one from school
with dragging the older one with her.
No comments:
Post a Comment