A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - June 22, 2017

The forecast for today was a cooler with a fresher feel than of late and with little bird news David and I decided to go to Rutland Water.  It was just after 09:00 when we left David’s and headed for Rutland Water seeing a Buzzard between Great Glen and Gaulby, a Red Kite near Wardley and two Kestrels between Uppingham and Oakham.

There was another Red Kite over the Manton junction and when we arrived in the car park at Egleton there were just a few cars.  As we walked towards the centre we checked out the Spotted Flycatchers and saw one of the adults leave the nest and we could then see three rather well-grown young in the nest.

We checked the book in the centre but there was very little for yesterday and so we went towards the southern lagoons, hoping that a Great White Egret reported on Lagoon Eight several times recently would still be there.  We hadn’t seen a great deal when we reached the ramp to the 360 Hide and on viewing Lagoon Eight from there we had brief views of what we thought was the Great White Egret but it disappeared behind and island.  We felt our best option to see it well was to go to Kingfisher Hide on Lagoon Eight but as we reached the gate in the north-east corner of the lagoon David saw it fly off towards Heron’s Bay.  I got the bins on it as it dropped out of sight I then realised that a second bird was following it.

We continued along the path to Heron Hide but there was no sign of either of the Great White Egrets in Heron Bay.  We could see both Ospreys near the nest in Manton Bay and there were three Common Terns flying over the water.  Closer there was a rather smart adult Yellow-legged Gull and David found a couple of Blackcaps and a Sedge Warbler just outside the hide but I only managed to see one of the Blackcap and hear the Sedge Warbler.  Two Little Egrets were observed but with no sign of the Great White Egrets we moved to Kingfisher Hide to get a better view of Lagoon Eight.  There was still no sign of the egrets and so we went back to the 360 Hide.

I saw four Oystercatcher flying over Lagoon Eight as I started to go down the path to the hide and on reaching the ramp, one of the Great White Egrets and two Little Egrets were back on Lagoon Eight.  There was another Oystercatcher on Lagoon Five and seven Little Egrets but with little else we returned to the car park for lunch, making a brief visit to Snipe Hide where we found yet another Little Egret.

After seeing a Hobby whilst having lunch we headed to Normanton as Steve had warned me that my car park pass wouldn’t work and I needed to get in reprogrammed at the fishing lodge.  When we arrived at the entrance there was a sign indicating the there was a problem and so I took a ticket and went to the fishing lodge.  I should have read the notice as the problem wasn’t effecting all passes and mine was ok and I had to be issued with a ticket to get out.

Steve had seen three drake Mandarin and a female with three young on his Tuesday visit and so we looked around the harbour but there was no sign.  We then walked the short distance to view the area between the harbour and the church and found the female on the bank with three young and another bird in the water that was probably a male in eclipse.

After returning to Egleton we went to the northern lagoons but we hadn’t seen anything of note as we entered Sandpiper Hide to view Lagoon Four.  As we scanned the lagoon we found three Shelduck, including a pair with four young, two Oystercatcher, four Little Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover and four Redshank.  There were also a couple of Little Egrets, at least two Yellow-legged Gulls and at least twelve Common Terns and three Reed Warblers were observed briefly just in front of the hide.

We eventually moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three seeing a Sedge Warbler briefly as we approached the hide.  I was surprised to find that the water level hadn’t dropped much, despite the recent hot weather and did wonder if water had been pumped into the reservoir, which is a little unusual at this time of the year.  Of note, there was a Shelduck with one young, three Pochard and a Little Grebe.

We called in Redshank Hide on Lagoon Two but saw very little and a further visit to the centre produced nothing new.

Whilst on the reserve we had seen a few insects that included a few Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and a single Large Skipper.  There were also plenty of Common Blue Damselflies, with smaller numbers of Blue-tailed Damselflies and at least three Emerald Damselflies, along with a single Brown Hawker and two Ruddy Darter.  Five species of moth were also seen and identified that included a White Plume that was a county-lifer.  Others were Anthophila fabriciana, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana, Celypha lacunana and a Silver Ground Carpet.

We made a brief visit to Eyebrook Reservoir on the way home where there was now a small area of mud but the only waders we saw were Lapwings.  There were five Little Egrets on the mud and eleven Common Terns were observed over the water.  There was quite a bit of song at the bridge that included a Willow Warbler, two Blackcaps and a Lesser Whitethroat, which we saw several times and a Whitethroat was calling.