It was quite foggy when I left
home but the forecast was for it to clear by about 09:30 and it wasn’t
therefore surprising when I arrived at Eyebrook Reservoir it was still
foggy. As I approached the reservoir I
could make out the old oak but as far as I could see there were no Little Owls
on view. I stopped at the inlet bridge
and found a Marsh Tit feeding quite avidly on the feeders, which was the first
I had seen at the site since August last year.
Whilst at the bridge a Little Egret flew over, two Snipe flew off the
edges of the stream and three Tree Sparrows flew over. When I moved around to the Rutland bank I
could just make out the near shore but saw very little and with no sign of the
fog clearing I went across country to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water.
I saw a good selection of
commoner birds on route with the best being a Buzzard perched at the roadside approaching
Seaton and I heard a Chiffchaff near Wing.
A stop at Lyndon Church failed to produce the regular Nuthatch and with
little else I continued to the Lyndon Reserve.
I checked out the meadow
alongside the car park and found four Redwing and a Mistle Thrush feeding. I then went into the viewing area in the
centre but Lagoon One was only partially visible and so I started off for Snipe
Hide on the Wet Meadow. I had just
reached the end of the woodland after viewing a Chiffchaff, when Steve called
to say that there were two winter plumaged Little Gulls in the North Arm and a
summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe off Dickinson’s Bay.
As Little Gull was a year-tick
I returned to the car park and headed for the North Arm. The fog was still quite thick but there were
four Little Egrets on the edge of the fishponds and when I reached the end of
the spit I could see quite a few gulls flying over the water. Initially I only saw Black-headed Gulls but
then a Little Gull appeared out of the fog and I was watching it the second
bird appeared. I checked out the rest of
the area that I could see and found three female Goosander at the edge of the
fishponds.
The fog had lifted slightly
when I set off for Dickinson’s Bay and I saw a Great White Egret as I travelled
along the A606 towards Barnsdale. After
parking at the bottom of the road I walked down the road to view the North
Arm. There was very little visible in
the North Arm or Dickinson’s Bay but I did eventually find a small grebe
swimming further into the arm and assumed that it was possibly the Black-necked
Grebe but wasn’t sure and returned to the spit to see if I could relocate it.
I found a summer plumaged
grebe on the far shore but couldn’t gat any real colour or see it very well due
to the lingering fog. I then spent more
time searching where I had seen a Slavonian Grebe several times recently but
eventually gave up and walked back to the car.
As I approached the gate a
bird flew over the road and my first impression was that it might be a
Blackcap. On scanning the bushes, I
found it still on view and my first impression proved to be correct. When I got back to the car it was still in
the bush but was quite active and I got the camera out hoping for a shot but it
then just disappeared and I couldn’t relocate it but did find a Treecreeper.
Gerry then arrived and after a
brief look for the Blackcap he went down to the spit and I then decided to join
him. When I reached him he had seen the
two Little Gulls and had also found a grebe he thought might be a
Red-necked. A soon found the bird but it
didn’t look at all right for a Red-necked and I suspected that it was probably
a Slavonian Grebe but the fog and the birds moult state wasn’t making it easy.
As the fog cleared further we
agreed that was indeed a moulting Slavonian Grebe. We then found the other grebe on the far
side, which still wasn’t easy in the misty conditions, but the jizz was
suggesting that it was probably a second Slavonian Grebe. Mike had also joined us now and the fog began
to lift further and the second grebe started to swim towards and we were soon
able to confirm that it was a summer plumaged Slavonian Grebe.
Having finally satisfied
ourselves on the identification of the grebes we went to the Egleton Reserve
and lunch. Whist having lunch a
Brimstone was found but there was little bird activity.
Brimstone
From the viewing area, there
were just two Shelduck of note and I began making my way to the southern lagoons. I hadn’t gone too far when another birder
informed me that there was a working party near Snipe Hide and that he hadn’t
seen very much and so I turned around and went to the northern lagoons.
Woodpigeon in the Egleton Meadows
I found Gerry coming out from
Redshank Hide and we went into Grebe Hide to view Lagoon Two but found very
little, except for about twenty Sand Martins, and we were soon continuing to
Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.
As we scanned the lagoon we
found sixteen Shelduck, eight Pintail, seven Oystercatchers, five Little Ringed
Plovers, thirteen Dunlin, two Curlew and six Redshank. Terry then called to say that was a pair of
Grey Partridge in the large meadow.
Gerry and I came out the hide and being able to see part of the large
meadow scanned and there were the two Grey Partridge. A quickly erected the tripod but when I
looked again and they had disappeared. I
called Terry who confirmed that they had flown off into one of the more western
meadows and were not now visible. This
species is now extremely irregular at the site and my last sighting was in
November 2005 when six were observed in a field where Lagoon Four now is. Gerry and I went back into the Sandpiper Hide
but Gerry left shortly afterwards and I then found a single Ringed Plover on
Island Ten.
I met Terry as I was walking
down to Lapwing Hide and he informed me that there was a pair of Smew quite
close to the hide and a pair of Scaup more distant towards the Old Hall.
Gerry had joined us and he and
I continued onto Lapwing Hide while Terry went to look for a Little Ringed
Plover on Lagoon Four. Gerry found the
two Scaup quickly but the pair of Smew were clearly not that close. As I continued scanning I found the
red-headed Smew and then the male, which had obviously gone out further after
Terry had seen them and they were both back together before we left the hide.
Gerry had started back before
me and I bumped into Erik as I made my way to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon
Three. After a brief chat, he went to
look for the Grey Partridge and went into Shoveler Hide. There was a pair of Shelduck on the lagoon and
a pair of Oystercatcher were just to the left of the hide. A Buzzard was observed over the reedbed
woodland and a Curlew circled serval times before coming down on one of the
islands.
Curlew
Curlew
Curlew
Curlew
First-winter Common Gull over Lagoon Three
I left Shoveler heading for
Dunlin Hide to finish the day off observing the gulls and after a brief chat
with Steve and Gerry at the bottom of Sandpiper Hide I continued onto Dunlin
Hide. There were far fewer gulls today
and I had only seen a single Black-tailed Godwit when Steve came into the hide. John Wright then joined us asking if we had
seen the Peregrine as it went over flushing all the birds but the birds close
to Dunlin hadn’t flushed and we hadn’t seen the Peregrine. A few minutes later I picked up a Peregrine
approaching from the north, which did cause some disturbance but it then just continued
south.
With many of the gulls flying
off I called it an end to the day and got back to the car just before the heavy
rain came.
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