It was quite misty when I left
home but had thinned considerably by the time I reached Eyebrook
Reservoir. I hadn’t seen a great deal on
route but there were still plenty of the released Red-legged Partridges along
Stockerston Lane.
I parked near the entrance to
the fishing lodge where I had a single Tree Sparrow but little else and stops
at the hedge running southwest from the reservoir and the island coral didn’t
produce anything of note. A Sparrowhawk
was observed as I approached Holyoaks but a brief stop just produced more
Red-legged Partridges and with not much else I moved onto the coral to view the
inlet.
The Lapwings at the inlet were
spooked and took to flight and were joined by ten Ruff but they all came down
again quite quickly. As I scanned the
area of mud I found a single Snipe and there was a Greenshank on the Rutland
shore. There were good numbers Wigeon
now present and I counted nine Pintail and thirty-six Shoveler. There were also good numbers of Teal and
Mallard with smaller numbers of Gadwall and a single Pochard.
I left the coral and checked
the old oak unsuccessfully for Little Owl, which has been quite elusive
recently before parking on the Rutland side of the reservoir. I found four more Snipe but could only find
eight of the Ruff. There was a single
Red Kite over the Leicestershire fields and I had a brief view of a Buzzard
just before I departed for Rutland Water.
When I arrived in the car park
at Lyndon I was unfortunate in being collared by Radio Leicester, who were
doing a recording covering the success of the Osprey project but decided to ask
me about Luffenham base, which is closing soon.
Once free I went and checked
out the feeding station, which had been replenished since my last visit but
there wasn’t too much of interest the best being a Tree Sparrow and a
Greenfinch. I continued along the path
seeing a Kestrel near Tufted Duck Hide and then a Chiffchaff amongst a mixed
party as I approached the path to Shallow Water Hide.
On entering the hide I found
that the western section of the bay quite bare of birds, possibly due to work
being carried out in the field to the south.
As I scanned the northern shore I did find a couple of Dunlin and on the
second scan three Ruff had appeared.
There were plenty of Coot to the right of the hide with a few Wigeon,
Teal, Mallard, Shoveler and seven Pintail.
I had seen a Great White Egret in Heron Bay and presumably it was the
same bird that appeared in Manton Bay as on checking Heron Bay there was no
sign.
As I started walking back
along the main path I had two more Chiffchaffs but hadn’t seen a great deal
else before reaching Tufted Duck Hide.
There were plenty of birds visible from the hide but nothing of note and
I continued onto Deep Water Hide where again there wasn’t anything of note.
Grey Heron from Tufted Duck Hide
Female Wigeon from Tufted Duck Hide
Little Grebe from Deep Water Hide
I made my way back to the
centre where I heard then saw a Blackcap in the bushes to the right and heard
another Chiffchaff, which didn’t reveal its self. Steve had called to say that he and Terry had
seen a female Ruddy Duck and Red-necked Grebe in the north arm and so I headed
for the North Arm.
Steve and Terry had seen the
Ruddy from Barnsdale looking back into the North Arm saying it was close to the
north shore. After parking and walking
down towards the spit there were three fishing boats close to the north shore
and very few birds in evidence. I
suspected the boats had flushed the birds and that I would probably be very
lucky to find the Ruddy as I suspected that most birds had flown off. I scanned the north shore and found a
Greenshank and just after seeing three Little Grebes realised that I had the
Ruddy Duck in the scope and it was swimming towards the bund. It had obviously not flown but had just moved
away from the boats into the centre of the arm and could well finish up in the
fishponds.
I walked into the field to
view the spit and found four Ringed Plover, five Dunlin and three Ruff feeding
on it. I then went into the field to
view the fishponds as there appeared to be quite a lot of birds and Steve had
asked me to count the Cormorants as he was trying to get a total for the
reservoir. I counted sixty-seven
Cormorants and thirty-five Little Grebe, which is a good total. Most of the wildfowl were Tufted Duck but
there were also good numbers of Shoveler and Great Crested Grebe, with smaller
numbers of Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal and Mallard and a single Pochard. As I walked back to the car I heard a Great
Spotted Woodpecker and then picked it up at the top of a tree on the opposite
side of the road.
