Roger arrived to view what
moths I had caught just after 07:00 and we left home to pick up David, who was
driving for the day, at 07:30. We set
off for Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a Red Kite just after passing through Cranoe. Just beyond Slawston, David heard a Lesser
Whitethroat and we parked up to try and see it and he and I eventually had
brief views at the top of an ash but Roger didn’t get on it. We were there a good twenty minutes and had a
Red Kite and a Tree Sparrow and heard a Blackcap and Whitethroat.
We hadn’t seen a great deal
else as we turned onto the northern approach road to the reservoir but one of
the Little Owls was showing in the old oak as we approached the reservoir. After parking at the bridge, we had good views
of a Garden Warbler and Whitethroat and a Red Kite flew over. After moving around the road to park up in a
gate we had a Little Egret in the willow on the edge of the stream and a second
flew in shortly afterwards.
After parking in the gateway,
we had another Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler was showing between the road and
the reservoir and there was another Red Kite over the Rutland fields and two
Buzzards over one of the Leicestershire woods.
With the water level being particularly high there was little of note on
the water and we were soon heading for the Lyndon Reserve.
A Green Woodpecker flew over
the road just as we were leaving the reservoir and we had yet another
Whitethroat before we reached Lyddington.
Two Buzzards were observed at our regular stop near Wing and we had a
Treecreeper in Lyndon church yard.
Buzzard
A call from Tim regarding a
Great White Egret on Lagoon Eight on the Egleton Reserve induced to bypass
Lyndon and head for Egleton. After
parking we walked towards the centre and checked out the woodland on the left
for the Spotted Flycatcher and found the nest with a bird sitting and we also
saw the second bird.
We then headed off in the
direction of the 360 Hide, seeing Speckled Wood as we walked through the
woodland and a Four-spotted Chaser over the pool just after leaving the
woodland. On reaching the path to the
360 Hide we decided to go into Snipe Hide and view the Wet Meadow first. There were two Four-spotted Chasers over the
pool here and a Blue-tailed Damselfly and a Red Admiral were also seen before
we entered the hide.
Two Shelduck had flown over as
we approached the hide and there was a third on the scrape and two Sedge
Warbler were seen in the narrow ditch in front of the hide. As we started to walk towards the 360 Hide
the Sand Martins from the nearby colony were circling tightly together overhead
and I said to David that’s a sign there might be a Hobby. I looked up and a Hobby appeared and we
watched it as it flew high over the path and the lagoon for a short while
before it flew off to the south.
Four-spotted Chaser
When we reached the 360 Hide
we got a good pretty view of Lagoon Eight but there was no sign of the Great
White Egret and so we went into the hide.
There was a Mute Swan with seven cygnets on the lagoon and two Little
Grebes were observed just in front of the hide.
As we scanned the lagoon we found six Little Egrets and two
Oystercatchers but surprisingly we couldn’t find any Redshanks.
Mute Swan and cygnets
Little Grebe
Common Tern over Lagoon Five
David was scanning the meadow
on the far side of Lagoon Eight and found two Oystercatchers attending young,
with one being much bigger than the other two indicating that they were from
different broods.
We walked alongside Lagoon
Eight towards Heron Hide and had further views of the young Oystercatchers but
all we could find on the lagoon was a single Shelduck and a Red Kite flew over
causing some disturbance. On reaching
Heron Hide, which has been rebuilt but is now probably less than half the size of
the old one, we found a Great Crested Grebe with a couple young. We could see both the Ospreys at the nest in
Manton Bay and there were just three Common Terns visible over the South Arm.
After walking back and
reaching the turn to the 360 Hide we decided to continue to Pintail Hide and
view Lagoon Six. There was a pair of
Mute Swan with five young and another two Oystercatchers were on the
lagoon. There were two Avocets on an
island with one appearing to be sitting but they then both started
feeding. A short while late one of the
birds flew off and the second appeared to sit down on nest again. We went to Tern Hide to get a closer look and
were certain that the bird was sitting on eggs.
A pair had tried unsuccessfully to nest on Lagoon Four on two occasions
earlier and we assumed that this would be their third attempt.
Avocet presumably incubating
Lapwing on nest
When we reached the area near
Snipe Hide we found a Hairy Dragonfly resting but unfortunately it wasn’t easy
to get a good shot. We also found a
Silver-ground Carpet and a Silver Y just before entering the woodland back to
the centre.
Hairy Dragonfly
Ken joined us in whilst we
were having lunch and afterwards we walked to the northern lagoons and had my
first Large Skipper of the year, brief views of a Willow Warbler and yet
another two Four-spotted Chasers.
Large Skipper
Four-spotted Chaser
Azure Damselfly
When we reached the northern lagoons,
we went into Sandpiper Hide to view Lagoon Four. There were a dozen Shelduck on the Lagoon and
we found a couple of Teal, which have been pretty scarce recently. There was a single Oystercatcher, seven
Ringed Plovers, four Dunlin and five Redshank scattered around the lagoon, with
most being on the exposed area to the left of the hide. There was a Yellow-legged Gull amongst the
roosting Great Black-backed Gulls and three Lesser Black-backed Gulls made a
brief visit but there were fewer Common Terns today with just nineteen loafing
on Island Ten. There was another Mute
Swan with a brood of seven, which came quite close to the hide as did a couple
of Little Grebes.
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Mute Swan and cygnets
Mute Swan and cygnets
From Sandpiper Hide we moved
to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three where the water level was still very
high. There were few birds but we did
find a couple of Shelduck and a drake Pochard amongst the more numerous Gadwall
and Tufted Duck. David then found a male
and a female Pochard near the recently constructed boardwalk along with four
young, which are now more than half grown.
I then picked up a Marsh Harrier over the reeds, which initially I
thought was a female-type but the blackish wing-tips suggested a male. A few minutes later it was seen again and
this time with a female-type and presumably they were both immatures.
Another birder then came into
the hide saying there was a Redstart near Bittern Hide, which had also been
reported yesterday. I had dismissed the
report from yesterday as it was rather an unusual date and I suspected that it
was probably the Nightingale. However,
with another birder claiming a Redstart we thought we should go and take a
look. There was a small gathering at the
end of the path to Bittern Hide and another birder indicated that they had just
seen the Nightingale. It wasn’t long
before the Nightingale dropped onto the ground and we then saw it several times
before we went into Plover Hide on Lagoon Four but perhaps not surprisingly
there was no sign of a Redstart.
There were two Avocets from
the hide and therefore the pair of Lagoon Six were an additional pair and not
the pair that had failed twice on Lagoon Four.
David also found a drake Wigeon on the far side of the lagoon and there
was a pair of Shelduck with five young and Great Crested Grebe with two
young. We called at Sandpiper Hide again
before making our way back to the centre and had an Osprey fly over, a Curlew drop
in and Roger found a Yellow Wagtail.
It had been a good days
birding in which I recorded eight-eight species and also a good selection of
insects.
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