Roger and I were planning to
go Rutland Water today and David was going to Stanford Reservoir with a view of
watching the Tigers on the television this afternoon. Roger was coming over for 07:30 and I would
then drive us to Rutland Water but before he arrived I saw that there were two
Sanderling at Stanford and called David to make him aware. When I called, I found that Malcom had gone
with him and that they had already seen the Sanderling.
As Roger and I approached
Wistow Roger spotted a couple of Little Egret perched in a bush along the bank
of the River Sence. Just after we had
passed through Slawston David called to say that they hadn’t been able to find yesterday’s
Whooper Swan but that the Grey Plover still remained. I then had a message that a female Red-footed
Falcon, that was seen yesterday, was still at Fen Drayton and called David back
to make him aware. Both he and Malcolm
were keen to go and I suggested that we should meet up at Rutland Water in
about ninety minutes time. We had a Red
Kite over Blaston but hadn’t seen anything else when we pulled up in the
Egleton car park.
Roger and I arrived in the
Egleton car park and with David and Malcolm still a good hour away we decided
to go and have a look on Lagoon Four.
The Nightingale was singing near Osprey Hide but we couldn’t see it and
continued onto Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four, flushing a Green Woodpecker from
the bank as we did so.
There was a Greenshank
directly in front of the hide and the Grey Plover, that has been present for a few
days, was to the left. There didn’t
appear to be many waders on the lagoon with just several Oystercatchers, two
Little Ringed Plovers and a Ringed Plover was all we could find at first. I then found a summer-plumaged Knot along
with a Grey Plover and two Dunlin on the exposed mud between Islands Two and
Three. There was a Barnacle Goose to the
left along with the pair of Pintail and there were thirty-two Common Terns on
the spit off Island Ten.
I suggested that we should go
to Plover Hide, where we would closer to the Knot, to see if there were any
waders out of sight from Sandpiper Hide.
As I was almost there David called to say he and Malcolm were on their
way and would probably be in the car park within the next thirty minutes. We couldn’t find anything else from Plover
Hide and started to make our way back to the car park.
We stopped briefly again
trying to locate the singing Nightingale without any success but did see two
Garden Warblers. When we reached the car
park David and Malcolm were there waiting and after getting their gear in my
car we set off for Fen Drayton, seeing a Red Kite over Egleton village as we
left the reserve.
It only took about an hour to
get to Fen Drayton and we saw several groups of birders as we drove along the
entrance road to the car park. We
wondered if the Red-footed Falcon had moved but as we pulled up in the car park
we were pleased to see a group of birders watching it.
We walked the twenty yards to
the gate and found the female Red-footed Falcon on the ground. It wasn’t great viewing as there was a wire
fence between myself and the bird. However,
another birder then came along the track towards us and flushed the bird but it
didn’t fly far and after passing through the gate we had unobstructed
views. As we watched it, it seemed quite
happy chasing and catching prey on the ground but it did eventually fly off and
disappear.
Female Red-footed Falcon
Female Red-footed Falcon
Female Red-footed Falcon
While were on site we also had
circa thirty Swift and a Yellow Wagtail, which was only my second of the year,
and also heard a Cuckoo and a Whitethroat.
Whilst we were on route to Fen
Drayton Roger had received a call from Ben who was doing a bird race with three
other local birders and they had found a singing Great Reed Warbler at Albert
Village Lake. It was only the second
record for Leicestershire, the last being in 1963 and was probably a
county-lifer for most local birders. As
we were almost at Fen Drayton we had decided to continue for the falcon and
then consider what to do. To make
matters worse Tim had called to say that there was a Temminck’s Stint on Lagoon
Four. I called Steve who was at Albert
Village Lake and I heard the Great Reed on my iphone and established that Steve
hadn’t seen it as it was quite elusive.
As we had to go back to
Rutland Water we planned to make a quick trip to Lagoon Four for the
Temminck's, have lunch and then go to Albert Village Lake in two cars.
We were back at Rutland Water
just before 12:30 and after a quick bite set off for Sandpiper Hide. David was first in the hide and had the
Temminck’s shorted by the time I arrived.
It was feeding just to the left of the hide and providing some nice views
before it flew and landed amongst the roosting terns before flying again and
coming down on Island Four. Two
Sanderling had also been reported and there were clearly more Ringed Plover and
Dunlin than when Roger and I were here earlier.
We couldn’t find the Sanderling and presumed that they had departed but
we did all see an adult Little Gull that was feeding over Lagoon Three. Chris Park then entered the hide and after
asking the whereabouts of the Temminck’s Stint, said there are two Bar-tailed
Godwits and a Little Gull near the roosting terns. We soon latched onto the godwits and the
Little Gull, which was a first-summer and it wasn’t long before the godwits
flew off. Chris located the Temminck’s
just afterwards and we eventually gave up on the Sanderlings and headed back to
the car park.
After finishing our lunch, we
set off for Albert Village Lake, which is in the far north-west corner of the
county and took over an hour to get there.
After parking in the football
pitch car park, we walked to the far end of the lake, which is where the bird
was. We met Brian and Rosie on route and
they informed us that it was extremely difficult to see, although it was
singing frequently. When we reached the
other birders, I was surprised to Steve was still there as he had only seen it
briefly on one occasion but was just about to go for his lunch.
There were still plenty of birders
present but the bird was now silent but it wasn’t too long before it started to
sing and although it appeared to be just a few feet away it wasn’t
visible. Some of the birders did get
brief views at this point and two probably saw it quite well before it appeared
to move to the left. I found out just
afterwards that someone had played a tape and it was then that it went quiet
and moved off. I moved around to view
the reeds from the bank of the lake, which was more distant but felt there was
a better chance of seeing it. It sang
briefly again and other birders joined us but it then went very quiet being
heard only intermittently and then only briefly. It was then seen to fly through the tops of
the reeds with Malcom seeing it but David, Roger and I missed it. David and Malcolm then left and shortly
afterwards another birder saw it drop into the reeds. Roger and I walked back to where we had heard
initially but there was no sign of it and we eventually called it a day and
headed off home, having to be content with just hearing it. Other birds seen whilst on site were two
Oystercatcher and a Common Sandpiper and we also heard three Willow Warblers
and saw two Reed Warblers with at least another five being heard.
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