A day in Leicestershire & Rutland - February 3, 2018

Roger picked me up at 07:30 and we headed for Eyebrook Reservoir in rather dull and wet conditions.  We had a party of Fieldfare as we approached Blaston and a Common Buzzard got up from the side of the road, dropping its prey as we approached the turn to Eyebrook Reservoir.

We stopped near the gate to the fishing lodge where we found eight Eurasian Tree Sparrows before we continued along the Leicestershire side and checking out the old oak but there was no sign of the Little Owl.  We stopped briefly at the bridge but there were just a few Blue and Great Tits visiting the feeders and so we continued to view the inlet.

The water was quite high and there was little feeding area for waders but there was a sizeable flock of Northern Lapwing, which took to flight, when we picked out a single Dunlin.  There were two Little Egrets, one along the Rutland bank and the other on the Leicestershire side.

We moved a little further along the Rutland side and found a party of geese and noticed that some looked smaller.  There were nine small birds, which became detached from the two normal Canada Geese and a Greylag Goose.  Initially Roger thought that they were Barnacle Geese but they turned out to be hybrids, probably of Canada x Barnacle origin.  We found out that they had been present since last October and we were both surprised we hadn’t seen them previously.

With little else and the weather not showing any sign of improvement we moved on to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water.  After parking and getting our gear on we stopped briefly to view the feeders seeing a single Marsh Tit and a Eurasian Tree Sparrow.  When we got down to Teal Hide we could see that the water had risen considerably since our last visit and there appeared far fewer birds.  We scanned the south arm for the Red-necked Grebe but there was no sign and other than a selection of commoner birds we saw very little and decided we would go to the North Arm.

There was a large concentration of geese feeding in one of the fields between Church Road and the Volunteer’s Training Centre, which contained forty-four Barnacle Geese and three Egyptian Geese.  We moved down the unnamed road and after checking Tim’s feeders, where we had a Coal Tit and a Nuthatch, we parked at the far end.  It was still raining and so we went into the shelter to view the North Arm.  We scanned the water looking for the Black-necked Grebe, but like the Red-necked Grebe, there was no sign.  I did pick up a couple of Eurasian Oystercatchers in flight and there were two more Barnacle Geese on the northern shore, which were presumably the two winter residents.  The rain eased slightly and so we walked out to the end of the point seeing a single Common Redshank but there was still no sign of the Black-necked Grebe and with the rain increasing again we called it quits and headed for the Egleton car park.

After some lunch we went to the centre to view Lagoon One and found Ricky and Graham in the viewing area.  There was a pair of Stonechats feeding just in front of the centre and three Common Shelduck on the water.  Whilst scanning Lagoon Two looking for the American Wigeon Roger found a single Curlew and then I found a second on the long island and a single drake Pintail.  As the rain appeared to be easing again we decided to head off to Grebe Hide to get a better view of Lagoon Two.

There was still no sign of the American Wigeon, which had been showing well yesterday and so we moved onto Sandpiper Hide on Lagoon Four.  Roger picked up a couple of Smew between the hide and island seven and when we looked closely we found five male and five females.  There was also a Eurasian Oystercatcher on island eight and I then found a Great Egret in the northeast corner of the lagoon.  Other than five Common Shelduck and three Little Egrets we couldn’t find anything else of note and moved onto Shoveler Hide on Lagoon Three.

There were three more Common Shelduck on the lagoon and a Curlew was feeding to the left of the hide and I found a single Snipe feeding at the water’s edge.  The weather was still not showing any signs of improvement and so we went back to the centre.  Other than a Dunlin in flight with the Northern Lapwing there wasn’t anything else new on the lagoon and we called it a day and went back to the car.

As we I was having a coffee I noticed some thrushes in the top of a tree and on getting them in the scope found there was a good mixture of both Fieldfare and Redwing and as we left I saw a Common Buzzard perched in another tree.

It hadn’t been a great day with less than seventy species recorded and no sign of the American Wigeon or scarce grebes.