When I left home this morning
there was a strong westerly wind and it was overcast with some heavy rain
between home and Eyebrook Reservoir.
There was a Little Egret on the island at Wistow Pool but other than a
few Redwing near Slawston, not surprisingly, I didn’t see too much else.
When I arrived at Eyebrook
Reservoir the rain had eased and stopped shortly afterwards. I stopped at the inlet bridge where there was
a Red Kite quartering the field to the east and I heard Tree Sparrows but was
unable to locate them. I moved around to
the gate overlooking the inlet and saw a Buzzard flying low along a hedgerow as
I parked. The water levels had continued
to rise and there was now very little exposed mud and with the rain returning
all I saw were three Little Egrets. Even
when the rain stopped it was very unpleasant and with the wind whipping up the
water it wasn’t easy birding and I so moved off across country to the Lyndon
Reserve at Rutland Water.
When I arrived in the Lyndon
car park all I had seen were circa fifty Fieldfare near Seaton. It was still very windy and I went to view
the feeders where I could get some shelter from the wind. There was quite a bit of activity at the feeders
but there was nothing unusual and so I walked the short distance to Teal Hide.
When I opened the end flap to
view towards Manton Bay it was uncomfortable with the wind coming directly
through the gap but I did find a couple of Great White Egrets in the meadow
just beyond Heron Bay. Opening one of
the flaps to view South Arm Three was better but the water was quite choppy
making it difficult to pick birds up at any distance. I found a single Oystercatcher at the base of
Lax Hill and on a calm section of water near Lax Hill shore I found a drake
Scaup amongst a party of Tufted Duck.
I moved back to view the
feeding station again and whilst watching a guy and his dog appeared at the
water's edge disturbing the birds close to the shore. He then disappeared into the small copse and
came back with a small log, which he threw into the water for the dog to
retrieve. I then shouted out him and
told him it was a nature reserve and that he shouldn’t be there. He did leave via the gate at the bottom of
the field and I expected him to walk back to the public footpath but when he
didn’t I went to the main path to Teal Hide.
I found him entering the area on the other side of the path and heading
along the shoreline. I hailed him again
and this time he retreated and came back up the path and on having a word with
him, he assured me he wouldn’t go into the area in the summer but that he felt
he wasn’t doing any harm now. I
explained that he had disturbed a number of birds from feeding and informed him
that he shouldn’t approach the shore at any time on the reserve and he then
returned to the footpath. I spent a
little longer at the feeding station seeing a couple of Tree Sparrows before I
left for the Egleton Reserve.
After parking in the car park and
then talking to some of the volunteers, Roger arrived and whilst he was
renewing his annual permit and buying some bird food I went to the viewing area
to view Lagoon One. There were twenty
Dunlin and two Oystercatchers on the long island and a pair of Stonechat were
feeding just in front of the building and another birder then noticed a Chiffchaff
feeding in the reeds close to the centre.
When Roger arrived a briefed him on what I had seen and then I found two
more Stonechat and counted fourteen Goosander.
Roger and I then set off for
Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow and flushed a couple of Curlew as we approached
the hide. We found the Curlews closer to
Lagoon One and eventually found seven, although surprisingly that could quite
difficult to see. There was a pair of
Shelduck on both flashes and two Pintail where on the nearer flash one with on
the other. As we continued to scan I
picked up a distant Raven that was tumbling to the left of Burley House but
other than a single Little Egret on Lagoon One we saw little else and returned
to the cars for lunch.
After I had finished my lunch
I went to view the meadow and found several Blackbirds, eight Redwing and two
Mistle Thrushes feeding in the meadow.
Male Blackbird
Redwing
Redwing
Redwing
Mistle Thrush
Mistle Thrush
After observing and
photographing the thrushes Roger and I set off for the northern lagoons and we
hadn’t seen very much when we reached Lapwing Hide to view South Arm
Three. Our main target here was the
Great Northern Diver but we were unable to find it and had to be content with
four pairs of Red-crested Pochards, a Little Egret and a Buzzard.
We made our way back to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where the water level had risen further and there
was now virtually no areas for waders.
There were six Shelduck on lagoon and we did eventually find three Snipe
on the reed island but with little else we moved onto Plover Hide on Lagoon
Four, only to find out shortly after we left a Bittern was observed in flight.
There was a male and a
red-headed Smew to the right of the hide and we found two Ringed Plover and two
Dunlin on island two and a third Ringed Plover was on island five. As we scanned the lagoon there was also three
Pintail and we had at least three more red-headed Smew and found four
Oystercatchers and two Curlew on the western bank.
Drake Smew
Red-headed Smew
We eventually made our way
back to the car park seeing a Jay in the large meadow and Great Spotted
Woodpecker near Badger Hide.
After a brief discussion, we
decided to go to the North Arm, where we were hoping to find both the Slavonian
Black-necked Grebes. When we arrived, we
found Chris and Colin having their usual cup of tea as they had already looked
for the grebes and found a Slavonian and two Black-necked Grebes. After a chat, we continued down to the point
and I found the Slavonian Grebe almost immediately and then Roger located the
two Barnacle Geese on the north shore.
As we continued looking for the Black-necked Grebes I found three
Redshanks on the south shore and a Dunlin on the north shore and there were two
pairs of Oystercatchers also on the north shore. The Black-necked Grebes were being difficult
to find and I was beginning to think we might not see them when I found one
quite close to the road down to Dickinson’s Bay and there was a second close
by.
With the grebes in the bag we
still had time to go to the Old Hall and look for the Red-necked Grebe. When we arrived, the light wasn’t great
looking west but the grebe wasn’t visible and so we walked to the other side of
the Old Hall to view the eastern bay. We
hadn’t been scanning long when Roger picked up between us and Hambleton
Wood. With some light remaining we went
and had a further look for the Great Northern Diver in South Arm Three but
there was still no sign and we called it a day.
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