It was overcast with a light
north-east wind when I left home and other than a couple of flocks of Fieldfare
I had seen very little on route to Eyebrook Reservoir.
There was no sign of the
Little Owls today and it was quieter at the bridge as the feeders were
virtually empty but I did see four Tree Sparrows and hear a Chiffchaff. The water was still very high and
consequently there were few birds but there was a Little Egret and a Great
White Egret near the inlet.
With little at Eyebrook
Reservoir I moved onto Rutland Water and headed for Dickinson’s Bay where I was
hoping to find the wintering grebes.
There was a Chiffchaff singing when I got out of the car but it remained
elusive but I did find another as I walked down to view from Dickinson’s
Bay. There were a few Goldeneye in the
North Arm and a single Shelduck and Little Egret were on the spit on the far
side of the bay but there was no sign of the grebes.
With no sign of the grebes I
went to the Old Hall and after parking walked to the far side to see if I could
find the Red-necked Grebe. The sun was
beginning to come out and so I had to walk a good way towards Hambleton Wood to
get decent views but like the other grebes there was no sign of the Red-necked
Grebe. Roger had called and I agreed to
meet him in the North Arm but as I walked back I heard a Nuthatch and a Tawny
Owl and saw and photographed a Treecreeper.
Treecreeper
Treecreeper
Treecreeper
Treecreeper
I had a final look for the
Red-necked Grebe in South Arm Three but again there was no sign and so I went
to join Roger in the North Arm. Roger
was watching something on the far shore when I reached him and he suspected it
was one of the Slavonian Grebes. He soon
got me onto the bird but the freshening wind was causing some disturbance of
the water, making it difficult to see well but we eventually were both
satisfied that it was a Slavonian Grebe moulting into summer plumage. We then found a single female Goosander on
the edge of the fishponds and a Little Egret on the north shore. We both then locked onto a party of five
swans there were swimming in a line that turned out to be Whooper Swans. As we scanned Burley Wood we had three Red
Kites and three Buzzards soring and displaying over the wood.
When we got back to the car we
had five Oystercatcher flying around and I thought I heard the Whooper Swans
calling and when we looked we couldn’t see them but a few minutes later they
flew over heading west.
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swan
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
Whooper Swans
We moved to the Egleton
Reserve and walked to Harrier Hide where we were hoping to find the over
wintering Whimbrel. There was no sign of
any Whimbrel or any Curlew in the area they normally feed and all we saw was
another three of Shelduck on the second flash on the Wet Meadow and a couple of
Little Egrets.
Grey Heron over Lagoon One
Little Egret from Harrier Hide
Shoveler over Lagoon One
With no sign of the Whimbrel
we decided to go to Fieldfare Hide in the hope that it might be there but there
was no sign and all we had were a few Teal and Mallard. As we walked back we had a Comma between
Fieldfare and Harrier Hides and calling at Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow we
found four more Shelduck and a Pintail and a single Curlew between the hide and
Lagoon One.
Drake Teal
Female Teal
Male Mallard
We called at Mallard Hide in
the hope that we might find the Whimbrel with the Curlew but we couldn’t even
found the Curlew and went back to the car park for lunch.
A visit to Grebe Hide on
Lagoon Two produced two Oystercatcher and the Black-tailed Godwit, which I had
seen there on Tuesday. From Grebe Hide
we continued to Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four and found twenty-one Shelduck and
five Pintail. Scanning the islands there
we located five Oystercatchers, two Ringed Plovers, four Dunlin and four
Redshanks. The five Whooper Swans we had
seen earlier were now on Lagoon Four but rather distant and whilst earlier we
had assumed they were all adults as they had yellow bills, we were now not so
confident. They were only visible
intermittently but some a least were a little dusky looking and the yellow
bills looked a little washed-out and presumably some were immatures but they
eventually appeared to start to roost and so we set off for Lapwing Hide.
We called in Crake Hide on
route and found a pair of Red-crested Pochard and on reaching Lapwing Hide we
found at least six Sand Martins feeding around the poplars on the far shore and
there was also a pair of distant Scaup.
With no sign of anything else
of note from Lapwing Hide we made our way back to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three
where we found four Shelduck, three Pintail and two Oystercatchers. Lloyd and Andy then appeared on the edge of
the reedbed and managed to flush a couple of Snipe.
Roger then called it a day and
I decided to go to Dunlin Hide to hopefully get a better view of the Whooper
Swans. On reaching the hide I found John
Wright who was observing the gulls, which were quite close again. We had a chat about the Whooper Swan and
eventually I got a better view and was able to establish that there were two
adults and three juveniles.
Whooper Swans on Lagoon Four
John had seen a second-winter
Caspian Gull earlier but unfortunately it had flown off towards the main
water. There were quite a few gulls
present, mainly Black-headed and Common but also a few Lesser Black-backed and
as I was scanning through them cried John there’s a white-winged gull just
dropped in. He provided directions as I
looked at it I thought it didn’t look quite right when John said it’s not a
white-winged its looks more like a Herring Gull. It was quite a striking bird and when in
flight it was easy to see why John initially thought it was a white-winged gull
but on the ground the structure was totally wrong. It stayed close for quite some time allowing
me to get some nice shots of it, both on the ground and in flight.
Possible Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid
Possible Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid
Possible Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid
Possible Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid
Possible Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid
After watching the possible
hybrid for a while it flew further away and towards the Volunteer’s Centre but
shortly afterwards John announced that the Caspian Gull was back and after
having some initial problems finding it saw it well both on the ground and in
flight.
Second-winter Caspian Gull
Second-winter Caspian Gull
Second-winter Caspian Gull
Second-winter Caspian Gull
Second-winter Caspian Gull
Second-winter Caspian Gull
I eventually called it a day
and headed back to the car park and set off home. As I approached Preston and Sparrowhawk flew
over the road and Red Kite was soaring just beyond and then I had a Kestrel at
Tugby and another along with a Buzzard as I was approaching Great Glen.
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