I was only out for the morning
today as my wife was unwell and I was on duty for collecting the grandchildren
from school. I therefore went straight
to the fisherman’s car park in the North Arm at Rutland Water hoping to connect
with the overwintering Whimbrel. Despite
the weather, I saw a Buzzard near Tur Langton and a Red Kite just beyond
Blaston.
When I arrived, it was
overcast with some light drizzle in the cool south-east wind and as is usual
for me there was no sign of the Whimbrel or anything else for that matter.
With no luck with the Whimbrel
I moved to the unnamed road and after a brief look at Tim’s feeders where there
was a Marsh Tit I moved to the end of the road to view
the fishponds. There were five male and five female
Goosanders but nothing else of note and so I moved to the shelter. There were two Great White Egrets along with
four Little Egrets on the bund facing into the fresh south-east wind and at
least nine Dunlin on the north shore and I picked up one of the Slavonian
Grebes, which was some distance away. I
moved into the field to the south of the spit where there was a single Redshank
on the shoreline and I eventually found two of the Black-necked Grebes.
Two Great White and four Little Egrets on the bund
It was unpleasant in the North
Arm and so I left and went to the Egleton Reserve. After a brief chat with Stephen I set off for
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three as the Green-winged Teal was on the lagoon
yesterday.
As I walked along the path alongside
the large meadow two other birders were clearly watching something in the trees
and when I got alongside there were at least ten Siskin and a couple of
Goldfinch feeding in the Alders. I
stopped and watched them for a few minutes seeing a Red Kite fly over the large
meadow before I continued onto Shoveler Hide.
There were quite a few Teal
close to the hide but there was no sign of the Green-winged Teal amongst them. As I scanned the water there was clearly a
good number of Red-crested Pochard and I counted seventeen males and nine
females and there two drakes and a red-headed Smew at the back of the
lagoon. The Smew took to flight and
landed closer, alongside the reedbed, and joined a second red-head. A Great White Egret then appeared towards
Bittern Hide but soon disappeared again and when something spooked many of the
birds a larger party of Teal appeared but the Green-winged Teal wasn’t amongst
them.
I eventually walked to Lapwing Hide and
initially checked out Lagoon Two where I found a Little Egret quite close to
the hide and few Pintail, Shoveler and Pochard on the water. There appeared to be far fewer birds in South
Arm Three today but on closer inspection they appeared to have moved closer to
the Old Hall and there were still good numbers of Tufted Duck and Coot. As I scanned through the closer birds one of
the first I picked up was the female Ruddy Duck and a pair of Goosander were a
little closer before they took to flight and headed off towards the lagoons.
I called at Smew Hide on my way back but
other than a Little Egret there was nothing else and I went to Buzzard Hide to
see if I could see more Red-crested Pochard but I couldn't exceed my previous
count of twenty-six and moved onto Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.
Drake Goldeneye from Buzzard Hide
With Lagoon Four on top water it has been a
little disappointing recently and today was no exception, although there were plenty of Mute
Swans and Wigeon on the lagoon. There
was a nice party of circa twenty Redwings feeding just to the west of the hide
along with a few Starlings.
A brief visit into Grebe Hide
on Lagoon Two added nothing new and I returned to the centre to view Lagoon
One, where I counted 107 Pintail but other than another Great White Egret there
was little else and I called it a day.
As I was about to leave Tim
appeared on what was his last day as Reserve Manager, after forty years but
alas there were no cakes to celebrate. I
have been fortunate to see the reserve develop over that period into the
reserve it is today, which in my opinion is the best inland site in the UK and
one I have spent many a happy hour birding and hopefully will have many
more. Tim is staying on to manage
Birdfair and living locally and I am certain he will remain a familiar face
around the reserve.
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