Malcolm, Roger and I set off
this morning for Willow Tree Fen in Lincolnshire where there had been a
first-winter male Bluethroat since the 10th. Roger was driving and we left my house around
07:15, where it felt a little cool in the light south-east breeze. As we went further east some of the roads had
a covering of frost and when approaching Baston they became quite treacherous
and there was a large white van in the ditch on the approach to Willow Tree
Fen. There was another van in attendance
and it looked as though it had happened earlier and was being assessed on how
to get the van out of the ditch, which wouldn’t have been easy.
On route, we had seen six Buzzards and a
Kestrel and two Grey Partridge, a year-tick, just after passing through Baston.
When we arrived at Willow Tree
Fen the car park was almost full with Roger squeezing into the last space. As we were getting our gear on we saw a party
of White-fronted Geese in flight and a Stonechat. The geese landed again and we could determine
that there were thirty birds in the flock.
Another birder was making his
way back to the car park and we asked if the Bluethroat was showing and he replied
by saying he was in cloud-cuckoo land as the views were amazing. We continued down the track seeing a distant
Buzzard and as we neared the group of birders it was obvious they were watching
the bird but when we reached them it had just disappeared.
Dave Hursthouse was there and
he said it was coming out onto the path and then disappearing for a while
before coming out again. Another couple
of birders who may have started to return to the car park said its behind you
and on turning the bird was on the edge of the path and what a beauty and only
a few yards away. Despite the sun being
behind the bird I took quite a few photographs as it just kept coming closer
and closer before flying off to the far side of the reedbed.
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
It wasn’t long before it came
out again and this time the sun was behind me and the bird and consequently the
light was better but the sun was tending to bleach out the paler colours but
nothing Photoshop wouldn’t fix. There
were birders on the path either side of the bird but it appeared oblivious to
our presence and just carried on feeding before flying back into the reedbed
again.
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
First-winter male Bluethroat
As we walked back we had a
better look at the White-fronted Geese and established that there were
twenty-nine white-fronts and a single Pink-footed Goose.
From Willow Tree Fen, we headed for Four Mile
Bar for another attempt at the Great Grey Shrike David and I missed on the 7th,
which had been seen every day except the 7th. We didn’t see a great deal on route and the
roads were a bit worse for wear, particularly the last one as we approached
Four Mile Bar.
As we arrived another birder had comeback over
the bridge to get his scope saying the shrike was there but a little
distant. As I went over the bridge there
were three Kestrels hunting along the bank but when we got over the bridge the
other birder said the shrike had moved.
We dropped down into the field as the light was awful as the area was
directly between us and the sun and as I was walking down the slope, Malcolm,
who was in front, said it here and I could see it perched on top of one of the
small bushes. It remained perched at the
top of the bush whilst we walked around the edge of the field but was just a
bit too far away to photograph. It
dropped down to the ground and we then found it again perched lower down in a
bush and then feeding on a mouse or vole it had secured in the bush. After visiting the spiked food twice, the
food disappeared and presumably it had fallen to the ground. The shrike then became more active but
unfortunately gradually went further away but was on view on and off during our
hour long stay.
We saw another couple of Kestrels and
surprisingly three Jays as we drove along the road towards the bridge to
Crowland. We continued beyond the bridge
and found the female Long-tailed Duck amongst a party of Tufted Duck and
two first-winter Scaup a little further along river.
After some discussion, we
decided we would go to Eldernell, with the intention of having lunch and
spending at least some of the afternoon on site. Other than a Kestrel as we were approaching
Whittlesey we had seen little else as we turned towards the car park at
Eldernell.
When we parked, we could see a
small group of swans on the washes and on closer inspection found there were five
Whooper Swans and three Bewick’s Swans and another four Whoopers joined the
flock during our stay. After we had
finished our lunch we moved onto the bridge to view the washes, which initially
appeared rather quiet. However, we soon
found a couple of female Marsh Harriers, two Buzzards, several Kestrels and a
Peregrine perched on a fence post. There
was also four Cranes to the east and we eventually had thirteen of them,
including three juvenile birds. There
was considerable disturbance on several occasions and on one of these there
must have been 2000+ Golden Plover providing a Starling-like murmuration and I
also picked circa thirty Black-tailed Godwits in flight. A pair of Kingfisher kept us entertained as
they performed quite close to the bridge and there were a pair of Stonechat not
too far away. A Muntjac caused some
discussion with one observe being adamant that it was a Roe Deer, however we
were convinced our initially identification was correct, which was confirmed as
it came more out into the open and ran across the washes. Three Roe Deer were then observed just to the
right of the old duck decoy.
One of the Marsh Harriers then
passed quite close and as it went away over the near field it flushed seven
Short-eared Owls, which burst into the air as it passed over. Several went and perched on posts and we
could still see one on the ground but eventually they all disappeared and they
hadn’t reappeared by the time we departed.
Female Marsh Harrier over the washes
Female Kingfisher
We decided we would call at
Eyebrook Reservoir on route home and saw a couple of Red Kites over the Welland
Valley near Barrowden and a Raven over Uppingham.
We approached the reservoir
from the northern approach road but there was no sign of the Little Owls but
there was a Buzzard and Kestrel perched in the hedge along the southern edge of
the field.
The reservoir must now be on
top water and there is little habitat for wading birds. As we moved south along the Leicestershire
shore we saw another Kestrel and there were thirteen Red-legged Partridges
along the tack to Holy Oaks Farm. We
stopped when we reached the fencing to view the gulls but could only find the
five commoner species but forty-eight Goldeneye was a good count.
Malcolm and I walked to the
coral near the island where I found a drake and red-headed Smew near the
northern shore and the dam and then again on the opposite side of the dam where
they had presumably flown. Roger then
joined us and after viewing the Smew we moved off towards home.
We saw a Kestrel just after
leaving the reservoir and a Buzzard as we were approaching Slawston. We stopped east of Slawston to see if we
would could locate a Little Owl but were unsuccessful, although we did have a
Raven fly over before we headed off home.
It had been an excellent day’s
birding with three year-ticks, Grey Partridge, Great Grey Shrike and Bluethroat
and plenty of other good birds swelling the day list to seventy-one.
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