Roger picked me up at around 07:00 and after picking up David he drove to
Eyebrook Reservoir. We had a Jay and a
Common Kestrel just after passing through Blaston, where there were also twelve
Red-legged Partridge.
As we approached Eyebrook Reservoir from the northern approach road we
saw another eight Red-legged Partridge.
Roger then continued along the Leicestershire side and turned in a
gateway, where there were four more Red-legged Partridge, and parked at the
norther corral.
David was in the corral first and when I joined him he had already
located the Grey Phalarope, which we had seen on Thursday evening. It was however quite restless, flying around
with only short stays on the water. It
then landed on the far shore and started preening and so we went around to the
other side hoping to photograph it, but it had moved when we got to the other
side. We picked it up again towards the
inlet when it spent quite some time flying around the inlet and landing on the
water near the corral. It then went
quite high and we lost it and it wasn’t seen again before we departed, and we
assumed that it might have gone, but it was seen again later.
We had seen a Common Buzzard perched near the bridge as we drove around
to the Rutland side and I had counted eighteen Northern Pintail near where we
were watching the phalarope from. Mike,
who had joined us then found a European Stonechat and there was a Yellow-legged
Gull down towards the island. We walked
back down the road and found three Common Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin and a
Common Greenshank near the inlet, where there was also a Little Egret. A Red Kite was observed over the reservoir as
it drifted south and there was a second Little Egret along the Leicestershire
bank. There were a few hirundine over
the water and on closer inspection we found they were all Sand Martin.
We headed for the Lyndon Reserve at Rutland Water next as both David and
Roger were hoping to catch up with the American Wigeon and the Grey Phalarope
we had missed on Thursday and was still there yesterday.
When we arrived we initially went down to Teal Hide to scan the South Arm
and found thirteen Common Pochard near the hide. Chris Park then sent a WhatsApp message indicating
that the Grey Phalarope was off the Green Bank.
We could see Chris but even after speaking to him we were unable to
locate the phalarope, even though he was still watching it and gave us some
idea of where to look.
We eventually decided we should go to Wader Scrape Hide to see if we
could find the American Wigeon, although it hadn’t been reported since I saw it
on Tuesday.
We hadn’t seen anything of note as we walked to the hide and on entering
the hide there were plenty of birds in the bay to scan through. There were good numbers of Gadwall, Eurasian
Wigeon and Coot with smaller numbers of Mallard and Eurasian Teal. As I scanned the shore towards the bridge I
found a first-winter Grey Phalarope feeding along the edge of the water. I alerted the others and we had reasonable
views as it walked away from us. I
called Chris, as we were under the impression that Thursday’s bird was an
adult, which he confirmed, making this bird a second at Rutland Water and a
third in the counties. The Grey Phalarope
did fly around but wasn’t quite so restless as the Eyebrook Reservoir bird.
Record shot of the first-winter Grey Phalarope
Whilst in the hide I counted sixteen Little Grebes and there were five
Little Egrets in the bay and David found a Eurasian Curlew. A Common Buzzard had been seen on the bund
and when one flew over we assumed it was the same bird and there was also a
Yellow-legged Gull on the bund but with no sign of the American Wigeon we made
our way back.
We did call in Deep Water Hide and picked up a phalarope in flight that
landed on the far shore. When we got it
in the scope we could see it was a first-winter Grey Phalarope and presumably
the same bird we had seen earlier in Manton Bay. There were numerous Common House Martins in
the South Arm and I suspected there were several hundred.
Common House Martin
Common House Martin
From Lyndon we drove to the unnamed road to view the North Arm and after
parking walked down towards the spit.
Mike, Roger and I stopped to observe a group of passerines, which were
mainly Long-tailed and Eurasian Blue Tits, but we also found a Common
Chiffchaff, two Goldcrests and a European Treecreeper.
When we joined David, he said there were two Great Egrets, one on the
north shore and the other in the bay to the south. I scanned the southern bay and found seven
Northern Pintail, a Common Pochard and two Little Egrets as well as the Great
Egret and Mike found another Eurasian Curlew.
I then scanned the north shore and found the Great Egret along with four
more Little Egrets and Roger alerted us to a Common Tern feeding over the
water. There were several waders along
the shore, but they were well spread out and I had seen four of each Common
Ringed Plover and Dunlin, when a WhatsApp message from Richard Bayldon arrived
indicating that there was a Great Skua east of the island in the South Arm.
We spent no time in getting around to the Old Hall and with Richard still
there we were soon watching the skua. It
was resting on the water and drifting towards South Arm Two. I called Chris, who had seen it from Lapwing
Hide, and he said that they had also been watching a nice juvenile Arctic Tern
and so we walked west to view the area.
We soon found a tern that turned out to be a Common Tern, which we thought
was the bird we had seen on Thursday but couldn’t see any more terns in the
arm. We then noticed a tern over Lagoon
Two that was obviously feeding over the lagoon but was too far away to
identify. We watched as it eventually
flew towards Lagoon Three before moving towards us and feeding over South Arm
Three when we were able to confirm that it was a juvenile Arctic. Richard had also seen the adult Grey
Phalarope but despite another search we were again unable to find it, but we
did find six Dunlin on the island before it started to rain, and we then went
to Egleton for lunch.
The rain was rather
intermittent but after we had finished our lunch we went to the centre when it
became a little more persistent. There
were three Little Egrets and another Great Egret on Lagoon One and I counted
nine Northern Pintail. There had been a
Hobby in view as we went up to the viewing area, which I missed, but I then
noticed it perched on one of the posts near Mallard Hide. It was an immature that remained in view both
in flight and perched for the remainder of our stay. There were also two Black-tailed Godwits on
the long island and two Dunlin and a Eurasian Jay flew over. Another birder then indicated that there was
a Western Marsh Harrier near the swift tower, which looked like a further
female but appeared rather dark, suggesting it might be an immature. David then found a Common Greenshank at the
back of the lagoon and a Common Kingfisher perched on a post in front of the
centre briefly before flying further away and perching again, before
disappearing. David then spotted a
Eurasian Sparrowhawk landing on a post to the left of the hide, which was
rather brownish, but as it flew it was quite small and we considered that it
was a juvenile male.
With the rain still falling and a message earlier form Chris Hubbard
regarding the adult Grey Phalarope being visible form Teal Hide occasionally we
decided it might be the best place for us to go. When we arrived Erik and Craig were in the
hide and hadn’t seen the phalarope and despite a rather extensive search were
unable to locate it and eventually called it a day. A Common Buzzard we saw just after leaving
Manton was the only bird of note on the way home.
It had been a good day’s birding with a county year-tick, the Great Skua,
and two Grey Phalaropes being the highlights with one being self-found.
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