When I got to the Egleton car
park Steve and Terry were having their lunch and on giving Steve the Cormorant
count he indicated that there were over 700 in residence at the reservoir.
After I had finished my lunch
I went to the centre to view Lagoon One but other than a couple of Shelduck and
two Pintail there was little else, although Steve and Terry had seen two Great
White Egrets, which had now disappeared.
On reaching Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three I found Steve and Terry in the hide but other than three Green
Sandpiper they hadn’t seen anything else, although they had only just
arrived. The Green Sandpipers were to
the left of the hide and I then picked up a Marsh Harrier flying over the reeds
and Steve heard a Redshank call. I
scanned the lagoon and found the Redshank flying low over the water and it
appeared that it might land amongst the duck but suddenly gained height and
flew off over South Arm Three.
After spending quite some time
in the hide with just a further view of the Marsh Harrier we moved to Smew Hide
where we hoped we might locate the American Wigeon. When we got into the hide Terry said there
are too many Wigeon but almost in the same breadth said the American Wigeon is
just in front, one of the closest birds.
We had some nice views of the bird, which is now obviously in moult but
it gradually drifted further away. There
was a working party of the lagoon that had been clearing the vegetation at the
southern end and obviously had pushed the birds to the northern end. However, having completed the work at the far
end Andy and Fran moved along the shoreline towards Osprey Hide and most of the
birds eventually flew, with most appearing to comedown in South Arm Three. A Hobby also put in a brief appearance and
surprisingly we saw it miss a dragonfly it tried to catch.
American Wigeon
American Wigeon
American Wigeon
Just as we were leaving Tim
arrived hoping to photograph the American Wigeon but was obviously disappointed
and joined me in Lapwing Hide trying to relocate it. There were plenty of Wigeon in South Arm
Three but some had now chosen to go to sleep and with the sunlight making the
viewing difficult it became an impossible task in finding the American Wigeon,
if it was actually amongst the flock.
Tim went back to Shoveler Hide
and I followed shortly afterwards calling at Buzzard Hide briefly before
joining Steve and Tim in Shoveler Hide. They
had seen a Sparrowhawk just before I joined them and Tim then found it perched
on the ground on the edge of the reedbed and in the now bright sunlight it
could easily have been overlooked as a Woodpigeon, looking rather grey and
appearing to show a white on the side of the neck through the bins. It eventually flew off and disappeared and so
Tim and I went to Sandpiper Hide to view Lagoon Four.
There were two Great White
Egrets on the lagoon and we also found three Ruff near the resting gulls, where
there was a single Yellow-legged Gull.
We then heard a Greenshank call and soon realised that there was more
than one and we picked up three birds in flight that flew right over the hide
as they left the lagoon. Tim then departed
and I was left in the hide with three other Tuesday regulars. We didn’t see a great deal else with a Great
Spotted Woodpecker flying over being the best.
The other three then left and just afterwards the Lapwings and Linnets
on the near area flushed and I picked up what I thought was a Sparrowhawk that
then landed on the spit. When I got the
scope on it, it was very rufous and unlike and other Sparrowhawk I had ever
seen but looking rather smart. I called
Steve hoping he might be in Dunlin Hide and might well have seen the bird but unfortunately,
he was still in Shoveler Hide. The Sparrowhawk
was quite alert and eventually took off flying in front of the hide but some
distance away and I tried to get a photo of it but the camera unfortunately
focussed on anything but the bird and then the opportunity and the bird were
gone.
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Great White Egret
As I walked back to the car I
met Craig who was watching a party of birds feeding near the ringing area. Most of what I saw were Blue Tits but two
Great Spotted Woodpecker flew into the trees and there was a single Chiffchaff
and a Treecreeper.
On getting home I checked the
identity of the Sparrowhawk and found that young birds can look quite rufous,
particularly males, and presumably the bird was most likely a young male. Surprising after forty years birding I can’t
recall seeing one like it but it was a rather smart and an interesting
individual.
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