Roger picked me up just after
07:30 and we headed off to Newton Harcourt church where we were hoping for a
Nuthatch and perhaps a Spotted Flycatcher.
It was overcast following the overnight rain and it was pretty quiet but
we did find a Goldcrest and heard another as well as a Blackcap. We walked down the lane as far as the stream
but saw nothing else and returned to the car.
I scanned the trees at the at the back of the manor house garden and
picked up a bird in flight, which then landed at the top of the tallest tree
and I could see it was a Spotted Flycatcher.
After getting Roger onto it I thought there might be a second bird but
when it appeared it was just a Greenfinch.
Grey Squirrel
We eventually moved on to
Eyebrook Reservoir seeing a Whitethroat just beyond Wistow, three House Martins
in Tur Langton and single Swallows in Tur Langton, Slawston and Blaston.
There was no sign of a Little
Owl as we approached the reservoir and brief stop at the bridge produced a
Garden Warbler and Tree Sparrow and four Banded Demoiselle and a Large Red
Damselfly. On moving around to the gate
and parking we had a Red Kite and a Buzzard to the northwest and another Red
Kite to the northeast. There was a
Whitethroat singing and showing occasional near the gate and a Sedge Warbler
was singing and showing between the road and the reservoir. There were ten Swift over the reservoir and
when a fishing boat disturbed the Common Terns on the breeding raft I counted
thirty-one. I am sure that raft isn't
big enough to support that number of terns and suspect some were probably
migrants or non-breeding birds.
Banded Demoiselle
Female Linnet
Female Linnet
After parking in the Egleton
car park at Rutland Water we walked down toward the centre and checked the
Spotted Flycatcher nest and found a bird on the nest but we couldn’t locate the
second bird.
We headed for the northern
lagoons and found a Chimney Sweeper moth in the first meadow, which was my
first of the year. A little further
along the path a Cetti’s Warbler burst into song and Roger managed to get a
glimpse of the bird. I was stood the
other side of the bush and didn’t see it but then a bird flew from low down and
was joined by a second. The first
disappeared almost immediately but the first stayed briefly and I had a nice
view of a Cetti’s Warbler spreading its tail.
A little further along the
path we stopped to try and locate a singing Lesser Whitethroat, which I did
manage to see but Roger unfortunately dipped and I then saw a male Blackcap,
which he also missed.
Common Blue Damselfly
As we reached the far end of
the Summer Trail we met Stuart Gill, who we hadn’t seen for some time, and so
we stopped and chattered for a while when we saw both a Garden Warbler and a
Treecreeper rather well. We gave Stuart an
idea of where to look for the Spotted Flycatchers as he was going back to the
car park and Roger and I went into Sandpiper Hide.
Initially there appeared to be
very little on Lagoon Four except for four Oystercatcher and a single Redshank
but I then found a single Ringed Plover and shortly afterwards Roger found more
and we eventually had thirteen, mainly on the exposed area where the gulls tend
to roost, of which there were a few Great Black-backed Gull and a single
Yellow-legged Gull. The Mute Swan with
the brood of seven now only appeared to have six young and I could only find
three Shelduck with no sign of Thursday’s brood, although they could just have
been out of sight.
We moved onto Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three where we found three drakes, a female and the brood of four
Pochard. There was also a pair of
Shelduck and a single Little Egret and yet another pair of Mute Swan with four
young. Six Swift were observed over the
woodland and a Buzzard was also observed.
Little Grebe on Lagoon Three
Black-headed Gull on Lagoon Three
Common Tern on Lagoon Three
With little else we made our
way back to the car park having good views of a Willow Warbler singing from the
top of a dead tree and also hearing the Cetti’s Warbler in the same area but
this time there were we had no sightings.
Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler
As we walked from the centre
to the car park there was a small group of birders looking for the Spotted
Flycatcher and some were close to the nest.
I looked at the nest and could see there was no bird on the nest and
with birders, unintentionally close to the nest, there was a concern that the
bird might not go back to the nest. I
made them aware that they were quite close to the nest and that there wasn’t a
siting bird, suggesting they should move away slightly, which they appeared to
do.
As we were having lunch I
noticed a bird over Lagoon One that I suspected was an Osprey, which it was and
I was trying to get Roger onto it two Hobbies began mobbing it.
Mistle Thrush in the meadow next to the car park
When we finished our lunch and
with there being good periods of sunshine we decided to go to Ketton
Quarry. There was a Red Kite over the
road as we headed towards Empingham and after turning towards Ketton we parked
and went through a gate to view the cement works. I soon picked up a Peregrine on top of one of
the buildings and we then had a Buzzard and a Kestrel just north of the works.
Pleased in finding the
Peregrine we moved onto the reserve at Ketton and after parking walked through
the gate to look for butterflies. Roger
picked up a Grizzled Skipper, which proved difficult to see well and we
eventually we had two and also found four Bee Orchids.
Grizzled Skipper
Bee Orchid
As we approached the gate to
drop down into the barbecue area we found a male Common Blue and once in the
Barbecue area found another Grizzled Skipper.
The periods of sun were intermittent but during one of the sunnier
spells we found a Brown Argus, a Small Heath and then a Broad-bodied
Chaser. We continued to search the area
but there appeared to be few insects, although I did find a moth I didn’t
recognise, which I managed to photograph and identify later as a Marbled White
Spot.
Grizzled Skipper
Brown Argus
Large Skipper
Marbled White Spot
With there appearing to be little else we moved up the slope and then dropped into the other area. Again the sun was in more than out but whilst down in the bottom of the old quarry we did see several Burnet Companions and another Small Heath. I climbed back up the slope and when Roger joined me he found a Dingy Skipper near the summit, which allowed close views.
Burnet Companion
Dingy Skipper
Dingy Skipper
From Ketton we went the other side of Tinwell to view the River Welland where I had seen both Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail during the recent Bird Race. We did se a couple of Grey Wagtails but the Kingfisher didn’t put in an appearance and we eventually called it a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment