It was quite dull and overcast
when I left home and headed for Eyebrook Reservoir and other Red Kites near
Stonton Wyville and over Blaston I hadn’t seen a great deal else as I turned
onto the northern approach road to the reservoir.
There was no sign of a Little
Owl today, so I continued onto the northern coral seeing eleven Red-legged
Partridge on the road before parking.
When I entered the coral, there was a Kestrel hunting just to the right
but there appeared to fewer birds around the inlet. I soon found the Ruff that has been present
for a while now and I counted forty-eight Dunlin feeding amongst the Lapwing
and gulls. There were good numbers of
wildfowl to the right of the coral that included three Shelduck and
twenty-eight Pochard. As I continued to
scan I noticed another wader, which turned out to be a Snipe, a species that
appears quite scarce locally at present.
I left the coral and headed for the bridge but with nothing of note I
was soon on my way to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water.
Just after passing through
Manton Steve called to see if I was on site and to say that he and Terry had
been surprised as they hadn’t seen a Great White Egrets but had seen the female
Common Scoter in the North Arm and the Red-necked Grebe in South Arm Three.
I drove down to the car park
and spent a few minutes talking to another birder seeing a Goldcrest and a
Treecreeper just to the left of the centre.
I headed for Teal Hide checking the feeders, which were now full, but
there was only Blue Tits and a single Chaffinch.
When I entered the hide I
scanned the far shore and like Steve and Terry found there were no Great White
Egrets. I did find three Little Egrets
near Heron Bay and there was a Shelduck and seven Pintail near the Lax Hill
shoreline. I picked up a party of
fourteen Dunlin flying over the water, but they seemed reluctant to land and
disappeared. I scanned South Arm Three
and found the Red-necked Grebe towards the norther shore but with nothing else
of note I decided to go to Wader Scrape Hide to view Manton Bay.
Again, there was very little
on the feeders, but I did find four Lesser Redpoll as I started to walk along
the path to the hide.
Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
After observing and taking a
few shots of the redpoll, I continued along the track but other than a few
Fieldfare and Redwing hadn’t seen a great deal else as I entered the hide. There was a Great White Egret on the far
shore, which was then joined by a second and I found five Black-tailed Godwits
feeding in the water closer to the bridge.
There were seven Pintail and nine Pochard in the bay, along with small
numbers of Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye. I informed Steve that there were still at
least two Great White Egrets present but it does look as though there has been
a bit of a clear out.
I called in Tufted Duck Hide
on my way back where a Green Sandpiper flew by but landed out of sight. As I left the hide a Great Spotted Woodpecker
flew over and just after Deep Water Hide I heard a Green Woodpecker, which then
flew over.
I stopped and observed the
feeders for a while when I got back to the centre and although there were now a
few more birds there was still not a great variety and certainly no Tree
Sparrows. Steve and Terry came into the
car park as I was getting ready to leave and after a quick chat and seeing a
Red Kite I headed for the North Arm.
There was another Red Kite as I approached the main road and yet another
as I approached Manton and a Kestrel as I approached the unnamed road.
I stopped to observe Tim’s
feeders where I saw both Coal and Marsh Tits before parking at the far end of
the road. There were three Barnacle
Geese amongst a small flock of Canada Geese on the north shore and fourteen
Dunlin on the spit. Five Pintail were
along the north shore and I counted another sixty-one in the southern bay. Four Redshank flew past the spit and landed
in the corner of the bay where I found a fifth bird. As I scanned the south shore there was a
Great White Egret and there was a good number of Goldeneye scattered around the
arm, but I couldn’t locate the Common Scoter that Steve and Terry had seen
earlier.
The wind had freshened quite a
bit and I was beginning to feel quite cold and so went to the Egleton car park
where I had my lunch. Steve and Terry
arrived but I left them having their lunch and went to view the feeders at the
centre. There were plenty of birds at
the feeding station including, a Pheasant, a Moorhen, several Blue and Great
Tits, a Robin, a Dunnock, several Chaffinch and a Greenfinch.
Once in the viewing area I
found three Curlew on the long island a Great White Egret at the back of the
lagoon and three Little Egrets. There
was also a party of Goosander in the far left-hand corner of the lagoon. Terry then joined me, and I made him aware of
the Curlew, which were now playing hide-and-seek, with one looking slightly
smaller but then everything flew, and we were able to see that there were just
three Curlew. Steve then joined us when
we eventually had twenty-one Goosander, including seven males. I then picked up the female Marsh Harrier,
which was over the Goosanders and was clearly showing an interest. It suddenly dropped and by its actions it had
clearly caught something. It was laying
on the water with its wings outstretched and we could see the tail of a duck it
had taken and appeared to be holding under the water. At one point I could see what I thought was a
white speculum and considered the captured bird to be a Gadwall. It continued holding the bird under the water
and after a while tried lifting it out of the water by the neck, when it
appeared grebe-like but then dropped it back onto the water. At this stage the captured bird hadn’t been
seen struggling and we assumed it was dead but after attempting to lift out the
water again it dropped it back into the water and we could see that it was a
Gadwall, which then started to swim slowly away. The harrier dropped on it again and for the
third time tried to lift it out of the water but then dropped it again and the
Gadwall then continued swimming towards the shore. We lost the Gadwall as it went into the far
corner and although the harrier did show some further interest it wasn’t seen
to attempt to take the Gadwall again and after sitting in a tree for a while disappeared. Before we departed to the northern lagoons I
counted thirty-nine Pintail on the lagoon and there were also six Shelduck.
We moved off to the northern
lagoon and called at Grebe Hide on Lagoon Two where we found the American
Wigeon. There was also a pair of
Stonechat feeding just in front of the hide and I had a Great Spotted
Woodpecker fly over before we moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.
There were nineteen
Red-crested Pochard on Lagoon Three along with eleven more Pintail and four
Curlew flew in before Terry and I went to Crake Hide where we saw a single
Water Rail before going onto Lapwing Hide.
Most of the birds in South Arm Three were a considerable distance away
from the hide, with a large concertation around Gadwall Hide and so we headed
for Dunlin Hide.
As we walked back along the
path I picked up another Great Spotted Woodpecker in flight and this time I was
able to get Terry on to it. We met Steve
as we approached Dunlin Hide who had heard a Little Owl but had been unable to
find it. Terry decided he would call it
a day whist Steve and I went into the hide.
We had seen c.700 Golden Plover over Lagoon Four earlier and most were
now on the islands at the far side of the lagoon, along with probably even more
Lapwing. There were plenty of Great
Black-backed Gulls near island one, along with small numbers of Black-headed,
Common and Herring Gulls.
I eventually headed back to
the centre hoping to catch up with the Barn Owl again. As I opened the flap in the viewing area the
Barn Owl was quartering the area to the left but then flew directly in front of
the centre and continued on towards Mallard Hide before disappearing. There were now four Curlew on the long island
and these were joined by two more before I called it a day.
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