An afternoon in Leicestershire - June 27, 2017

With no sign of the forecast rain I decided to visit Stanford Reservoir hoping it wouldn’t arrive.  Stanford is only about a twenty minutes’ drive from home and I arrived and parked in the car park around 14:15 and then walked along the Leicestershire side.

Water is now being pumped in as well as flowing in from the stream but there was still plenty of mud near the inlet.  There was a single Little Egret in the mouth of the stream and there were plenty of bids on the mud but I could only find Lapwing, Black-headed Gull and Carrion Crow, which was a bit disappointing.

I continued walk along the Leicestershire path and was surprised to see quite a few Ringlet but only one Meadow Brown.  I stopped at several viewpoints to view the reservoir but hadn’t seen a great deal else as I neared the gate half-way along the path.  I stopped here as I had a good view into Blowers Lodge Bay where I found a couple of Shelduck with at least two young and I also an Oystercatcher on the Northamptonshire shoreline.  There was some island formed by the rising water and I dropped down onto the shore to get a better view.  I found three female Mallards escorting broods of young, two with ten and one with six young but initially didn’t see much else.  I then noticed a bird at the far end of the biggest island, which turned out to be a Greenshank and I then found four Little Ringed Plovers closer to me.

I had heard Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler as I had walked out and could hear a Garden Warbler singing whilst I was on the shore.  As I started to walk back I found a Garden Warbler feeding a young bird and then saw a Chiffchaff, two Whitethroats and a Sedge Warbler in the same area and a Hobby flew over.  I stopped to view an area I had scanned on the way out and found three Green Sandpipers feeding along the shore.

I didn’t see a great deal else as I continued back but did add Large Skipper to the day’s butterfly list.  I went over the road to view the area near the sluice gate where I found two moths a Clouded Border and a Barred Straw.

With still some time on my hands I called at the lake in Great Glen where I had brief views of a Kingfisher and heard both Chiffchaff and Blackcap before heading off home.