David, Malcolm, Roger and I were planning to go to Frampton Marsh today
but with a couple of Purple Sandpiper on the dam at Rutland Water yesterday we
planned to look for those first.
Malcolm was going to Great Glen first and like Roger would then meet us
in the Egleton car park at Rutland Water.
I had a couple of moths I was unsure about and had taken them to show to
David and he also had two to show me, which were a Yellow-lined Quaker and a
Green-brindled Crescent. I had only seen
both on one other occasion, the Quaker at David’s and the Crescent at
Titchwell, Norfolk but both of mine remained unidentified.
I called Malcolm earlier who had seen one of his target birds, which was
a Willow Tit and was on his way to the lake to look for a Common
Kingfisher. I called him again as he was
about to leave having also seen his kingfisher.
We drove around to see if he was still there and found him walking back
to his car checking out his photos of the kingfisher. After a brief chat he decided to still drive
to Rutland Water where Roger was already waiting for us.
David and I saw a Common Kestrel as we approached the roundabout on the
A6 and a Red Kite over the A47 as we went up Wardley Hill and pulled into the
car park just before 09:00. Malcolm was surprisingly already there as he had
left Great Glen after us but had taken the short-cut through Birstall and got
in front of us. We called Roger and we
were soon on our way to the dam seeing another Red Kite over the A606. We went into Sykes Lane car park and walked
out to the dam, but we didn’t see a great deal, with an adult Yellow-legged
Gull being the best and there was no sign of the Purple Sandpipers.
We hadn’t seen anything of note when we arrived at Frampton Marsh at
around 11:15. The birds on the Reedbed Marsh were flying around as we arrived,
and Malcolm picked up a Western Marsh Harrier, which was obviously causing the
disturbance, on the far side of the marsh. Most of the birds were Black-tailed
Godwits but there was also a flock of European Golden Plover, which we didn’t
see again. David nipped into the centre
and came back saying that most birds were on the Reedbed Marsh but that we
would be better going to the seawall first as two Little Stints and a Spotted
Redshank had been seen from there and we might also find the long-staying
Long-billed Dowitcher.
After parking we walked to the first observation point and looked down
one of the channels. There was a
Northern Pintail, a couple of Black-tailed Godwits and several Snipe and I then
picked up a couple of Spotted Redshanks when they came out from the side of the
channel.
We moved up onto the seawall and walked north to view the largest area of
water. David and I were in front and when we stopped to observe the area David
found the Long-billed Dowitcher almost immediately. We alerted Malcolm and Roger and we then had
three Spotted Redshanks, which we assumed included the two we had seen earlier,
before Malcolm mentioned that there was another wader to the left of the
redshanks, which turned out to be a Sanderling, which Roger and I only saw in
flight. We then noticed three other
small waders and on closer inspection found that they were a Dunlin and two
juvenile Little Stints. Other birds we
saw whilst on the bank included two Common Shelduck, three Little Grebes, six
Little Egrets, a Pied Avocet and four Common Redshanks. Some other birders pointed out the Ruddy
Shelduck that was with four Egyptian Geese towards the old barn and then David
found the Western Cattle Egret amongst the cattle, but they were all very
distant.
Malcolm had noticed that the Little Stints and the Dunlin were now feeding in the channel we initially observed and so we made our way back towards the car. We heard a Common Greenshank calling as we walked back but were unable to find it. When we reached the channel the stints and the Dunlin were still there and close enough to photograph but the brisk wind was moving the vegetation around and it was difficult getting a clear shot, although I did have some limited success. Whilst we were trying to photograph the birds the Sanderling joined them and we could see that it was a juvenile moulting into winter plumage.
Dunlin
Little Stint
Little Stint
Little Stint and Sanderling
Sanderling
When we got back to the car we drove to the main car park where we had
lunch, seeing eight Barn Swallow as they moved slowly south.
After lunch we went into the centre, but it wasn’t great looking through
the glass and after seeing the only Common Ringed Plover of the day I went and
joined Malcolm outside. There were good
numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and I counted eleven Pied Avocet before finding
a Eurasian Curlew, three Ruff and five Common Greenshanks. When David and Roger joined us, we went
around to the Reedbed Hide where we found two Common Shelduck, nine Northern
Pintail and a Common Snipe. There had
been a report of a Bewick’s Swan dropping in and a yellow-billed swan at the
back of the lagoon was doing its best to hide but it turned out to be a Whooper
and probably the summering individual.
There were four more Little Egrets on the lagoon and I picked up a
Eurasian Jay flying south at the back of the lagoon. David then found a male Greater Scaup before
we continued along the track.
There had been a Whinchat reported yesterday in the area on the north
side of the track, which Roger may well have seen, but if it was it never
reappeared. Malcolm then found a flock of
Eurasian Tree Sparrow, which contained at least thirty birds. As we walked further David found two European
Stonechats and as we watched them a third appeared. We continued around the track having further
views of some Eurasian Tree Sparrow but hadn’t seen anything else when we got back
to the centre.
Having only seen the Western Cattle Egret at some distance, we decided to
go to the reservoir for hopefully better views.
We dropped Malcolm off at the bottom field where he wanted to look for a
European Turtle Dove and as he joined us he saw the Western Cattle Egret on the
far reservoir bund. He continued along
the track to photograph it, but it flew and landed on the near bund but dropped
out of sight. I walked along the path
but didn’t see, but apparently it had flown again and come down in the field
with the cattle. I walked to the end of
the track and got a couple of record-shots as it fed on the far side of the
field.
Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret
We had also seen several insects during the visit that included a Common
Blue, Small White, Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.
Common Blue
With better views of the Western Cattle Egret we headed back to Rutland
Water and after dropping off Malcolm and Roger, David and I made a brief visit
to Eyebrook Reservoir, seeing a Red Kite as we dropped down the hill towards
Stockerston.
We drove to the northern corral where we found two Northern Pintail, two
Dunlin and twelve Common Snipe and there was a Common Buzzard towards Stoke Dry
Wood.
It had been a reasonable day’s birding with seventy-three species
recorded but it was a pity the Purple Sandpipers had gone.
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