When I left home this morning
it was fairly calm being bright and sunny but a little cooler than of
late. I headed for Eyebrook Reservoir
and saw a Buzzard perched on a roadside telegraph pole as I approached the
Stockerston Lane crossroads.
I turned right on the unnamed
road to Eyebrook Reservoir but there was no sign of the Little Owl this
morning. I stopped at the bridge where I
had a Chiffchaff and heard a Kingfisher call, which I then found perched on an
old branch towards the reservoir. A
Marsh Tit then called, which I saw briefly in a bush before it flew across the
road and disappeared.
A moved further around the
road to view the inlet and found a juvenile Little Ringed Plover on the edge of
the stream. As I scanned through the
Lapwings I found a single Dunlin and a Ruff and the two Black-tailed Godwits
and two Green Sandpipers were further along the Leicestershire bank. There were also at least four Snipe along the
Leicestershire edge of the water but with nothing else of note a moved on to
Rutland Water.
My intention was to walk to
Shallow Water Hide on the Lyndon Reserve but on reaching the entrance I found
the gate was locked and so I went to the North Arm.
When I reached the unnamed
road Steve and Terry was walking down to the spit but after parking I scanned
the fishpond shoreline where I found a Ringed Plover, six Dunlin, a Ruff and a
single Curlew. I joined Steve and Terry
and they had seen the Wood Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper in the southern
bay. When I scanned the area, I found
the Green Sandpiper but the Wood Sandpiper had disappeared but it did appear
later with another Ruff. Tim then
appeared but after brief chat went onto the reserve and Steve and Terry left
soon afterwards. I did call them before
they reached their car as I found a Yellow Wagtail on the north shore and
eventually had three. I found the
Whimbrel on the north shore and an Osprey flew over as I walked towards the
fishponds where there was a good number of Little Grebe.
Disappointed I hadn’t been
able to walk to Shallow Water Hide I headed back to Lyndon and saw circa fifty
Goldfinch over Church Road and then noticed a Sparrowhawk that was causing the
panic. When I reached Lyndon, the centre
was now open and I established that the gates are locked overnight but are
usually opened at 06:00 but the volunteer had been delayed this morning.
I checked the feeders where
there were at least six Tree Sparrows and another large flock of Goldfinch feeding
in the meadow. As I set off down the
path towards Shallow Water Hide I found two adults and two immature
Whitethroats, which were presumably a family party. I didn’t see a great deal else before
reaching the hide but a female Kestrel did provide a nice photo opportunity.
Female Kestrel
Female Kestrel
There were a few Swallows as I
walked down and I saw five Sand Martin and a single House Martin over the
bay. The water level had risen and the
bund had been preached indicating that water had been pumped into the
reservoir, which is a little unusual at this time of the year. There were three Little Egrets scattered
around the bay and a Curlew flew over but a single juvenile Shelduck was the
only other bird of note I found.
Malcolm had seen four Wheatear
and a Whinchat at the airfield today and my intention was go there next but
Roger Brett called as I started to walk back to the centre to say there was a
Shag on the tern raft in the North Arm.
I informed Steve about the Shag and on reaching the centre I drove back
to the unnamed road.
As I walked down the road I
could see Steve and Terry had already arrived and were looking into the fishponds
with Andy and Roger. When I approached
they indicated that it had flown low into the fishponds but Andy and Roger
weren’t sure where it had gone. I went
with Steve and Terry into the field to get a better view of the fishponds but
we were unable to relocate the bird but Terry picked up five Red Kites over
Burley and I found a sixth. Andy and
Roger had joined us we spent a little longer than Steve and Terry left and we
then saw a Jay flying over, but on phoning Malcolm and finding he was at the
end of the spit I went to join him. Andy
then picked up a Marsh Harrier over the North Arm as we walked back to the
road.
When I got to Malcolm he was
looking for the Red-necked Grebe without success but there were now four Curlew
with the Whimbrel. After a while spent
looking for the Red-necked Grebe without any sign I gave up and informed
Malcolm I was going to Egleton for my lunch and he said he would give it
another five minutes and then join me.
