The forecast last night was
for early morning fog, but it was clear but overcast when I left home as dawn
was beginning to break and consequently I had seen very little as I drove down
the unnamed road to the North Arm at Rutland Water. After parking I viewed the fishponds but
found most of the water was frozen over and the only birds I saw were four
Egyptian Geese in flight. I could see
three male and two female Goosander just on the other side of the bund in the
North Arm.
I went through the gate and
walked out towards the spit and found a third female Goosander and the two
Barnacle Geese were on the north shore and a single Little Egret on the
bund. A Black-necked Grebe had been
reported several times since last Thursday, including yesterday, and I was
hoping I would find it. I scanned the
area east of the spit several times but couldn’t find the grebe, but I did
count eleven Pintail, which is far fewer than of late, another Little Egret and
a Redshank. I called Steve expecting him
to be on site, but he had decided not to come as Terry was away and his recent
experience following the poor weather hadn’t inspired him to make another visit
before Christmas. I also called Roger
Brett to see where they had seen the grebe yesterday and wasn’t surprised when
he described where it was, but it wasn’t there this morning.
Malcolm then called to see
where I was and was disappointed that I hadn’t found the grebe as he was just
leaving home hoping to see it. After
finishing the call with Malcolm, I started to look for the grebe again and
found what I thought might be it just of the spit near Dickinson’s Bay. It was swimming away and then dived and was
some time before it reappeared, when I got a better view and could see it was
the Black-necked Grebe.
Another male Goosander had
flown over and I then noticed that the six I had seen earlier were now in the
southern corner of the bund. I went back
to the car to get the camera and then went into the shelter to take some
photos.
Two male & female Goosander
Male Goosander
Female Goosander
Male & female Goosander
After getting a few photos, I
went back towards the spit, when a Grey Wagtail flew over and I found a second
Redshank on the north shore before heading back to the car.
As I reached the gate Malcolm
arrived, so I went back down to the spit to help him find the Black-necked
Grebe, seeing a Nuthatch as we did so. I
had indicated where I had found the grebe and he found it again before I got my
scope up to start scanning, so we didn’t stay much longer having agreed to go
to the Egleton car park. I stopped
briefly at Tim's feeders, seeing a Coal Tit, two Marsh Tits and two Nuthatches
before continuing to the car park and seeing a Red Kite over the village.
We went down to the feeding
station as a Brambling had been reported yesterday and we were hoping it might
appear. There was a bit of activity with
plenty of Blue and Great Tits making regular visits, along with several
Chaffinch and Greenfinch and there was also Pheasant, Moorhen, Blackbird, Robin
and Dunnock feeding on the ground.
With no sign of the Brambling
we went into the centre finding that Lagoon One was frozen completely. Lagoon Two was also similar with just a small
area free of ice, where there were a few birds but nothing of note.
We agreed to go to the Lyndon
Reserve next but had another ten minutes at the feeders first. There was still plenty of activity but still
no sign of the Brambling, but a Marsh Tit was visiting frequently.
Marsh Tit
Marsh Tit
Marsh Tit
Dunnock
Chaffinch
Song Thrush in the Egleton meadows
As I entered the car park at
Lyndon a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew from the nearest tree and a single
Fieldfare was also observed. As pulled
up I was surprised to see just how many birds were on the water and realised
they would take some time to go through.
Malcolm arrived just afterwards, and we walked towards Teal Hide to view
the feeders but found they were empty and so continued onto Teal Hide.
When we opened the flaps of
the hide we realised just how many birds there were in South Arm Two and in
front and to the east of the hide. I
certainly wouldn't have wanted to count them as there must have been somewhere
in the region of five thousand birds.
Most were Tufted Duck and Coot but there were also good numbers of
Wigeon and smaller numbers of Gadwall, Teal and Mallard. As we scanned through the birds I counted ten
Pochard and I then found a female/immature Scaup and Malcolm then found a male
and another female/immature. There were
also good numbers of Goldeneye with some quite close to the hide and I found
two male and two female Goosander close to the Heron Bay bund where there was
also a Little Egret.
Drake Goldeneye
First-year Goldeneye
Drake Pochard
I had seen a Dunlin on the
shore near Goldeneye Hide at the base of Lax Hill and then saw circa fifteen in
flight towards the Old Hall. There was a
single Great White Egret feeding between Gadwall and Fieldfare Hides and there
were at least twenty-eight Pintail between Goldeneye Hide and the northern end
of Brown’s Island where I also counted seventeen Red-crested Pochard. As I continued to scan towards the Old Hall I
found the Red-necked Grebe and provided directions to Malcom, but the views
were rather distant.
Our plan was to go to Eyebrook
Reservoir this afternoon but after some lunch we felt it was still too early
and decided to walk to Wader Scrape Hide to view Manton Bay. We saw very little on route and as we
approached the hide I suddenly thought I had left my camera on view on the
front seat of the car and so after a quick scan and a count of the Pintail, of
which there were seventeen, I rushed back to the car park and left Malcolm in
the hide.
When I got back after a quick
walk and even a short run I opened the boot and found that the camera was not
in view and I needn’t have worried. Paul
was at the centre and after a chat he went to fill the feeders and I went and
looked out across the meadow and was surprised to see that some birds were
interested even as he filled the feeders.
I then saw a bird fly into the tree near the shore and thought that
might be a Chiffchaff, but it was just a silhouette and couldn’t be sure, but
it then dropped out of the tree into some grasses on the edge of the field and
I was able to confirm my initial identification.
Malcolm returned shortly
afterwards having seen a few Dunlin and a Buzzard from Wader Scrape Hide but we
were unable to relocate the Chiffchaff.
We left the Lyndon Reserve and
headed for Eyebrook Reservoir, I approached he reservoir from the north but
there was no sign of any Little Owls in the old oak. I parked near the northern coral to view the
inlet, which is where the Jack Snipe had been yesterday. Malcolm joined me in the coral and we started
to search for the Jack Snipe and found at least five Snipe feeding along the
Rutland bank, but a low flying aircraft caused some disturbance and we
struggled to find many Snipe afterwards and certainly no Jack Snipe. There was a Little Egret in the stream, four
Dunlin near the mouth of the stream and a Ruff and a Redshank along the Rutland
shore and I found a second Redshank feeding on the Leicestershire shore towards
Holyoaks. Ken joined us and as we were
chatting a Peregrine flew over and caused some disturbance with the Dunlin and
Lapwing flying off and they hadn’t returned when we headed for the island
coral.
As we approached the island
coral the sun was out again and so Malcolm and I drove further around to view
the gulls from the southern shore. There
was already a good number of gulls on the water that included Black-headed,
Common, Herring and Great Black-backed but there was no sign of the Glaucous
Gull. I saw what I thought was a Green
Woodpecker fly behind a tree and a few seconds later it flew again and headed
towards the fishing lodge. Ken and Phil
then joined us and shortly afterwards Daz arrived but there was still no sign
of the Glaucous. A Red Kite and a
Kestrel were observed as we watched the gull numbers slowly increase. Phil then announced that he had the
first-winter Glaucous Gull and gave us an indication as to where it was. It was a rather small bird being smaller then
some of the Herring Gulls but showed a classic first-winter bill pattern and
short primary extension.
It was turning quite cold now
and so Malcolm and I decided to go and look for a pair of Smew before we departed. We drove back to the railing on the north
side of the island where Ken had seen the birds earlier. We had just found the red-head when Erik
called to say I had driven past the Glaucous Gull. He was in the hide and had seen me go by and
thought I hadn’t seen the gull but also indicated that the male Smew was now up
by the fishing lodge, so we called it a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment