A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - January 11, 2017

I picked David up just after 08:00 and we set off for Eyebrook Reservoir seeing just a Kestrel after passing through Kibworth before turning onto the northern approach road to Eyebrook Reservoir.

There was no sign of the Little Owl this morning and we stopped at the bridge to view the stream and the feeders.  Initially there was nothing at the feeders and very little on the stream and Malcolm then arrived.  As we continued to observe the feeders several Blue and Great Tits arrived and a single Marsh Tit.

We moved around the reservoir to view the inlet hoping that the Jack Snipe seen on Tuesday might appear.  The water level had fallen a little further and there were fourteen Dunlin feeding on the newly exposed mud.  As I scanned the water I could only find two Pintail today, although there were plenty of common species, particularly further up the reservoir.

Malcolm had suggested that we should perhaps go to Prior’s Coppice as Brian and Roger had seen six Woodcock on Monday.  I wasn’t too convinced after our last attempt when we spent two hours in the wood without any success.  We had also agreed to meet Roger in the North Arm at Rutland Water and so set off there before making a final decision.

When we arrived at the unnamed road in the North Arm Roger was already on the spit and so we walked down to join him, after scanning the fishponds and finding three female Goosander.  He hadn’t seen anything of note, but David almost immediately found the Black-necked Grebe close to Dickinson’s Bay.  I picked up a couple of Redshank in flight and there was a Common Buzzard on the ground on the north shore where the two Barnacle Geese were with a group of Canada Geese.

We finally decided to go to Prior’s Coppice and after driving to the Egleton car park Malcolm drove to the coppice.  When we arrived there was a working party in the wood and I called Roger Brett to see where he and Brian had seen the Woodcock.  He informed me that he had seen five, whilst Brian had only seen one and that when he and Andy returned on Tuesday he had only seen one.  He told us where to go, which was in some rather thick vegetation to the left of the main path.  David and I walked through some of the area, but it was quite difficult as we were frequently getting attacked by either bramble or black thorn and there was no sign of any Woodcock.  We tried on the other side of the main path, which is more open, but we got the same result.  After almost an hour our only return was a European Green Woodpecker and a Marsh Tit with a Eurasian Nuthatch heard.

As we were quite close to Leighfield an area only Malcolm had been we walked down a private road to investigate the area.  Roger picked up a Common Buzzard perched in a tree as we walked down the lane and party of circa sixty Eurasian Wigeon flew over.  When we reached the lakes in the valley the area did look quite good but was relatively quiet.  There were a few Great Cormorants perched in a tree at the far end of one of the lakes and some Gadwall on another pool and we saw several Common Blackbird and a Mistle Thrush.  As we walked back up the hill we saw four Red-legged Partridge and heard a Eurasian Jay, but our efforts didn’t produce anything else.

We returned to the Egleton car park at Rutland Water where we had lunch before walking to Snipe Hide on the Wet Meadow.  We were hoping that the wintering Whimbrel would be there as it was reported there yesterday.  There was a Eurasian Curlew to the left of the hide and another on the long island on Lagoon One, where there were also two Common Shelduck and five Northern Pintail.  A male Eurasian Sparrowhawk was observed being harassed by a Carrion Crow and I then picked up another curlew-type bird that disappeared almost immediately behind some vegetation.  On the brief views it did appear to be short billed but when it emerged again it was just a Eurasian Curlew.  There was another Common Shelduck and Northern Pintail on the flash near Harrier Hide along with a Little Egret.  There was a drake Goosander and two females on lagoon one but with little else we returned to the centre to view Lagoon One.

There was a pair of Stonechats in front of the centre and there was a Common Shelduck on the lagoon.  I picked up a Red Kite quartering over the field near the Hambleton Road and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over but other than a few Common Pochard there was little else so we decided to go back to Eyebrook Reservoir for the gull roost.

There was still no sign of the Little Owl as we approached the reservoir and David and I went to view the inlet again hoping the Jack Snipe might appear.  There were sixty-eight European Golden Plover amongst the Northern Lapwing but like this morning there was no sign of any snipe and so we went to join Malcolm and Roger.

When we reached the northern coral, there were quite a few birders and after finding two drake Smew and a chat David and I went to view the area from the northwest corner.  Colin joined us but there were surprisingly very few gulls but a Peregrine Falcon Peregrine Falcon flew over and Western Barn Owl was seen briefly.  Colin then left and shortly afterwards David picked up the first-winter Glaucous Gull as it flew in from the south, but it continued to fly further up the reservoir and disappeared behind the island.  We drove back towards the coral finding it empty, but Malcolm’s and Roger’s cars were still there and we found them by the fencing.  They had unfortunately come out of the coral and walked to the fence to view the gulls and when they returned to the coral a loan birder informed them that the Glaucous Gull had flown down the reservoir.  We went back with them to the style and after climbing over viewed the now numerous larger gulls on the water.  However, we were unable to relocate the bird and with the light fading called it a day.