When I left home, it was
beginning to get light and was still quite dreary and overcast with a fresh
south-west wind when I reached Eyebrook Reservoir. Surprisingly I had seen two Red Kites, a
Buzzard and two Kestrels on route but I only saw a couple of Red-legged
Partridges, perhaps indicating that there had been a shoot.
I stopped at the entrance gate
at Eyebrook Reservoir seeing only a few Red-legged Partridge and a stop at the
island coral produced just a couple of Little Egrets. There were still good numbers of Red-legged
Partridge at Holyoaks and when I reached the northern coral, Malcolm was about
to move off but he came back into the coral with me.
There were four Dunlin and a
couple of Ruff on the exposed mud but there appeared to be fewer birds around
the inlet today, mainly Teal and Lapwing and surprisingly no gulls. Malcolm then picked up a male Stonechat that
would have provided some excellent photo opportunities if the light hadn’t been
so bad. The Lapwings were rather
skittish and flew on several occasions and on one were joined by seven Ruff and
then a Sparrowhawk flew by, which was obviously the reason they were so
nervous. There were two Shelduck in the
steam and we had at least three Red Kites on the Rutland side of the
reservoir. On scanning through the wildfowl,
I found six Pintail and counted twenty-nine Shoveler.
As Malcolm hadn’t seen the
Little Owls when he arrived we went to the bridge over the inlet stream. There wasn’t too much in evidence but we did
find a single Tree Sparrow and four Yellowhammers before we moved further
around to view the inlet from the Rutland bank.
There were now more birds
around the inlet, including numerous Black-headed and Common Gulls and six
Golden Plovers flew over and just afterwards Malcolm found three on the
mud. Behind us there were three Red
Kites and a Buzzard and I found a Raven being harassed by other corvids over
the Leicestershire fields. Two Ravens
then flew over and we had a small party of Skylarks and several Meadow Pipits
pass over.
We eventually headed for
Rutland Water and specifically Sailing Club Bay where I thought Tim had seen a
couple of Common Terns during the Sunday wildfowl count. There was no sign of the Common Terns but we
did find a single Redshank but I later found out that the terns were seen in
the fisherman’s harbour and not the bay.
However, Steve and Terry were looking in the right place and there was
no sign there either.
Malcolm and I moved to Teal
Hide on the Lyndon Reserve where we found three Great White Egret, one at the
base of Lax Hill near Goldeneye Hide and the other two close to Heron Bay. The feeders were empty and the only bird
present was a single Greenfinch that was trying to extract the last seeds from
the feeders.
From Lyndon we drove around to
the North Arm where we found a single Barnacle Goose amongst the fast flock of
Greylag and Canada Geese resting on the far spit. We checked out the southern bay but found
nothing of note but on returning to view the northern section Malcolm found a
single Greenshank on the far shore and a Yellow-legged Gull was located further
along the shore. Burley Wood was quiet
but we did eventually have a Red Kite and at least two Buzzards.
There were plenty of birds in
the fishponds but other than three Pochard and several Little Grebes there was
nothing of note. We checked the feeders
at the cottage and found Blue and Great Tits visiting regularly along with a
single Coal Tit and a Nuthatch.
After some lunch we went into
the centre to view Lagoon One where there were masses of Tufted Duck and
probably more than I counted on Sunday.
Amongst the Tufted Duck there were small numbers of Wigeon, Gadwall,
Teal and Mallard and I counted eleven Pintail.
Steve and Terry had joined us and Terry found a male Stonechat near
Mallard Hide and suspected there might be a second bird, which Steve then
confirmed when he saw a female. I then
found a Snipe on one of the distant island and between us we eventually found
six.
Malcolm and I set off for the
northern lagoons and bumped into Andy Howes who informed us that one of the
American Wigeons was on Lagoon Two and that he had found the other on Lagoon
Four. He then gave a description of the
bird on Lagoon Four, which didn’t show the cream blaze on the crown and we
suggested that it was probably just a female Wigeon as both males were now apparently
well advanced into breeding plumage.
We moved on to Grebe Hide
where we were hoping to see one of the drake American Wigeons. As we appeached the hide Malcolm fortunately
saw a rather neat caterpillar moving across the path. I suspected that it would be a moth of some
kind and we both took a few photos of it.
I viewed an app on my phone and was able to identify the caterpillar as
a Pale Tussock.
Pale Tussock caterpillar
Pale Tussock caterpillar
When we entered the hide we
found it quite full but the American Wigeon was on view. I managed to get my scope up alongside Norman
and had some nice views of the now breeding plumage American Wigeon. There was also eighteen Pintail amongst the
mass of Wigeon.
We moved onto Shoveler Hide on
Lagoon Three were we found Terry but he hadn’t seen a great deal, two Goldeneye
and a Marsh Harrier being the best. The
Goldeneye were still present but the harrier had moved off to the south. There weren’t too many ducks on the lagoon
but I did find three Pintail and four Pochard and a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk
were seen over the wood. Malcolm and I
spent some considerable amount of time in the hide hoping for either a Bittern
or a Water Rail but neither materialised and we eventually gave up and went to
Dunlin Hide on Lagoon Four.
There was a party of Wigeon
feeding on the bund but it was difficult getting a good look at them as a hut
next to the hide blocks the view to the far corner. They did fly onto the water on one occasion
where we were pretty sure we could see most of the birds but we were unable to
locate a second American Wigeon. There
were plenty of Black-headed and Common Gulls with smaller numbers of Lesser and
Great Black-backed Gulls and single Herring and Yellow-legged Gulls. There was little else on the lagoon just a
few Egyptian Geese, a single Pintail and a Little Egret.
With not much happening we
walked back to the car park and whilst having a coffee four Swallows flew over
but headed off south before Malcom was able to see them. I spoke to Steve before I left and he was in
Shoveler Hide and had seen a Water Rail just in front of the hide and a
Peregrine fly over.
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