As I walked back to the car I
noticed a bird fly catching from a dead tree on the left, which turned out to
be a Spotted Flycatcher and I then found another before both birds flew off
into a large oak. I informed Malcolm of
the sighting and then continued to Egleton.
When I got to the car park
Steve and Terry were having their lunch after looking unsuccessfully for the
Shag on Lagoon One. Mike Chester was
also there and shortly afterward Malcolm joined us.
After lunch Malcolm and I went
to the visitor’s centre to view Lagoon One and found a Great White Egret to the
right of the hide. As we scanned the
lagoon the Great White Egret flew towards the long island as a second Great
White Egret appeared, which then turned and flew away towards Lax Hill with the
original bird dropping onto the long islands.
I then picked up an Osprey flying over Brown’s Islands and two Hobbies
performed briefly.
Malcolm and I then went to
Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three and were joined by Steve and Terry. Steve found a female-type Goldeneye amongst
the masses of Tufted Duck and a Common Sandpiper flew low over the water. Malcolm then cried Bittern flying over the
main water and Steve, Terry and I looked out across the lagoon but there was no
sign. Malcolm then indicated that it had
dropped into the Lagoon Two area. We then
established by main water he meant South Arm Three and the bird had actually
probably come out of the reeds on the south of the lagoon and then flew towards
and behind Buzzard Hide onto Lagoon Two.
Needless to say, Malcom got some ribbing over his knowledge of the main
water.
It wasn’t long afterwards when
he cried Bittern flying but almost immediately gone down near Buzzard
Hide. He, Steve and a Penny, who had
recently joined us, decided to go to Buzzard Hide hoping it might be on
view. When we got into the hide it
wasn’t in view and we sat talking about where Penny had seen it recently,
showing us a superb shot of it just to the left of the hide. Steve then said there it is as it flew out of
the reeds doing a short arc before disappearing again but at least I finally
managed to see it.
Pleased with seeing the
Bittern we made our way to Lapwing Hide to look for a Black-necked Grebe that
had been seen occasionally in South Arm Three.
Terry was already in the hide but hadn’t seen the Black-necked Grebe and
after ten minutes without success I looked out onto Lagoon two. Terry had indicated that there were about a
dozen Wigeon on Lagoon Two before he left but I could see about half of these
as presumably they had drifted out of sight and with still no sign of the
Black-necked Grebe Malcolm and I left for Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.
There was a Great White Egret
on Lagoon Four and I suspected that I had seen at least three today around the
site. Steve had seen a juvenile Arctic
Tern earlier and Malcolm found a juvenile amongst the roosting Common
Terns. It had a shorter black bill and
apparent shorter legs than the other birds and when it flew I saw the white
secondaries rather well, confirming it was the juvenile Arctic. We had also
found a single Green Sandpiper and a Greenshank when Steve called to say he had
what he thought was an American Wigeon on Lagoon Two and so Malcolm and I went
to Osprey Hide to try and see it.
As we scanned the wildfowl in
front of Osprey Hide we could see a few Gadwall and Wigeon and it wasn’t long
before I picked up the eclipse drake American Wigeon. Once we had found it, it was quite
distinctive, showing a greyish head and bright bluish bill and there were signs
of the whitish forehead beginning to develop.
I spoke to Steve to let him know we had found it and he then joined us
as the bird was closer from Osprey Hide.
Although it was quite distant and the light not brilliant I did manage
to get a few shots of the bird.
Eclipse drake American Wigeon
Eclipse drake American Wigeon
Tim and Penny then joined us
in the hide and shortly afterwards the bird became a little more elusive
disappearing on several occasions behind some vegetation and so Malcolm and I
moved on. I went back to Sandpiper Hide
to finish viewing Lagoon Four and Malcolm went into the North Arm to look for
the Red-necked Grebe.
There were a couple of Dunlin
and Redshank and two Yellow-legged Gulls on the lagoon but as the weather
appeared to be closing in I decided to get back to the car. I got back just before the heavy rain started
and after coffee made my way home after what had been an excellent day’s
birding.
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