A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - November 14, 2017

I left home in rather dull conditions and headed for Eyebrook Reservoir where a Ferruginous Duck present since Friday had been seen again yesterday.  It was still overcast when I arrived at Eyebrook Reservoir and I parked near the gate to the fishing lodge. I called Malcom to see if he was on site and found he was looking for the duck from the island coral with another birder, but he hadn’t seen.  I climbed over the gate to view the back of the island and found a party of Pochard feeding but on scanning through them found there was just Pochard.  There was a single Pintail on the far side of the island and three Goldeneye between myself and the island.  There was a Fieldfare, Redwing and male Bullfinch in the trees surrounding the old feeding station but with little else I drove to the island coral.

I joined Malcolm and the other birder in the coral with an intention of not staying very long.  They still hadn’t seen the Ferruginous Duck but as we stood talking a party of Pochard swam from behind the island.  I scanned them with the bins and thought the last, but one bird to appear was the Ferruginous Duck.  I said to Malcolm get your scope of the bird second from the left and he and the other birder confirmed that it was the Ferruginous Duck.  I went back to my car for my scope but when I got back I found it quite difficult to find it as it was constantly diving.  It wasn’t as bright as what I had expected but it had a classic head shape and a white eye indicating it was a male.  The white under-tail coverts were only seen clearly as it dived, although they did show at other times occasionally.  The group birds then took to flight when the striking wing-bar was very obvious and it looked more chestnut on the flanks than it did when on the water.  The flock flew towards the dam when the slightly smaller Ferruginous started to fall behind the Pochard by some distance but the Pochard turned and went back towards the Ferruginous when it re-joined the flock and flew behind the trees on the island. I then saw some of the Pochard comedown to the north of the island when Malcolm still had the Ferruginous in flight and saw it come down on the far side of the reservoir.

Pleased with finding the Ferruginous Duck we moved to the northern coral to few the inlet where there had been a Curlew Sandpiper yesterday.  We couldn’t find the Curlew Sandpiper but there were circa 250 Golden Plover, thirty-nine Dunlin and two Ruff.  Malcolm then found a Bar-tailed Godwit whilst scanning through the gulls and there were three Shelduck to the south.  All the birds around the inlet suddenly took to flight and we picked up a Peregrine flying to the east and watched it alight in a tree on the Rutland side.  A brief stop on the Rutland side produced two Red Kites over the field to the east but with nothing else of note we moved onto Rutland Water.

We drove to the Egleton Reserve car park and we then went in my car to Sykes Lane car park as three Red-breasted Mergansers and a Great Northern Diver had been reported yesterday and I also needed to renew my annual car park permit.  We parked near the sculpture and was walking to the shore when a tweet arrived from Steve indicating that the Great Northern Diver was in the north corner of the dam.  Malcolm picked it almost immediately but it dived and so we walked towards the dam to get a better view but couldn’t find it.  I scanned further to the right and found it quite close to the dam but it dived again and so we went onto the dam where we thought we would get a better view.  As we walked across the dam I had got ahead of Malcolm and when he caught me up he said he had seen the three Red-breasted Mergansers in flight and that they had dropped onto the water.  We soon found the three birds on the water but there was no sign of the Great Northern Diver.  Steve, Terry and Terry Mitcham then joined us and after pointing out the mergansers we returned to the car and I went and renewed my annual car park permit.

I eventually decided to go back to the Old Hall for another look for the Red-necked Grebe but despite an extensive search it still eluded me and I went into the North Arm.

After a word with Tim I parked at the end of the unnamed road and found two Barnacle Geese feeding on the north shore before going through the gate to view the North Arm.  I hadn’t been there long when Lloyd joined me and he then found a juvenile Scaup and a female Goosander.  There were thirteen Dunlin on the north shore along with a single Yellow-legged Gull and I counted seventy-two Pintail scattered around the arm, with most being in the southern bay.  I had seen a single Great White Egret on the north shore, but Lloyd then noticed two on the south shore and when he scanned further along the shoreline found another six, making eight in total, as the bird on the northern shore had disappeared.  Had I seen sixteen today or possibly just eight, I suspect it was somewhere in between.

A quick look on Tim’s feeders produced a Coal Tit and then I saw a Jay as I headed off to the Egleton car park.  Terry was about to leave as I pulled into the car park but stopped for a chat when I picked up a Chiffchaff in a bush in the entrance, which then flew as Terry turned to see it.

I walked to the northern lagoons and after a chat with Brian and Roger went into Osprey Hide hoping that the Smew might have returned after being flushed earlier but there was no sign and I went to Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.  Other than three Pintail there wasn't a great deal on the lagoon and as the light faded I made my way back to the car park and found Steve overlooking Lagoon One from one of the gates.  We stood talking for a while and heard a couple of Snipe and had two Pipistrelle Bats flying around on what we thought was a late date.

It had been a good days birding with eighty-one species recorded, with two, Ferruginous Duck and Red-breasted Merganser, being County year-ticks and the first Great Northern Diver of the winter.