David and I left for Eyebrook Reservoir just after 07:30 in rather murky
conditions and a forecast that wasn’t looking too good, with heavy showers or
thunder storms predicted.
We hadn’t seen a great deal as we approached the reservoir but a stop at
the inlet bridge produced a Eurasian Tree Sparrow and we heard a Blackcap, a
Garden Warbler and a Common Whitethroat before moving to view the inlet. A Mallard was escorting a brood of three in
the stream but there was little else at the inlet. A Common Pochard on the main water was the
first for a while and there was a Little Egret on the Leicestershire shore and
a Sedge Warbler was observed in song flight near the Rutland shore. It was quite misty making viewing the whole
reservoir difficult and I only saw seven Common Terns.
From Eyebrook Reservoir we went to Barnsdale at Rutland Water and after
parking we walked along the entrance road hoping to find a Marsh Tit. There was a Common Chiffchaff showing very
well close to where we had parked and David did hear a Marsh Tit but only the
once, after which it fell silent. I saw
a single Blackcap whilst along the entrance road and heard a second. We then walked down the road to the reservoir
and scanned Dickinson’s Bay, but saw nothing of note. There was a second Common Chiffchaff singing
and a Garden Warbler was also heard and than seen as it sang from a dead tree.
With no joy with the Marsh Tit we went to the unnamed road overlooking Burley
Fishponds and leading to the North Arm.
As we approached the turning a Little Egret flew out of the fishponds
and there was another Blackcap singing near Tim’s cottage. All we could find in the North Arm of note
were a pair of Common Shelduck but as we walked back we found a Spotted
Flycatcher near the cottage.
As we arrived at the Egleton car park, Roger was down the entrance road
looking for a Spotted Flycatcher I had seen on Tuesday. He hadn’t seen any and when we told him about
the one we had seen at Tim’s he went to look for that one, whilst David and I
made our way to the northern lagoons. We
saw another Common Chiffchaff near the badger hide and heard another three
before reaching the end of the winter trail.
We also heard a Willow Warbler, a Sedge Warbler, three Blackcaps and two
Garden Warbler.
We went up to Sandpiper Hide but found it quite full and so we returned
to the footpath and walked to Dunlin Hide, hearing a Lesser Whitethroat as we
approached the hide. The hide was empty
and as we opened the flaps we noticed a party of waders on the first spit but
as we started to go through them they flew and disappeared behind island
six. I had seen five Common Ringed
Plover and five Dunlin but there were clearly somewhere between twenty to
thirty birds in flight. There was a
Common Cuckoo calling north of the lagoon and two Pied Avocets remained on the
spit. David then noticed a third Pied
Avocet and when I looked I realised there was a forth bird that appeared to be sitting on a nest. There were a few Common Redshanks on view and
I managed to count seven but there were possibly more. As we continued to scan for the party of
waders they remained mainly elusive although we did see seven Common Ringed
Plover that dropped back onto the original spit. As we continued scanning we found a single
Little Ringed Plover and had six Eurasian Oystercatcher, three of which were
escorting four young. There were three
Little Egrets on the lagoon and two Common Swift flew over, which were to be
our only ones of the day. Two Egyptian
Geese with a brood of seven young got a little too close to the sitting Avocet
and the second bird then encouraged them away.
There were nine Common Shelduck and twenty Common Terns around the
lagoon and a Western Osprey flew over just before we left the hide.
We walked back along the Summer Trail and went into Redshank Hide on
Lagoon Two but other than hearing a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Common
Chiffchaff, a Blackcap and a Garden Warbler there was little else and we
continued on to the car park for lunch.
Brian, Roger and Rosie arrived whilst we were having our lunch and whilst
chatting a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over to the west and then returned a
few minutes later heading towards the badger hide.
As we started to walk along the road to the centre we found a Common
Chiffchaff and as we were trying to get views of it one of the Spotted
Flycatchers appeared and provided a nice if brief view. We had found out during lunch that the pair
of Garganey I had seen on Tuesday were still on Lagoon Four but were behind
island four, and out of sight from Dunlin Hide, and so we headed for Plover
Hide.
When we arrived in the hide there was no sign of the Garganey but there
was a fifth Pied Avocet feeding between islands two and three and David found a
Yellow-legged Gull amongst the rocky spit, which was presumably the bird we had
seen on a couple of occasions earlier in the month. I found a single Common Pochard and there
were another two Eurasian Oystercatchers and I then found the pair of
Garganey. They were near, in clear view
and provided some nice if distant views and I managed to get a couple of record
shots.
Drake Garganey
Drake and female Garganey
David then said that there were a lot of waders amongst the rocks near
the Yellow-legged Gull and as we scanned we found most were Common Ringed
Plover, although there were also a few Dunlin and we counted twenty-three
Common Ringed Plovers and four Dunlin.
We made a brief visit to Bittern Hide where we heard at least two
Eurasian Reed Warblers and I counted five Common Pochard and eleven Common
Terns on Lagoon Three and a Western Osprey flew over.
As we left the hide and reached the main path the Common Nightingale
started singing but despite it appearing to be very close we couldn’t see it
and continued onto Sandpiper Hide.
The hide was quite full but we managed to get seats and Chris Park was in
the hide and said he had counted twenty-nine Common Ringed Plover and
eventually he managed to find thirty-four but the best I could get was
thirty-one and there were also seven Dunlin that we all managed to agree
on. A Red Kite and a Western Osprey were
observed before we decided to go back to the centre.
We walked back along the summer trail and as the sun began to emerge we
went back into Redshank Hide and found three Four-spot Chasers and a single
Broad-bodied Chaser and two Coot were escorting a rather large brood of nine.
When we got back to the centre we went up into the viewing area and found
a Common Shelduck, a Little Grebe and two Little Egrets and there was a pair of
Coot with two young. Ten Common Terns
were over the lagoon and a Eurasian Reed Warbler could be heard singing to the left
of the centre.
Whilst having a coffee before leaving a Common Buzzard, our only sighting
of the day, drifted over the car park.
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