It was still dark when David and I left his house for a day’s local
birding and although slightly warmer than of late it was overcast with some
light mist. As it became a little
lighter we had a Buzzard just beyond Kibworth Harcourt and another just after
turning onto the B664 from Blaston.
There had been five Whooper Swans reported near the dam at Eyebrook
Reservoir late yesterday and so we turned onto the Stockerston Lane and headed
for the southern approach road, seeing a Barn Owl just before turning to the
reservoir. We parked near the entrance
to the fishing lodge to look for Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer, but nothing was
visiting the feeders although we could hear Tree Sparrows calling but we failed
to see them but did have a single Kestrel.
Having no joy, we moved onto the island coral to view the area towards
the dam and found what we assumed were the five Whooper Swans. There were three together with the other two
nearer to the dam. I started to scan the
wildfowl against the southwest bank where there was a good selection of
species, when I came across the three Whooper Swans that had moved closer to
the northwest shoreline. As scanned
further I picked up the other two birds and thought that they might be Bewick’s
Swans. David then said take a closer
look at the other two birds as they look smaller, which I was already
doing. I could see that the bill pattern
more clearly now and confirmed that they were indeed two Bewick’s. David went and got his scope and I sent out a
message as they are now quite a rare visitor to the counties with just a single
bird at Rutland Water last year and two at the same site in January 2016.
David and I then moved on down the reservoir seeing another Kestrel as we
continued by the road to the bridge to check the old oak for Little Owls but
drew a blank.
We went back to the bridge and viewed the feeding station where we had a
couple of Marsh Tits, along with Blue and Great Tits and a Dunnock. From the bridge we moved around to view the
inlet where we found a second Little Egret, the first being along the southwest
shore. The water had dropped slightly
and there were two Dunlin and a single Snipe on the area of exposed mud and we
found five Pintail feeding further out on the reservoir. As we drove along the Rutland side we stopped
briefly and found a drake Smew before heading off to Rutland Water.
It was David’s first visit this year so we headed along the Hambleton
Peninsula to try and locate one of the Great Northern Divers and the over
wintering Common Sandpiper. As we walked
down to Barnhill Creek there was no sign of any divers and so we continued
along the cycle track to view the south shore of the North Arm. We flushed five Fieldfare off the top meadow
and there was a Redwing feeding close to the shore as we approached the water’s
edge. David then said he had the Common
Sandpiper and I picked it up as it disappeared into the next bay. We walked over to the next bay but there was
no sign, but David thought he heard it call and it appeared to have gone
towards Barnhill Creek. We walked back
along the shoreline and found one of the Great Northern Divers feeding near the
mouth of the creek. A Redshank had
flushed from the water edge earlier and we found what we thought was the same
bird in Barnhill Creek, when it flew further into the creek. When we approached it a second time we found
the Common Sandpiper just beyond it but they then both then flew with the
Common Sandpiper coming down on the south shore.
Pleased with our success, particularly as the weather had deteriorated,
we set off back to the car. I scanned a
group of Canada Geese in the bay and found six Barnacle Geese amongst
them. I called Steve to let him know
about the geese and that we had also seen the Common Sandpiper. We had seen him at Eyebrook Reservoir as he
and Terry were on their way to see the Bewick’s but apparently, they and the
Whoopers had departed and David and I had obviously been lucky.
Our next stop was the Old Hall where we found the Red-necked Grebe quite
quickly but other than another Little Egret we didn’t see a great deal else and
moved onto the fisherman’s car park in the North Arm to look for the
Black-necked Grebe. We could just about
make out the far side from the car park but couldn’t find the Black-necked
Grebe and so moved to unnamed road to look from there. There was a Marsh Tit on Tim’s feeder as we
went by but we didn’t have any better luck with the Black-necked Grebe and as
the mist wasn’t helping we thought we were wasting our time and moved to the
Egleton car park.
It was about 11:45 and so we decided to go the centre to view Lagoon One
before coming back for lunch. However,
as we started to walk across the car park Roger appeared and although we knew
he was coming over for the American Wigeon we hadn’t been able to contact him
as his phone is in for repair. We
stopped and had a chat and the good news was that the American Wigeon was still
on Lagoon Two. As it was now almost
12:00 we decided to have lunch and then go to look for the wigeon.
As we walked along the track approaching Redshank Hide there were quite a
few birds feeding in the alders. Most
were Blue Tits but there were also a few Goldfinch and we eventually found
three Siskin. Another birder had told
David he thought he had seen the Whimbrel on Lagoon Four, but we went into
Osprey Hide to look for the American Wigeon with the view of going to Sandpiper
Hide afterwards to look for the Whimbrel.
I picked up the American Wigeon almost straight away and David found a
pair of Smew near the Sand Martin bank, but we couldn’t find anything of note
on Lagoon Four and moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.
When we got back to the centre Steve and Terry were viewing Lagoon One
but other than four Snipe there didn’t appear to be a great deal else. Terry pointed out a Pintail and I eventually
saw two and he then found a single Curlew feeding in the grass near the Wet
Meadow. Steve then noticed a pair of
Shelduck on the Wet Meadow and a third flew from there and landed on Lagoon
One. The birds suddenly panicked on the
near shore and Terry then saw a Peregrine that flew straight in front of the
centre before moving off over Lagoon Two and then twisting as if to try and
catch something and disappeared. I then
picked up a Sparrowhawk over Lagoon two that appeared to be chasing something
but disappeared into the vegetation near the swift tower and wasn’t seen
again. Steve managed to get on it but
both David and Terry unfortunately didn’t.
We had also seen the drake and two Smew red-heads on Lagoon Two and
there was a third red-head on Lagoon One.
Steve and Terry then went off to the northern lagoons whilst David and I
went back to the car to go back to Eyebrook Reservoir for the gull roost. There was a Buzzard still sat in a tree,
which we had seen when we arrived and there was a Little Egret in the ditch as
we passed through Egleton village.
A quick look for the Little Owls and a Stonechat from the northern coral
both drew a blank and so we moved on to the island coral for the gull
roost. There were two birders already in
the coral with one informing is that he had seen a Jack Snipe at the inflow, so
David and I went to take a look but all we could find was four Snipe, although
a Barn Owl quartering over the area was causing some disturbance.
As we went back towards the island coral the two birders were coming
towards us and they had just seen a first-winter Glaucous Gull and were hoping
it was down with the gulls between the road and the plantation. We climbed over the style and it wasn’t long
before one of the birders found the Glaucous and we then all had reasonable
views as the light faded. It was clearly
bigger than the nearby Herring Gulls and therefore not the same bird we had
seen towards the end of last year, which was a rather small bird and only about
the size of a Herring Gull.
With the light fading we left and a final check on the old oak at last
produced a Little Owl, which was an excellent end to the day. I had recorded eight-two species that
included eight year-ticks, taking my year-list onto 120.
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