With David and Malcolm both away on holiday, Roger and I were out locally
today and headed for Eyebrook Reservoir.
As we drove through Tur Langton a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over, a
Common Kestrel was seen as we approached Cranoe and a Green Woodpecker flew low
over the road just after the village. We
had a Red Kite as we drove up Blaston Hill but there was no sign of the Little
Owl on the approached road to Eyebrook Reservoir.
There wasn’t a great deal at Eyebrook Reservoir with just six Common
Terns around the tern rafts but a calling Cuckoo, at this site, was unusual
these days.
From Eyebrook Reservoir we went to the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water
and whilst talking to Paul, who arrived at about the same time we heard a
Common Whitethroat and a Blackcap and Roger alerted me that there was a Great
Northern Diver just off shore. When I
looked there were two birds and we decided to go to Teal Hide to get a better
look, hearing another Blackcap as we walked down to the hide.
Once in the hide we could barely make out one of the Western Osprey in
Manton Bay but one of the divers came very close to the hide allowing me to get
some terrific shots.
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Great Northern Diver
Both the divers were still visible but had drifted apart and as we left
the hide they were both drifting east and away from the hide. We went back to the visitor’s centre where
Paul kindly made us a drink whilst we observed the feeding station seeing a
Great Spotted Woodpecker, two Eurasian Tree Sparrows and a selection of
commoner birds.
We had received a WhatsApp message regarding a Curlew Sandpiper, two
Sanderling and a pair of Garganey on Lagoon Four at the Egleton Reserve and so
we headed to the Egleton car park from Lyndon.
As we were getting our gear organised in the car park I noticed a bird
perched in the dead tree and on closer inspection found it was a Spotted
Flycatcher and there was also a Common Chiffchaff singing.
As the Garganey had been seen from Plover Hide earlier in the week we
headed for there as we also thought we might hear the Nightingale. As we walked through the meadows we saw a
single Common Chiffchaff and heard another two and we also heard five Blackcap
and two Garden Warbler.
When we reached the hide I found three Common Ringed Plover and a Dunlin
on island five and another Common Ringed Plover on an exposed spit but there
didn’t appear to be any other waders, other than a single Little Ringed Plover
on the rocky spit. Roger then said he
had a party of waders in flight, which appeared very nervous touching down
briefly on a number of occasions and then taking off almost immediately but I
was pretty sure that there was at least one Sanderling. They did eventually come down and not too far
away and we could see that all nine were Sanderling. This didn’t corelate with the WhatsApp
message and with no sign of the Curlew Sandpiper or Garganey I called Chris
Hubbard who had sent the original message and found out that he had seen all
the waders from Sandpiper Hide and so we made our way back there, hearing the
Nightingale sing briefly as we did so.
Chris was in the hide when we arrived along with Brian Moore and Roger
Brett but as we were about to look at a sizeable flock of waders they flew and
landed closer to Dunlin Hide and as there wasn't too much room in the hide we
went to Dunlin Hide along with Chris.
When we arrived there appeared to be fewer waders but the flock contained
Common Ringed Plover, Dunlin and two Sanderling. There was no sign of the Curlew Sandpiper,
which had been with the flock when we entered Sandpiper Hide and so I called
Roger Brett for an update. They had seen
the party of nine Sanderling fly off high to the north but couldn’t see the
Curlew sandpiper either. The male
Garganey was on the spit to the right of the hide but was obscured by some
vegetation. There were five Pied Avocet
visible from the hide with one still sitting on island eight and there was also
at least six Common Redshank scattered around the lagoon. Chris then noticed a Dunlin appearing at the
end of island eight and it and a Common Ringed Plover appeared occasionally but
never came any further. Something then
spooked them and several flew into view, including the Curlew Sandpiper but
they all soon disappeared behind the island again. They must have been feeding behind the island
for almost forty-five minutes and most of the birds in front of the hide had
joined them, leaving just a few Common Ringed Plover. Eventually the whole flock took flight and
landed near island one but were now very distant. There were five Eurasian Oystercatcher on the
lagoon but we could only see two young.
A Yellow-legged Gull then appeared on the end of island six with some
Great Black-backed Gulls but was harassed by one of the Great Black-backed
Gulls and flew off after a few minutes.
Two Red Kite and a Common Kestrel were observed between the lagoon and
the fishponds and there were two Little Egrets and circa forty Common Tern on
the lagoon and we heard a distant Common Cuckoo.
We eventually came out of the hide and hearing a Lesser Whitethroat in the
hedge we did eventually get brief views and a Green Woodpecker was observed as
I reached the service track but we didn’t see or hear much of note as we walked
back to the car park.
After some lunch we went to the viewing area in the centre where we were
joined by Brian and Roger but other than four Common Shelduck and a Eurasian
Reed Warbler singing to the left of the hide there was little else and we
eventually agreed to go back to the northern lagoons.
As we walked just beyond the badger hide we heard a Garden Warbler and a
Willow Warbler and we then walked along the Summer Trail to get back to the
lagoons. We didn’t see too much bird
wise as we went along the track but did find a range of insects. A Brimstone butterfly caused some confusions
as it looked very white in flight and there were also at least four Speckled
Wood. Most of the damselflies seen were
Common Blue but I did managed to identify a single Azure. We also found four species of moths a Silver
Ground Carpet, a Common Carpet, a Pyrausta aurata and at least three Nemophora
degeerella.
Pyrausta aurata
Nemophora degeerela
When we got into the hide the waders were back on the nearer spit and we
had better views of the Curlew Sandpiper and counted twenty-four Common Ringed
Plover and fifteen Dunlin. The Garganey
were both visible but were still resting on the spit and I picked up our first
Common Buzzard of the day over Burley. A
female Mallard swam out from the left with a brood of ten and a singing
Eurasian Reed Warbler, present for some time here remained elusive. The guys to the left were watching a Hobby
and when I managed to locate it I found there were actually three hawking high
above Lagoon Three. A Western Osprey and
another Common Buzzard were then observed between the hide and Burley Wood and
another Common Buzzard was observed towards Oakham. Chris then alerted us to a second-calendar
year Common Tern amongst the adults, which are not common and surprisingly
after it had flown off he found a second and clearly a different bird. They could be told apart as one had a more
faded carpel-bar and some red on the bill, whilst the first had a totally black
bill. The pair of Garganey then came out
feeding and provided some nice views.
Curlew Sandpiper
Drake Garganey
Female Garganey
Pied Avocet
Common Terns including the first of two second-calandar birds
Roger and I went to Shoveler Hide with Mike Snow to see what was on
lagoon three and found four Common Pochard, four Common Terns and we had a nice view of a Eurasian Reed Warbler but we
then called it a day.
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