There was a light northwest
wind and a slight frost when I left home but the only bird of note on the
journey to Eyebrook Reservoir was a Red Kite just before I reached the northern
approach road.
I stopped to few the old oak
after recent reports of the Little Owl but there was no sign, so I drove to the
northern coral to view the inlet. There
were a few Lapwing and Black-headed and Common Gulls near the mouth of the
stream and circa thirty Golden Plover dropped in. As I scanned through the flock I counted fifty-five
Dunlin and found a Ruff amongst the gulls.
There was a Red Kite over the fields to the east and two Shelduck and a
drake Pintail on the water.
As the wind was quite light I
decided it would be a good time to go to the dam at Rutland Water and look for
the Red-breasted Mergansers and Great Northern Diver. I left the reservoir by the northern entrance
road and this time one of the Little Owls was sat in the old oak.
I had to do a sight diversion
to get to the dam as the road between Edith Weston and the dam was closed. After parking in Sykes Lane car park, I
walked the short distance to the dam and one of the first birds I saw was the
immature Great Northern Diver. I
couldn’t see the Red-breasted Mergansers but as they have been spending most of
the time at the southern end I walked across the dam to the tower. As I arrived Steve called to thank me for
tweeting the Great Northern Diver as he and Terry had seen it from
Whitwell. He was also interested to see
if I had seen the mergansers as they had looked from Whitwell and hadn’t found
them. I gave him the negative news and
he said all he and Terry had seen so far were two female Common Scoter in the
North Arm. After finishing the call with
Steve, I scanned the dam again and saw what I thought might be the merganser
about half way across the dam but on getting them in the scope they turned out
to be a couple of female Goosanders.
Juvenile Great Northern Diver
Juvenile Great Northern Diver
With still no sign of the
mergansers I walked back across the dam seeing a Red Kite to the east. The wind was beginning to freshen, and it
felt quite cold walking back into it.
There was no sign of the diver as I approached the northern end, which
was probably due some new rocks being added to the dam wall by a group of
workers.
From Sykes Lane I went back
via the diversion to the Lyndon Reserve and after checking the feeders, where
there were three Tree Sparrow, went down to Teal Hide. Steve and Terry were already in the hide, but
they hadn’t been there too long, but Steve mentioned that they had seen eight
Great White Egrets and five Black-tailed Godwits. There were seven Great White Egrets between
Goldeneye Hide and Brown’s Island and the eighth was visible in Manton
Bay. There were also fourteen Dunlin and
a couple of Redshank on the shoreline near Goldeneye Hide but the Dunlin were
quite flighty, often moving to a different area of the shore. Terry indicated that he was going to look for
the Red-necked Grebe and on looking through his scope found it conveniently
already in view and he was able to get both Steve and I on it very
quickly. I then found six Shelduck close
to Brown’s Island and shortly afterwards two drake Goosander in flight. The was a party of Red-crested Pochard
amongst a mass of birds along the Green Bank but they were a little distant to
get an exact count. There was a good
number of Pintail in the arm and I counted fifty-four between Lax Hill and
Brown’s Island and after seeing just a single Buzzard over Burley I decided to
go to the North Arm before lunch.
There were a couple of
Egyptian Geese in the first meadow as I drove along Church Road and another
forty-one were in the field to the west at the far end and a Buzzard flew over
as I approached the unnamed road to the North Arm. There were two drakes and a female Goosander
in the fishponds and I viewed Tim’s feeders as I went down the road where there
was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Coal Tit and several Blue Tits.
After parking at the far end,
I went through the gate to view the North Arm, where there were plenty of
wildfowl feeding. There was another
female Goosander near the bund and when I scanned the north shore and found a
party of thirteen Dunlin, which might well have been thirteen of those seen
from Teal Hide earlier. The two Barnacle
Geese were feeding in one of the meadows over the far side and I found two
female Common Scoters on the water.
There were thirty Pintail scattered around the arm with most in the
southern bay where there were also two Redshank. I was surprised to find that
there were no Great White Egrets as I have seen up to six recently and
presumably they had just gone to other parts of the reservoir. I checked the feeders again at Tim’s cottage
as I was leaving and saw a Marsh Tit and Nuthatch.
Steve and Terry had just
arrived back in the Egleton car park and as I walked towards the centre after
lunch there were several Blackbird in the first meadow along with a single Song
Thrush and a Redwing.
Redwing
A quick check of the feeders
produced nothing of note but there were plenty of commoner species visiting.
I joined Steve and Terry in
the viewing area in the centre where there were eight Shelduck, which
presumably included the six we had seen earlier from Teal Hide. There wasn’t a great deal else on the water
with three Pintail being the best. Terry
had seen a female Stonechat near Mallard Hide, which had disappeared, but we
then found it some distance away from his original sighting. There was also a single Curlew in the meadow
beyond Mallard Hide and I then found a male Stonechat just the right of the
centre. A Red Kite flew over and Terry
found a Kestrel hovering some distance away.
We eventually left the centre
and headed for the northern lagoons seeing another Red Kite to the west and
circa fifty Golden Plover over Lagoon Four.
As we passed through the gate from the Summer Trail there was a Kestrel
hovering near Sandpiper Hide. Steve
decided he would go to Dunlin Hide to check out Lagoon Four, whilst Terry and I
headed for Lapwing Hide.
We called at Crake Hide where
we had a single Water Rail before moving onto Lapwing Hide. There were plenty of birds from Lapwing Hide,
mainly Coot but I did find the American Wigeon, amongst the more numerous
Wigeon and Gadwall. We could see the
Red-crested Pochard flock close to the Green Bank and being closer than from
Teal we counted thirty-two birds. Steve
then came into the hide, having seen very little from Hide. We gave him directions for the American
Wigeon and he then found a Smew close to the Lagoon Three bund, which on
checking Lagoon Two, where there was now very little we assumed it was the same
bird. Steve then found a second Smew,
which looked different in having more white on the coverts, and might well be
an immature male.
Terry and I then left Steve an
I went back into Crake Hide to see if I could get any photos of the Water Rail
but there was nothing on views, so I joined Terry in Shoveler Hide on Lagoon
Three. There wasn’t a great deal on the water,
but I did find four Pintail and seven Pochard and there was also a nice group
of Shoveler.
I eventually called it a day
and headed back to the car seeing a Green Woodpecker in flight as I approached
the badger hide.
I called at Eyebrook Reservoir
on the way home and after parking near the northern coral went and viewed the
inlet. There was now c.150 Golden Plover
present and two Redshank were feeding alongside the Ruff. There were only a few gulls, which were
mainly Herring Gull but there was also a few Black-headed, Common and Great
Black-backed Gulls and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull.
As I started to leave the
reservoir I thought I caught site of a possible Barn Owl and parked near the
turning to the bridge to view the area.
Initially I didn’t see anything and thought I was mistaken, but then I
picked up the Barn Owl near the stream and watched it as it flew towards me
before dropping into the grass.
There had been some rain
whilst I was at Eyebrook Reservoir but as I moved west it became dry and I had
another Barn Owl as I approached Tur Langton and as I pulled up at the junction
in Tur Langton a Woodcock flew out of the field, over the road and between two
houses. A great finish to the day with
two excellent birds I certainly don’t see too often, particularly Woodcock.
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