David had gone to look for the
Bee-eaters at Ulverscroft and after he had hopefully seen them he would then join
Roger and I at Rutland Water, where there had been a White-winged Tern in the
North Arm yesterday.
Roger and I headed for
Eyebrook Reservoir first seeing a Hobby near Cranoe and a Red Kite at Blaston
on route. There was no sign of the
Little Owls in the old oak and a stop at the bridge produced two Chiffchaff,
two Willow Warbler and a Treecreeper with a third Willow Warbler being heard.
We moved around to the Rutland
side to view the inlet where we found a Little Ringed Plover, a Snipe, a
Redshank and a Yellow-legged Gull. There
was a Little Egret and a Grey Heron resting in the willow near the bridge and
Roger then found a Common Sandpiper on Leicestershire side. Scanning the water, we could only find four
Common Terns and three Swallows and two House Martins flew over.
We moved onto the north arm at
Rutland Water but after receiving a tweet from Tim regarding the number of
Little Grebes and Great Crested Grebes in the North Arm with no mention of the
tern we assumed it had gone.
We parked at the end of the
unnamed road and walked out onto the spit and began scanning the north
shore. I found a sandpiper that was feeding
behind the wire fencing which is covered in dead weed and therefore making it
difficult to see the bird clearly but when it eventually emerged out into the
open we could see that it was a Green Sandpiper. Four Osprey then performed over Burley Wood where
we also found a couple of Buzzards. Pete
Findon then joined us and whilst I was chatting to him Roger found a ringed
plover species on the north shore and when we looked there were two and they
turned out to be Little Ringed Plovers.
David then arrived having been successful in seeing five of the
Bee-eaters and not long afterwards a Hobby flew overhead. Steve then arrived and we then had an Osprey
and two Hobby soaring quite high above us.
I then walked through into the meadow to view the south bay but found
just a single Shelduck.
As David, Roger and I got back
to the car Tim called to say that the White Winged Tern was on Lagoon Three and
then Steve called to say there were two Greenshanks in the south bay. I made him aware that the White-winged Tern
had been located on Lagoon Three and also informed Pete as we were leaving and
then called Ken as he was at Eyebrook Reservoir.
When we reached the Egleton
car park it was almost full as preparations for the Birdfair was gathering pace
and we decided to have an early lunch before walking to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon
Three.
When we reached Shoveler Hide
we weren’t surprised to find that it was almost full but it didn’t take too
long to find the adult summer White-winged Tern, which was feeding between the
tern rafts and the reedbed. It was a
cracking bird and it was a pity that it was just too far away to photograph. Another birder said that the Great White
Egret was out again but their directions had us looking totally in the wrong
place and we missed it but then David noticed that there was another amongst a
party of Little Egrets feeding to the left of the hide. I never did see the first bird although it
did appear again on another couple of occasions. David then found the Garganey and a
Sparrowhawk flew over. We could hear a
Reed Warbler and Roger found it perched out in the open to the right of the
hide and I counted forty Common Terns on the lagoon.
Garganey
Little Grebe
We moved to Bittern Hide where
we had further views of the White-winged Tern but saw little else and moved to
Plover Hide on Lagoon Four.
David picked out a Dunlin
amongst a party of Lapwing and Ken then found a Black-tailed Godwit but a Red
Kite, Buzzard and an Osprey overhead disturbed them and with nothing else we
moved to Sandpiper Hide to get a different view of the lagoon.
Red Kite
Red Kite
Buzzard
Buzzard
There was a Common Sandpiper
on the spit in front of the hide and as we scanned the lagoon we found a Little
Ringed Plover, seven Ringed Plovers, a Ruff, nine Dunlin, eighteen Black-tailed
Godwits; a Curlew and a Redshank. Ken
then found a Little Gull amongst a party of Black-headed Gulls and then David
said he thought he had a Mediterranean Gull but his directions just got us onto
a Black-headed Gull but eventually we realised the Mediterranean Gull he had
seen was sitting down behind the Black-headed Gull and shortly afterwards it
flew off to the north.
A visit into Osprey and Grebe
Hides on Lagoon Two produced just a single Common Sandpiper and from the centre
there was very little on Lagoon One as work had been carried out the islands in
preparation for Birdfair.
Ken had seen a Wheatear on the
island at Eyebrook Reservoir earlier today and so we decided it would be worth
a visit on the way home. We approached
the reservoir from the northern approach road but there was still no sign of
the Little Owls. David was already in
the coral overlooking the island when Roger and I arrived and he had found a
pair of Red-crested Pochards. Roger then
found the Wheatear on the near shore of the island and three Yellow Wagtails
flew over. I picked up a Red Kite and a
Buzzard over the planation and then a Sparrowhawk over the reservoir. Whilst watching the Sparrowhawk we picked up
four Red Kites circling quite high and presumed that they included the one I
had seen earlier.
We eventually called it a day
and headed off home seeing another Buzzard as we approached Blaston.
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