There was a light snow shower
as I left home and headed for the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water and feeling
cold in the fresh westerly wind. On
route I saw a Little Egret on Wistow Lake, two Red Kite just beyond Kibworth, a
Kestrel after passing through Blaston and then another Kestrel just beyond
Preston.
As I left Manton there was a
Red Kite over the road and after parking and putting on several layers at
Lyndon I set off for Wader Scrape Hide.
I checked the feeders where there was a Coal Tit, several Blue Tits and
four Moorhen, one of which was on the feeders.
There were two Great White Egret in the small pool to the left of the
hide and a Green Sandpiper and a Redshank.
I could also see another four Great White Egrets on the Egleton Reserve
between Goldeneye and Fieldfare Hides.
As I walked along the top path
a Little Egret flew east towards the centre and a Sparrowhawk flew over the
last meadow before I reached the turning to Wader Scrape Hide. As I opened the flaps in the hide a Snipe
flew from the area just below the hide but there didn’t appear to be too much
in the bay. I did find a single Redshank
but there was no sign of any other waders and on the water, there was a single
Pintail, twenty-five Pochard and two Goldeneye amongst small numbers of Teal,
Gadwall, Mallard and Tufted Duck.
I went into Tufted Duck Hide
on my way back and was joined by Brian, Roger and Rosie. We saw several Great White Egrets, which were
presumably the same as I had already seen and other than a male and four
Goosander and a Buzzard there wasn’t anything else of note. We received a message that a Curlew Sandpiper
was still in Manton Bay, which surprised me as I hadn’t seen it or any other
birders whilst I had been in the hide.
I decided I would go back with
Brian, Roger and Rosie and other than two Snipe and the Redshank we couldn’t
see any other waders. Rosie then called
a Grey Wagtail, which we all eventually saw in the area just in front of the
hide. She then picked up a party of
Dunlin flying around the corner of the Manton Bay bund. We watched them as they flew around over the
far corner of South Arm Two and Manton Bay and they eventually flew into the
bay and landed near the inlet. There
were twenty-eight in total, but they were all Dunlin and I also saw a Curlew as
it dropped near the stream. The Dunlin
appeared rather restless and eventually flew back into South Arm Three.
As we walked back to the
centre we had a Red Kite near Tufted Duck Hide and on reaching the centre there
were more birds on at the feeding station, including two Tree Sparrows.
After viewing the feeders for
a while we continued onto Teal Hide where I counted twenty-six Pintail along
the Lax Hill shoreline but there was no sign of the recent Black-tailed Godwits
and in fact there appeared to be far fewer birds than of late. We looked for the Red-necked Grebe unsuccessfully,
but I did see the party of Red-crested Pochard near the Green Bank, but they
were difficult to count due to the fresh breeze causing the water to be quite
choppy.
From Lyndon we all went to the
North Arm and after parking and walking into the grounds found three Great
White Egrets and four Little Egrets on the bund. The two Barnacle Geese were on the north
shore and Roger found two female-type Common Scoter resting on the water. There were far fewer birds in the arm today
and I could only find ten Pintail, whereas on my last visit I counted
eighty-two. A fourth Great White Egret
then joined the other three before we went to the Egleton car park for lunch.
I saw a Treecreeper feeding in
the hedge before going to the visitor’s centre to initially view the
feeders. There was quite a bit of
activity at the feeders but there was nothing unusual with just Blue and Great
Tits, Blackbird, House Sparrow and Chaffinch being seen.
I joined Brian, Roger and
Rosie in the viewing area where we saw six Shelduck, thirteen Pintail, four
Goosander and a Stonechat but eventually moved onto the northern lagoons. Both the American Wigeon and red-headed Smew
had been reported on Lagoon Two and we went into Grebe Hide to look for them. It wasn’t long before Roger said I’ve got the
American Wigeon, which I got on quickly and whilst helping Brian get Rosie onto
it, Roger located the Smew, which we then all saw.
I decided to go to Dunlin Hide
whilst the others headed for Crake and Lapwing Hides. The water is now quite high on Lagoon Four
and consequently there were fewer gulls at the pre-roost with most being
Herring, with small numbers of Black-headed, Common and Great Black-backed. There were five Dunlin resting amongst a few
Lapwing but very little else on the lagoon, so I headed for Crake Hide.
There were four photographers
in Crake Hide, which made it difficult to see but I did see a Water Rail before
going to join Brian, Roger and Rosie in Lapwing Hide. As I walked into the hide Roger said there is
a Marsh Harrier out here and when I opened a flap there was a female-type Marsh
Harrier low over the water. I then
noticed something below it and realised that it was a Eurasian Otter. I alerted the others and it appeared that the
harrier was also interested as it hovered over it. The otter dived but the harrier appeared to
be able to see it under the water and was over it when it surfaced each time. The otter was clearly aware of the harrier as
it would look up each time it surfaced, opening its mouth to reveal its
teeth. We were able to watch this for
quite a few minutes as the otter appeared to make its way towards the shore,
but we never saw it come out of the water and after losing sight of the otter
the Marsh Harrier remained in view for quite some time.
We decided we would go to
Eyebrook Reservoir to finish the day as there had been a message regarding an
adult Mediterranean Gull from Chris and Colin.
I went into the northern corral where I could see the small assembly of
gulls, which like at Rutland Water the majority were Herring Gulls but there
were also good numbers of Black-headed and smaller numbers of Common and Great
Black-backed and a single Lesser Black-backed but there was no sign of the
Mediterranean Gull. There were thirteen
Dunlin on the mud and a Ruff and two Redshank feeding in the shallow water and
we estimated that at least 100 Golden Plover dropped in.
Chris and Colin then joined us
and after chattering for a while and the light fading we called it a day but as
I was changing my shoes Chris cried out Barn Owl just gone over the hedge into
the reservoir grounds and on rushing back into the corral we saw the Barn Owl
quartering over the ground towards the bridge.
As I was leaving I saw the
Barn Owl again near the turning towards the bridge before it flew into the
planation and disappeared. I stopped
briefly to view the old oak as Briand and Roger had seen the Little Owl since
Malcom had the Barn Owl at the tree and they were obviously back, but the light
was too far gone and I set off for home.
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